Christian Engström

Christian Engström
Member of the European Parliament for Sweden
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 July 2009
Personal details
Born	February 9, 1960 (1960-02-09) (age 51) Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Political party	Pirate Party (Greens–EFA)
Alma mater	Stockholm University
Profession	Programmer

Lars Christian Engström (born 9 February 1960) is a Swedish computer programmer, activist and politician. He is deputy chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party. Engström was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2009 election.^[1]

Education and career

Christian Engström was born in Högalid, Stockholm. He graduated from Stockholm University in 1983 with a degree in mathematics and computer science.^[2] While studying, Engström worked as a tutor at the university, teaching object-oriented programming in Simula.^[2] From 1978 he also worked part-time as a programmer at a small company which specialized in phonetic similarity searches for trademark names.^[2] After finishing his studies he started working full-time at the company.^[2] He became a partner in the firm in 1987 and in 1991 he became vice president.^[2] In 1997 the company was sold to the leading European trademark search house CompuMark.^[2] Engström stayed on in a similar capacity as before until 2001, when he left the company to set up his own consultancy firm Glindra AB.^[2]

Activism and politics

For five years Engström worked as an unpaid activist within the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), lobbying against software patents.^[2] He was active in the campaign against the EU software patent directive, which was rejected by the European Parliament in July 2005.^[2] He also co-founded the Swedish section of FFII and served as its deputy chairman during the first year.^[2]

In the late 1980s, Engström became a member of the Swedish Liberal People's Party.^[2] He served as a lay assessor (Swedish: nämndeman) for the party in the Stockholm District Court between 1992 and 1998 and was active in local politics in Bromma, Stockholm.^[2] He left the Liberal People's Party on 1 January 2006, following the founding of the Pirate Party.^[2]

Engström was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the election held on 7 June 2009, in which the Pirate Party won 7.1 % of the votes and received one mandate.^[1][3] Engström was placed as his party's top candidate and received 43,808 votes (19 % of the Pirate Party's total votes).^[4][5] After negotiations with some of the political groups of the European Parliament it was announced on 25 June 2009 that Engström will join the green group (Greens–EFA).^[6]

Personal life

Engström is married and has one son.^[2] He lives with his family in Nacka, Stockholm County.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Val till Europaparlamentet - Valda" (in Swedish). Swedish Election Authority. 2009-06-11. http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/slutresultat/valda/index.html. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} "Christian Engström" (in Swedish). Christian Engström. http://www.glindra.se/pirat/. Retrieved 2009-05-22. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Val till Europaparlamentet - Röster" (in Swedish). Swedish Election Authority. 2009-06-11. http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/slutresultat/rike/index.html. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
4. ^ "Val till Europaparlamentet - Valsedlar" (in Swedish). Swedish Election Authority. 2009-05-21. http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/valsedlar/index.html#id0524. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 
5. ^ "Val till Europaparlamentet - Personröster" (in Swedish). Swedish Election Authority. 2009-06-11. http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/slutresultat/personroster.html. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
6. ^ Landes, David (25 June 2009). "Pirate Party to sit with Greens in European Parliament". The Local. http://www.thelocal.se/20278/20090625/. Retrieved 14 July 2009. 

External links

• Christian Engström's blog
• The Pirate Party Makes a Bid for the European Parliament Wired.com article, features interview with Christian Engström.

Persondata
Name	Engström, Christian
Alternative names	Engström, Lars Christian (full name); Engstrom, Christian (English)
Short description	Swedish computer programmer and political activist
Date of birth	9 February 1960
Place of birth	Högalid, Stockholm, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death