Short Facts
Born: December 28, 1973
Place of birth: Stockholm, Sweden
Hometown: Stockholm
Nationality: Swedish
Position on the team: IT Manager
Family: Single
Interests: windsurfing, sailing, skiing

Sailing Achievements
2007 - Ornö runt, 1st place, LYS Class, Elvström 717, Skipper
2006 – Swedish and Nordic Formula Windsurf Championship, first place
2005 – Swedish Formula Windsurf Championship, first place
2005 -  Nordic Cup, Formula Windsurfing, 1st place overall
              Swedish Championships, gold medal, Formula Windsurfing
              Swedish Windsurfing Tour, Formula Windsurfing, 2nd overall
2004 - Swedish Championships, Formula Windsurfing, 3rd place
             Swedish Windsurfing Tour, Formula Windsurfing, 5th place
2003 -  Nordic Championships, Formula Windsurfing, 12th place
2002 - 1999 Swedish Windsurfing Tour, Formula Windsurfing, 8th, 14th and  
              21st place overall


Professional Background
2003-2007 – Swedbank IT Research & Development, Senior System Engineer
1998-2003 – Swedbank Markets, System Engineer
1997-1998 – Academy, Computer Sciennce, Microsoft Certified System Engineer
1996-1997 – Power, Computer sales
1995-1996 – Hellströms Bilradio, Alarm Electrician

Profile
A family passion, sailing became a big part of Jimmy’s life at the age of six. Not many years later the young boy was dreaming about competing in a round-the-world race. His father’s death changed Jimmy’s path: he quit sailing and embarked into windsurfing instead. Jimmy began competing in the Formula class in 1999 and soon became one of the best Nordic athletes in this field.

For 10 years Jimmy split his time between the sport and his IT job at a Swedish bank. Even though he was not able to dedicate as much time to practicing and competing as some of his rivals did, he claimed his first Swedish title in 2005 and in 2006 won both national and Nordic championships.

Used to combining training, competition and work schedules, Jimmy is about to see his two passions meet: the talented computer specialist will be the Ericsson Racing Team IT manager for the Volvo Ocean Race.

“I’ve been dreaming about doing this kind of race since I was a little kid, but back then I always saw myself as a crewmember,” he says. “A while ago I was doing some sailing tests with Ericsson and I heard they were looking for an IT manager and it just hit me. I knew my chances of being a part of this team as an IT person were much better, and I had to take it. I wanted to do this race in any possible way, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Besides dealing with all computer-related issues both on board and on shore, Jimmy will is also be blogging (to view his blog click on the icon to the right). The IT manager hopes to be able to write not only about his work, but his impressions of the most demanding sailing competition in the world.

“I think my work is pretty much under control since we have built such a strong system and our navigators are very talented guys, totally capable of handling it. So I’m looking forward to experiencing this challenge. I think it will be great to write about what people can not see, about what happens behind the scenes,” he says.

Jimmy’s writing will probably be interrupted every time the team returns from an ocean leg, as a journey at sea inevitably causes some damage to the electronic equipment. That is when the work gets really intense. “It is a wet, humid environment, not the best place for electronics,” he says. “But our job, so far, has been to plan everything in a way that we can always go for straightforward solutions. This race is the Everest of sailing and absolutely nothing is easy, but we tried to keep things as simple as possible.”