Claes-Ulrik Winberg
Claes-Ulrik Winberg (23 September 1925 – 31 May 1989) was a Swedish industrialist and business executive. He was CEO of AB Bofors from 1972 to 1984. He was also chairman of the Swedish Iron Industry Association (Swedish: Järnbruksförbundet) from 1978 to 1983 and of the Swedish Employers' Confederation (Swedish: Svenska arbetsgivareföreningen) from 1984 to 1985. Winberg was forced to resign his position as chairman of the Swedish Employers' Confederation in 1984, following the unveiling of the Bofors scandal.
Education and career
Winberg was born in Denmark. He studied at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy in the end of the 1940s and graduated as a Master of Engineering in 1952.[1] Thereafter he started a career at several companies in the manufacturing industry in Sweden and abroad. Before being appointed as CEO of AB Bofors in 1972, he was CEO of the company Hexagon AB from 1966 to 1971.
Bofors
Winberg was CEO of Bofors during a period characterized by unprofitability and structural problems within the company's civilian sector.[1] The company was entirely dependent of the manufacturing of war materials, which occurred during a time when the company's deliveries to the Swedish military decreased due to shrunken government subsidies to the military.[1] Winberg's line was to focus even harder on the war materials manufacturing.[1] He advocated a weapons export policy without any restrictions whatsoever and periodically pursued an intensive lobby campaign towards Swedish defence politicians.[1] It was during Winberg's leadership that Bofors become involved in Singapore, a strategic effort to increase weapons export in the entire Southeast Asia.[1] In May 1984 Winberg was reported to the police by the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) on charges of smuggling, for the alleged sale of RBS 70 to the illicit countries Dubai and Bahrain through Singapore.[1] This started a series of revelations of what would later be known as the Bofors scandal.[1] When Bofors during the turn of the year 1984/1985 merged with the company Kema Nobel into the new company Nobel Industrier, Winberg left his position as CEO but continued as a member of board of the new company.[1] In June 1985, after the suspicions of crime against Bofors strengthened, Winberg resigned from his position as chairman of the Swedish Employers' Confederation.[1] In the summer of 1988 Winberg, together with three other former Bofors executives, was prosecuted by the Stockholm District Court for his role in the smuggling scandal.[1] During the entire police investigation, Winberg strongly dismissed any participation in letting the weapon deliveries reach the unallowed countries Dubain and Bahrain.[1] The court proceedings, where Winberg due to his sudden and unexpected death (see below) didn't participate, began on 4 September 1989.[1] In December the same year, the three other former Bofors executives – Martin Ardbo, Lennart Pålsson and Hans Ekblom – where convicted by the court and given a conditional sentence for the illicit smuggling of goods.[1] Furthermore, the company Nobel Industrier was ordered by the court to pay SEK 11 million in fines.[1]
Death
Winberg died in a car crash on road 53 between Västerås and Eskilstuna on 31 May 1989.[1] Winberg was, together with his wife Kristina who also died in the crash, on his way to a dinner with friends in Stockholm.[1] According to the police report, the car they were driving skidded on a wet roadway and collided with an oncoming van.[1]