NEWS Sofia Lundberg, Senior Lecturer in Economics, has been appointed as the new rector of Umeå School of Business and Economics (USBE) at Umeå University. She assumed the head position on 22 September 2015.
"To have the trust and confidence to be involved in leading and further developing Umeå School of Business and Economics is an exciting challenge that I accept with great humility," says Sofia Lundberg.
"Working at USBE is to be a part of an international and stimulating environment with a high quality of education and research, and collaboration with other universities, public sectors and businesses. USBE has now entered a particularly exciting period of development, such as the environmental certification this year and an ongoing process of international accreditation. These initiatives really make me look forward to leading USBE in the coming years," continues Sofia Lundberg.
Sofia Lundberg earned a PhD in Economics at Umeå University in 2001. Her research is focused on public procurement, an area which annually represents between SEK 550 and 600 billion. Currently, she is studying in particular how 'green' public procurement - that is procurement of certain environmental requirements - is affecting society's production and consumption of environmentally friendly and organic products and services. In 2008, Sofia Lundberg received the ‘Young Researcher Award’ at Umeå University, a career grant for talented young researchers with promising careers. As of 2014, she has a member of the USBE Board. In addition, she has been appointed by the government as an economic expert at the Swedish National Courts, and holds a seat on the Council for Research Issues at the Swedish Competition Authority.
"USBE is an essential part of the university, not least in regards to education and collaboration with regional and national stakeholders," says Dieter K Müller, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and a member of the USBE Board. "In addition, it is particularly important that the management is committed to the vital research ongoing to strengthen these areas. Therefore, it is very gratifying that the USBE Board has now appointed the Sofia Lundberg, with her her vast experience of collaboration with external actors, as the new rector."
“Sofia Lundberg is an outstanding choice as the new rector of USBE. She is a highly qualified and successful researcher who is familiar with Umeå University's operations on many levels. In addition, she has a wide network of contacts, both within and outside the higher education sector, which is something that will be important for the future development of the business school,” says Lena Gustafsson, Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University.
USBE at Umeå University has over 170 employees including 90 researchers with doctoral degrees. The areas of research and teaching are in business administration, economics and statistics. They are one of five business schools in Sweden. More than 2,000 students study in its degree programmes and courses every year, including seven international degree programmes. USBE actively works with sustainability issues and corporate responsibility and earlier this year, they became the first unit at Umeå University to be environmentally certified according to the ISO14001 standard.
More about Umeå School of Business and EconomicsHigh-resolution photo of Sofia Lundberg
Sofia LundbergRector, Umeå School of Business and EconomicsUmeå UniversityPhone: +46 (0)90-786 52 06Mobile: +46 (0)70-374 92 55
sofia.lundberg@umu.se
Dieter MüllerDean, Faculty of Social SciencesUmeå UniversityPhone: +46 (0)90-786 63 66
dieter.muller@umu.se
Editor: David Meyers