Urban Bäckström (born 1955, Sollefteå, Västernorrlands län) is a Swedish economist who is the current CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. He is a former Governor of the Bank of Sweden.
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Born in Sollefteå, Bäckström grew up in Visby and Helsingborg and graduated with a degree in economics from Stockholm University. He is married to Ewa, who works for SAS, and the couple has two children.
Urban Bäckström started his career at the Ministry of Finance during the Thorbjörn Fälldin government. He was later the chief economist for the centre-right Moderate Party. While state secretary at the Ministry of Finance he was involved among other things in the management of Sweden's financial crisis of the early 1990s. In 1994 he was appointed Governor of the Bank of Sweden. Having resigned in 2002, he was appointed CEO of Skandia Liv, part of the Skandia group of insurance companies. In 2005 he became CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, which represents larger companies and employers.
He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences since 2003.[1]