Ulf Sundqvist

Finland politician (1945–2023)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Finnish. (April 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at [[:fi:Ulf Sundqvist]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fi|Ulf Sundqvist}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Ulf Ludvig Sundqvist (22 February 1945 – 22 April 2023) was a Finnish politician who served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, a minister in four cabinets in the 1970s and a banker in the 1980s.

Political career

Sundqvist was elected into the Parliament in 1970 and served as the Minister of Education in three cabinets between 1972 and 1975. He was the Minister of Trade and Industry from 1979 to 1981.^[1] Sundqvist left the parliament in 1983 and worked as the manager of STS Bank from 1982 to 1991. However, STS was drawn into reckless lending in the late 1980s, and with the early 1990s recession in Finland, STS was bailed out by the government and sold at a loss to KOP. Although Sundqvist was personally involved in some minor financial irregularities, the main thrust of the accusations against him was rooted in his incompetent management and reckless lending practices.

Sundqvist was elected chairman of the SDP in November 1991, and he was replaced by Paavo Lipponen in June 1993.^[2] In 1993, Sundqvist was accused of fraud (charges he was later cleared of) and he had to resign as the chairman. In a civil trial, he was held financially responsible for the demise of STS, and was ordered to pay damages. However, he shirked this by intentionally keeping multiple credit accounts overdrawn. As a result, he was convicted of aggravated debtor's dishonesty. He was sentenced to pay back 16.4 million markkaa, but only 1.2 million mk were recovered. He also received a six months suspended prison sentence.^[3] Arja Alho used her authority as the second minister of finance to lower Sundqvist's financial liabilities in 1997, which led to her resignation.

Post-politics

Later, Sundqvist was an entrepreneur and a management consultant. He had his own company, Navinor Oy, and he worked as a senior consultant at Kreab Gavin Anderson.

Health complications and death

A smoker for 40 years, Sundqvist suffered a heart attack in Stockholm in 2004. ^{[citation needed]} At the age of 61, he was diagnosed with oral cancer. In 2007, a benign brain tumour (unrelated to the cancer) was found.^[4]

Ulf Sundqvist died on 22 April 2023, at the age of 78.^[5]

References

^ "Finnish Government - Ministers of Trade and Industry". Valtioneuvosto.fi. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
^ "Edustajamatrikkeli" (in Finnish). Eduskunta.
^ Sundqvist conviction stays in force. Helsingin Sanomat, 11 April 2001. On-line. Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
^ Suusyöpä yllätti Ulf Sundqvistin.
^ Demokraatti: SDP:n entinen puheenjohtaja Ulf Sundqvist on kuollut (in Finnish)