The Swedish American Green Alliance (SAGA) is a sustainability exchange for Swedish and American researchers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, journalists, legislators, activists, industry leaders, academics, NGOs, and more. SAGA makes connections, cultivates partnerships, and celebrates the ongoing story of progress toward a sustainable future.
Mark Francis Brzezinski was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 18, 2011 to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden. Mr. Brzezinski has had a distinguished career in both public service and the private sector. Most recently, he has been a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods law firm, specializing in anti-corruption law. In this capacity, Mr. Brzezinski has helped U.S. companies comply with laws regulating the way business is conducted overseas. At the same time, he has been very active in promoting broader public knowledge about the challenges of overseas corruption and ways law can be used to address it.
Mr. Brzezinski served as a Director on the National Security Council in the White House from 1999 to 2001. During this time he coordinated interagency policy formulation and advised the President and the National Security Advisor on issues relating to Russia, Eurasia and the Balkans, including regional democracy promotion, international public law, war crimes accountability, and was responsible for public diplomacy relating to the region. He helped lead U.S. policy implementation in relation to NATO enlargement and in response to the Kosovo conflict. He also coordinated presidential summits in Russia and Ukraine. From 1996 to 1999, he was an attorney at Hogan & Hartson law firm, where he assisted U.S. companies to expand their businesses around the world and to create economic opportunities in developing countries. From 1991 to 1993, he worked in Poland as a Fulbright Scholar, where he researched and wrote about the country’s constitutional transition.
Mr. Brzezinski is a member of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of The Struggle for Constitutionalism in Poland and of numerous articles on foreign policy and law. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College, a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Doctorate from Oxford University.
He is married to Natalia Brzezinski, a Huffington Post blogger and freelance writer, and they have one daughter named Aurora Emilie.
Ambassador Jonas Hafström presented his Letter of Credence to the President of the United States of America on September 18, 2007. Ambassador Hafström arrived in Washington, DC following three years as Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand, also accredited to Laos, Cambodia and Burma /Myanmar – a position he had held since 2004. From 2000 to 2004 he was Deputy Director for Consular Affairs and Civil Law at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. For three years (1991-1994) he served as foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Carl Bildt. Between 1987-1991 and 1994-2000, he was foreign policy adviser to Carl Bildt in his position as leader of the opposition.
Jonas Hafström joined the Foreign Service in 1979. Shortly thereafter he worked as Press Secretary to the Minister of Justice 1979-1981. His first posting was as First Secretary at the Embassy in Teheran from 1982-1984. He then spent the following two years as First Secretary at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC.
Ambassador Hafström also served as a member of the Swedish Defense Committee 1998-99.
Born in 1948, Jonas Hafström is a graduate of the University of Lund and holds a degree in law. During his college years, he was President of the Student Union in Lund. The following two and a half years he served as District Clerk at the District Court in Nyköping. Jonas Hafström is a Non-Commissioned Reserve Captain of the Swedish Army and served as Aide D’Camp to the Swedish Commanding Officer in the United Nations Peace Keeping Operations in the Middle East in 1977. He received the “Jonas Weiss Memorial Award” in 2005 and The Seraphim Medal from His Majesty the King in 2008 “for meritorious contributions during the tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia”. Ambassador Hafström and his wife Eva have three children
