Margareta Hegardt

Blenda Margareta Hegardt (13 January 1932 – 22 June 2005) was a Swedish diplomat. She was Swedish consul general in Los Angeles from 1983 to 1989, ambassador in Dublin from 1989 to 1993 and consul general in Hamburg from 1993 to 1997.

Early life Hegardt was born on 13 January 1932 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the daughter of the judge Carl Hegardt and his wife Blenda (née Koch). She received a Candidate of Law degree from Lund University in 1958. She was then consul general in Hamburg from 1993 to 1997.

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.

In 1989, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from California Lutheran University (CLU) for her contributions as a foreign servant in Europe and the United States. Hegardt, who served as CLU’s first Diplomat in Residence informally for two months during the spring 1998 semester, returned to California Lutheran University for the spring 1999 semester, teaching a course titled “Europe in Transition: Economic, Political and Cultural Dimensions of European Integration” and conducted a series of campus colloquia and lead discussions as a guest lecturer in graduate and undergraduate classes.