Do you know me?

My sister Helena has told me that her blog has been extremely useful as a way of getting back in touch with long lost friends from years ago. I am hoping this blog will have the same effect for me, since I am very curious to find out what has happened in the lifes of my childhood and university friends that I am no longer in contact with!

This entry will hopefully help clarify whether I really am who you think I am, as well as update you on some of the major events in my life since we were last in touch.

I am now 37 years old, still single and live in Sweden. I attended Putney Park School in London 1976-77, Brogårdaskolan in Bjuv 1977-1980, Stanstorpsskolan in Staffanstorp 1980-1982, Hagalidskolan in Staffanstorp 1982-1985, Polhemskolan in Lund 1985-1987 and Schuylkill Haven Area High School 1987-88. During primary and secondary school I was a swimmer (Spiggarna in Bjuv and Triton in Staffanstorp), as well as played basketball (Basta BK in Staffanstorp). I travelled with my family a lot and often made new friends while on vacation. I also went to Bognor Regis with EF in the summer of 1982 and Bruton School for Girls in the summer of 1984. I took summer courses in French at Nice University in 1985 and 1989.

I also had a lot of penpals from all over the world between 1982 and 1988. It is really quite amazing that today we can exchange instant messages around the world for free, while it was quite expensive and it took weeks to exchange letters way back when! To think that that is more that 20 years ago - that really makes me feel old... I would love to hear from some of my old penpals again! It really is a small world after all, as when I happened to see the name on a baggage tag at Charles De Gaulle Airport when I had ended up at the wrong place and thus met Virginia again...

I studied Business Administration at Lund University starting 1988 and during my university years I was very active within AIESEC - I attended a lot of national and international conferences and I responsible for the traineeship exchange 1989/90 and president 1990/91. To finance my travels I worked weekends, summers and the Christmas rush as a cashier at B&W Stormarknad, Jägersro 1988-1990 and at Åhlens, Lund 1990-1993. I worked as an intern at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland in the summer of 1990, I studied German in Heidelberg in the summer of 1991, I was an AIESEC trainee in Graz, Austria in the fall of 1991, I studied in Münster, Germany in the spring of 1992, I studied in Graz, Austria academic year 1992/93 as "Staatstipendiatin" and I worked as an intern in Hamburg, Germany in the summer of 1993.

In 1994 I started working as a consultant with Andersen Consulting in Stockholm and attended trainings in St Charles (June 1994) and the Netherlands (April 1995). Academic year 1995/96 I completed the EAEME European Master in Environmental Management program in Arlon, Belgium and Tilburg, Netherlands. I am sad and somewhat ashamed that I have only managed to make it to one of the Arlon reunions so far...

From June 1996 until February 2000 I was a research associate/PhD candidate at IIIEE, Lund University. I am looking forward to the IIIEE alumni reunion this fall! I attended, presented at as well as arranged several international workshops, seminars and conferences between 1994 and 2002 - focusing on strategic environmental management, environmental management standards, sustainability reporting, environmental accounting and corporate social responsibility. I got to know a lot of fun and interesting people at these events, but am only in contact still with a few of you. I was also a volunteer at GEYC 2000 in Lund and GEYC 2004 in Alexandria, Egypt.

I worked with Global Responsibility and Tomorrow Magazine 2000-2003, studied Intellectual Property at Malmö högskola 2003-2004 and psychology/pedagogy at Lund university 2003-2005. Between September 2005 and June 2007 I have been employed as a university lecturer at Malmö högskola, where I have been teaching basic courses in business administration, project management, as well as leadership and organisation. This summer I have become a certified NLP-practioner - something I would recommend to all of you! Since 2005 I am also an active member of Malmö International Rotary Club, JCI Malmö and Malmö Toastmasters.

I have an apartment in Malmö, as well as the vacation homes I own together with my sister in the countryside of Skåne/Österlen and Östergötland. My sister Helena has an apartment in Huddinge outside Stockholm, though she is currently working in Stavanger, Norway. My parents Hans and Agneta are now retired and spend most of the year in Cyprus, where they have an apartment close to the beach in Limassol. The mediterranean climate has spoiled them, as they spend most of the summer in Sweden complaining about the weather... But then again, this year we all have!

What I will be doing from now on is still up in the air as I am currently interviewing with several interesting companies/organizations. To be sure this is the right time to be looking for a new job in Sweden as business certainly seems to be booming! I have never seen so many job advertisements for business controllers, business developers, project managers and HR staff as there have been these past few months. I will let you all know the result of my job hunt soon here in my blog. I may stay in Malmö/Skåne or I may move back to Stockholm this fall - it all depends on what job offers I get!

I guess that is all - now I wait for your comments and responses here on my blogspace or directly via e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Ulrika Wennberg