It’s a changing of the Swedish guard in New York as Ericsson’s US IR director of seven years, Lars Jonstag, returns to his homeland to become VP of communications at Electa. In his place, the multinational telecoms manufacturer has dispatched Per Bengstsson, an able 30-year company veteran, to keep US investors informed.
Like most Ericsson personnel, no matter what their position, Bengstsson has an engineering background. But he’s not entirely unfamiliar with the foibles of the US investors he now has to tinker with: for the last seven years he was vice president of communications for the mobile systems business area and was often called in to answer questions for visiting groups of investors or conference calls.
Bengstsson recognizes the challenge of keeping informed as he is now stationed far from headquarters. But he has a way around it: ‘After more than 30 years with the company, I have a network that no-one else has. I know so many people, and have had personal contact with them almost daily. It’s simple to pick up the phone and get any information I need. Also, there are lots of electronic means to keep updated too.’
Bengstsson’s other role is passing information to Sweden: ‘Of course, management back in Stockholm are very interested in market reactions here, because they have a great influence on what happens in other markets in the world.’
