Barnevik Visits SACC-DC

This spring Percy Barnevik spoke to a crowd of about 80 at a SACC event held at Washington, D.C.’s House of Sweden. Mr. Barnevik, who was CEO of Asea Brown Boveri for 20 years and is now on the board of General Motors, talked about his work with the nonprofit organization Hand-in-Hand, which is based in Tamil Nadu in southern India. He described his attempts to combine efficiency and charity when working with Hand-in-Hand. The organization helps women to become self-sufficient entrepreneurs and creates possibilities for children to attend school. Three hundred thousand women in southern India have launched more than 100,000 micro-enterprises, and 4,000 jobs are created there every month. Barnevik’s target is to create 50 million jobs worldwide within 10 years: ”If you want to impact poverty, you must help millions; thousands are not enough,” he concluded.

Picture from left: Bradley J. Olson, chairman of SACC in Washington, D.C., Eva Hafström, wife of Ambassador Jonas Hafström, Percy Barnevik, former head of ABB and founder of Hand in Hand, Maria Borelius, international director, Hand in Hand