1939 - 2021
Few are privileged to leave an imprint on the lives of many, even less are able to do this on a global scale. Sverker Haraldsson, born in the tiny unassuming village of Vormträsk, a stone’s throw from the Vindel river in Northern Sweden, was one of those elusive few. Gifted, bright and constantly curious to learn, he made the somewhat unusual choice, at the time and with his background, to train as a power engineer at the Statens Elektrotekniska Fackskola in Västerås.
He started his career as a relay testing engineer with Vattenfall och ÅF, but as his leadership talent became evident, he progressed to work as engineering manager with ASEA, Sundsvall. Moving to Bureå in 1975 as Head of Electrical Engineering at a local paper mill, Sverker privately started to realise some of his many creative projects. One of those was to design and build a significantly better, more robust, and far lighter relay test set, then those available on the market.
By coincidence, a need of new products for the electricity market arose with his younger brother, Roger’s, new company Programma Electric and Sverker offered his brother his invention to commercialise. This became and is an outstanding success story. The product, named after its inventor, is currently produced in its 7th generation, has sold close to 30.000 units to more than 140 countries around the world. Being an industry standard in relay testing, this product has contributed to safe and reliable electric power supply in large parts of the world for many years.
Sverker Haraldsson was not just an outstanding engineer of the old tribe, but moreover a genuine, warm and helpful person who gladly took the time to help us young people in the industry. We remember him with joy and respect. We owe him gratitude for what also became a major part of our lives and we pay respects to his family.
Danderyd, October 8th, 2021
Rickard Jonsson, Megger