Interview: Acting head of Common Security, Michael Wernstedt

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  Michael Wernstedt

  Acting Head of Common Security

Lewis Day: Congratulations on your new role and welcome to the foundation. How have your first few weeks been since joining the team at the Global Challenges Foundation?

Michael Wernstedt: Really amazing. I am overwhelmed by how fun it is, with really impressive colleagues and I think it’s really a privilege to work on such a broad range of topics. I didn’t think that such a fun job could exist.

That is great to hear. Before we talk more about the exciting things that lie ahead, could you tell me a little bit about your professional history?

So I have a background in law and worked as a lawyer for five years in a variety of fields and then about 15 years ago I switched into becoming a social entrepreneur. Since then I’ve worked in various fields; with leadership with the Raoul Wallenberg Academy, with democracy, with inner development at Inner Development Goals, with environment as chair of End Ecocide Sweden. Most recently, I was the Nordic director at Ashoka, the biggest network of social entrepreneurs in the world focusing on social entrepreneurs that work with system change.

It might all seem very broad but I think the common thread through all I have done has really been system change. I have a vision that my son should grow up in a world where we feel interconnected and live in harmony with Mother Earth. So that has been my North star that’s been guiding me and of course we need to do a lot of things to achieve that. Which is why it feels wonderful to work in this organisation that works with such a broad approach to achieving that.

What is it about system change specifically that interests you?

I think since a very early age, I’ve always asked myself “but if we’re just perpetuating a problem, you know, what’s the point?”. We really need to get to the root cause and try to solve that root cause.

It’s been quite intuitive for me ever since I started working as a social entrepreneur with leadership. If we train a hundred people or a thousand people or even ten thousand people, it will still just be a drop in the ocean if we don’t change the system. For example, within the educational system so that everybody gets these kinds of training. For me, when I started to learn about system change it was hard to let it go and have another lens.

Moving back to today. What was it that drew you towards GCF and made you want to work here?

There’s so many aspects. I think one aspect is working globally, which I think is really a privilege. Being able to work with different actors and to work across various fields and as you know I’ve always been driven by seeing how we can change the system. Here at GCF, I think we really have the opportunities and resources to build the global governance structure to mitigate the existential risks.

I’ve been thinking about these questions for such a long time. So it’s wonderful to be in a place where you feel you can actually have an impact on these topics.

What are some of the particular topics or areas you are interested in working with during your time at the foundation?

The part of my portfolio that I have the most experience with is the international courts, from my law studies but also directly in my work within End Ecocide Sweden, which is looking at expanding the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court to introduce Ecocide as a fifth international crime. So naturally, the projects we support that are connected to the international courts are super interesting to me. But honestly, I think every partner I meet is so interesting and of course now so much work is going on with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). I think it is really such an important topic for our time and especially with autonomous weapons being more and more on the table, that I think figuring out how we mitigate that risk is such a crucial part for humanity and the world. So that feels very meaningful.

Before I let you go, what are your favourite hobbies or interests outside of work?

I do have a 2-year-old son at home, so I think my favorite thing is to hang out with him. But aside from him, I think the three things I really carve out time for are music and more specifically singing, meditation which I’ve been practicing for 30 years, and the third thing is working out. Ideally in nature through running or ice-skating or skiing. The ice is actually frozen right out near the coast this year here in the archipelago in Stockholm so I’m hoping to get out for a big ice skating trip soon.