In late September 2022 fifteen participants of the Young Professionals program, eight from Latvia and seven from Sweden, gathered in Riga for a first two-day session, with one aim - to learn more and discuss about leadership. The group quickly merged and the atmosphere almost instantly became sincere and warm, there was a lot of laughter and a friendly attitude. The program was led by Pär Lager. Among the lecturers was Martin Hårdstedt, history professor at Umeå university, taking the group through five historic events that shaped the Swedish-Latvian relations. Two economists from Swedbank Latvia, Acting Chief Economist Agnese Buceniece, and economist Laimdota Komare gave an overview over the Latvian economy and politics in the past, today and some insights in what we can foresee about the macroeconomic situation ahead. Under the headline Latvian leadership, the CEO of SEB in Latvia, Ieva Tetere, shared her personal experience working in leading positions, the challenges and possibilities, as well as the privilege to be able to trust one´s team.

Day two Johan Edelman, CEO at Stena Line in Latvia talked about Swedish-Latvian leadership, which was followed by a nano workshop: the best of two worlds. Dāvis Siksnāns, co-founder of the first Latvian unicorn, Printful, a print on demand and warehousing company for online stores, gave an inspiring presentation on him being only 22 years old when starting the company, now looking back and seeing it grown from five to over six hundred employees across USA, Mexico, and Europe, Latvia. This was the right time for the participants to deliver - to come up with great ideas for a Latvian startup, to decide whether it should be a product or a service and discuss how to lead such a business. The day and the Riga session ended at the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, with a guided tour and a meeting with Saeima Parliamentarian Inese Voika. Ms.Voika works in the presidium of the Saiema, and in the committees of legal issues and national security.

The second session, which took place in Stockholm, started with a joint dinner characterized by the joy of reunion and many happy laughs. After a good nights´ sleep the group was welcomed by Erik Ljungberg, communications manager at the Swedbank headquarters in Sundbyberg. The floor was then given to one of the participants - Madara Mazjāne, who had asked for the opportunity to make a presentation on leadership style and narrowing of the authority gap. This gave food for quite some thought, and a lot of reflection. Then came Catarina Bertling, mentor, entrepreneur and consultant to talk about how to create the future. “Keep a child like mind” was one of her advises, stressing that it is not the same as being childish, meaning that almost nothing is impossible. The day was rounded off by Gabriela Almonacid from the HR department at SEB, giving a presentation on Transformative leadership. It was then time to go to ABBA - the museum.   

Early on Friday morning the group met Jens Henriksson, CEO of Swedbank - who gave a lecture on Swedish leadership, generously illustrated by examples from his own career. The afternoon session was dedicated to different methods for reflection, and then - prototyping. Alexander Wennerberg, CEO & Founder of Hives led a workshop whit the setting that it is 2030 and Sweden and Latvia are chosen by UN to be models for the rest of the world in sustainability - what has happened? The three groups had much fun, and could shortly after present a short video clip each, showing different takes on the topic. The last item on the agenda was a visit to the Parliament of Sweden, Riksdagen, where deputy speaker Mr. Kenneth G Forslund (Social democrat) welcomed everyone. The guided tour ended in the conference room of the foreign policy committee, and a q & a session with a member of the parliament - Mr. Stefan Olsson (Moderate party) who answered questions about the life being a MP, as well as about global politics.

The very last item on the agenda was to thank everyone for participating and hand out diplomas. These were specially designed for he occasion by artist Raija Wallenius, showing fifteen birds flying over the sea, over a bridge. It leads from the heart of the capital city of Latvia – the Freedom monument in Riga and its´ figure of Liberty, lifting three gilded stars – to the city center of Stockholm and the City Hall, with the symbols of Sweden, the three crowns, at the top of the tower.

On behalf of the program - a special thank you to the Swedbank head quarters in Latvia and the Swedbank head quarters in Stockholm for excellent cooperation and for hosting us.

Participants from Latvia: Jekaterina Amjute, Madara Mazjāne, Artūrs Orlovskis, Rūdolfs Kivlenieks, Anete Igaune and Inta Buša, Tatjana Parfjonova and Bruno Kuplausks. Participants from Sweden: Magnus Hjortfors Irie, Elizabeth Giles, Justine Kreslina, Shahin Khosravi, Elvira Anderson, Jennifer Bärgård and Mariton Berisha.