Margareta Hegardt

Career

Hegardt was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and was the daughter of the judge Carl Hegardt and Blenda, née Koch. She received a Candidate of Law degree from Lund University in 1958 and carried out her clerkship from 1959 to 1961. Hegardt was the secretary of the Swedish Employers Association in 1961, and director assistant there in 1966. She was director of the Education Policy Secretariat in 1971, deputy director in 1976 and became social attaché at the Swedish delegation in Brussels and at the embassies in Brussels, The Hague and Paris in 1975. Hegardt was labour counsellor there in 1977, State Secretary of the Department of Commerce from 1978 to 1979 and from 1981 to 1982 and was deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1980-81. Hegardt was then consul general in Los Angeles 1983-89 and ambassador in Dublin from 1989.

She was a member of the board of the Labor Markets Women's Board (Arbetsmarknadens kvinnonämnd) from 1967 and in the Council for civil servants training in the industry (Rådet för tjänstemannautbildning inom industrin) from 1969. Hegardt was a member and expert in several government commissions and agencies in the field of labour market, foreign trade, social policy, education policy and the same in joint bodies and the labor market partners. She was the Swedish representative in various OECD bodies, the Industrial Development Board and in Nordic collaboration and more.

Hegardt received a Juris Doctor honorary degree from California Lutheran University in the United States in 1989.

Personal life

In 1955-60 Hegardt was married to the ambassador Karl-Anders Wollter (born 1927), the son of the editor Kjell Wollter and Elsa, née Ekwall. She was married 1962-77 to the county prosecutor Lars Dahlgren (born 1931), the son of the chief physician Lars Dahlgren and Aina, née Svenselius. Hegardt died in 2005 and was buried in Östra kyrkogården in Gothenburg.