My parents and ancesters originate from the villages of Själevad (Butsjöböle) and Skorped (Önskan) not far from Örnsköldsvik. My father Ingvar used to work as an engineer for a company that is nowadays part of Andritz, traveling the world, and for periods of time the entire family traveled with him. My mother Anne-Marie has always liked to sew clothes and do needlework both at home and professionally. In fact, for a number of years she (and others, of course) used to sew and stitch the Swedish National Costume. Both my parents are retired today. My brother Robert studied Mechanical Engineering at Chalmers and now lives in Gothenburg where he is a middle-level director at the Volvo Truck Corporation.
I spent my early school years in Järvedsskolan, Alneskolan, Platåskolan, and Nolaskolan (Natural Science Programe) where I first was introduced to computers (HP3000, C64, and ABC80). After one year of military service at I21 in Sollefteå (I'm a second lieutenant in the Swedish Armed Forces, although now in the reserve) I attended Luleå University of Technology, where I first got a Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering (Civilingenjörsexamen i datateknik) and then a PhD in Computer Science (Teknologie doktorsexamen i datalogi).