Sven Otto Littorin

Sven Otto Julius Littorin (born 1966) is a Swedish Moderate Party politician. He was Minister for Employment in the cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt, and former Secretary General of the Moderate Party. On July 7, 2010 he announced his immediate resignation, citing personal circumstances.^[1]

He was born and grew up in Östergötland, where he was active in the Moderate Youth League from an early stage. He was national chairman of the Moderate School Youth, a part of the youth league, 1984-1985. He has a degree in Economics and Business Administration from Lund University. His résumé formerly also listed an MBA from the unaccredited Fairfax University (at the time licensed in Louisiana), but that degree was removed from his list of qualifications after it aroused controversy in June 2007^[2][3] Starting Feb 1, 2011, Littorin is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.

Between 1991 and 1993 he was chief of staff to Minister for Fiscal and Financial Affairs, Bo Lundgren, later leader of the Moderate Party. After that he worked in the private sphere for, inter alia, Kreab. In 1997 he co-founded Momentor AB, a venture capital company, and worked as a Senior Partner until 2002. In 2002 he was appointed Secretary General by Bo Lundgren and later became a part of Fredrik Reinfeldt's team. He has played an integral part in the subsequent modernisation of the party. After the success of the Moderate Party in the 2006 general election he resigned as Secretary General and was later named Minister for Employment in the cabinet presented by Prime Minister Reinfeldt on October 6, 2006. Until December 31, 2006, this ministerial post was located within the Ministry of Enterprise, after which a separate Ministry of Employment.

Reforms

As Sweden’s Minister for Employment, Littorin was in charge of USD 12bn of the government budget; the second largest part of public spending, covering areas such as the unemployment insurance system, active labor market programs and nine government agencies, including the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Work Environment Authority and the Labor Court.

Littorin was in charge of some of the major policy reforms introduced during the first government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. These reforms included a major overhaul of the unemployment insurance system and a complete renovation of the Public Employment Service, introducing new instructions, a new board of directors, a new management team, a new structure and organization, new targets and incentives as well as opening up for private competition. He has the current record of having answered the highest number of questions in Parliament – 337 – during one single term. As a Minister, he gave over 4.000 interviews and made numerous public appearances domestically and internationally; among others for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Monetary Fund and World Economic Forum.

During the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in the fall of 2009, Littorin was also President of the European Council of Ministers, in its Epsco formation (Ministers for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs). As such, he oversaw European Union response to labor market effects caused by the financial crisis of 2008-09. Littorin was also member of the Swedish Government’s Globalization Council.

Resignation

On July 7, 2010, Littorin announced his immediate resignation. The reason was said to have been the harshness of the media against him and his children, as well as "for private reasons", following divorce and a custody battle over his children.

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