Nicklas Berild Lundblad
email: nicklas.berildlundblad at gmail.com
Summary
Learner and government affairs professional with more than 20 years of experience in analysing, shaping and debating technology policy. One of Google’s globally recognized “Great Managers” with experience from leading across a variety of markets. Firm believer in the long future, and our responsibility for it. Author, angel investor, board professional and researcher in the philosophy of technology.
Work experience
2025-06 — Investor, advisory, researcher, writer
I am working with various think tanks, research institutions and companies on policy, AI, technology and foresight.
2022-06 – 2025-06 Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs, DeepMind Ltd
Responsible for Deep Mind’s work on public policy and public affairs, building a mandate for solving intelligence to accelerate science and benefit humanity – together across different stakeholders, interests and for the long run.
2020-11-2021-05 – Head of Global Tech Policy Stripe Inc
Responsible for global tech policy issues at Stripe, a financial services startup working on financial infrastructure for the Internet.
2010-2020 at Google in a variety of roles.
2019-04-01 – 2020-12-01 Head of Global Policy Planning
From 2019 I am building a small team focused on three different tasks: the first is to run our annual planning and strategy process globally, the second is to inform that process by broad foresight work, including scenario planning and forecasting, and the third is to do what we do better. The purpose of this function is ultimately to make sure that our global government affairs and public policy team learns faster.
2013-2019 VP of public policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
In this role I was responsible for building out, running and managing our government affairs and policy efforts in Europe, then taking on the Middle East, Africa and Russia as well, after two years. As a member of our European Management Group I worked closely with other functions to manage Google’s challenges across a broad variety of subjects, from reputation management to competition policy, data protection issues and a wave of regulatory reform coming at the tech industry. I represented Google publicly at everything from hearings in the European Parliament and the UK to the G7 in close personal meetings with the interior ministers. Frequent public speaker.
2010-2013 Head of Central Team in Mountain View
This role afforded me the opportunity to build our first “central team” – a resource for everything from strategic planning and research to messaging across all of our markets. Working closely with product teams to explore road maps and detect policy challenges as well as channeling intelligence from key markets, the team managed to build both valuable expertise and a broader understanding for the importance of government affairs in the company.
2007-2009 Head of our Nordic Public Policy Team
I started at Google in 2007, building out a Nordic policy presence where we had none before, and had the opportunity to create a policy function from scratch in what was then a benign environment – building out trade association presence, mapping social networks of influence, securing good intelligence capabilities. This was a great opportunity to learn about the mechanics of government affairs in a multinational company.
2009-09-2010-02 Vice President Stockholm Chamber of Commerce
A brief interlude between Google roles, but as the CEO left and an opportunity opened up to return to Google – I did.
2005-2007 Managing editor and founder of Neo Magazine
My cofounder and I built a modern, John-Stuart-mill-liberal ideas magazine based on a business model that included donations, ads and subscriptions. It lasted for another 10 years after I sold it to start at Google, and ended up an influential platform in Swedish politics. As Managing Editor I did everything from signing up printers to designing ads to securing a steady supply of caffeine – a great start up experience. We sold the magazine after a couple of years and it lived on 15 years before it folded.
2000-2005 Director at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce for ICT-policy
At the Chamber of Commerce I started our Chamber of e-commerce to recruit and organise the tech industry in Stockholm, and collaborated with other tech organizations to shape tech policy. During this time I was a member of a number of expert groups in Brussels, through the Eurochambres organisation and ended up on an advisory board for the i2010-program. Working on issues like data protection and B2B platform commerce at that time has given me an understanding of the roots of tech policy in Europe.
1998-2000 Analyst at the Swedish Office of Science and Technology in Menlo Park, CA
In this role I advised the Swedish industry on technology trends, changes and new opportunities. A lot of the work was focused on electronic commerce, XML-related standards and new platforms – such as mobile – for commerce. The role was in the Menlo Park office of the Office of Science and Technology, CA, USA.
1997-1998 Researcher at the Swedish Institute for Systems Development
In this role I worked on analyzing consequences for industry as the first data protection directive was introduced, suggested changes to copyright legislation and wrote reports on emerging technologies like AI.
Study
2008 PhD in informatics – wrote a dissertation whilst working and took coursework on the side to get a PhD in informatics. My dissertation was on “Law in the Noise Society”, suggesting that most policy plans in the European Union were flawed as they assumed technology would increase control without increasing complexity. My argument was that it was rather the other way around, and that information in abundance collapses into noise and that regulation would turn out to be very hard as technology turns out to be difficult to domesticate.
2000 LLM, with specialization in ICT-law (privacy) – I wrote my thesis on electronic tracks and how they fit badly with the conceptual frameworks in the data protection legislation. I also worked at the Swedish Research Institute for ICT and Law for a while during my studies in the early 1990s.
1998 B.A Philosophy – my thesis was on Marvin Minsky and the idea of a society of mind. I focused on what is called cognitive science today, but also took a seminar on the later Wittgenstein that I found magical. I spent some time writing another small paper about Dennett’s intentional stance applied to simple software as well.
Other experience
Fellow, Royal Society of Arts – since 2022 I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK.
Writer – I am a frequent contributor of essays to several Swedish magazines on issues like cognitive science, the philosophy of AI, legal theory, political analysis and geopolitical shifts. I have written four books on technology (not counting my dissertation, Law in a Noise Society). The first was called Technotopias (Teknotopier in Swedish) and was published in 2000 (in Swedish). It argued that privacy, copyright and free expression would need to change radically as the net evolved. In 2002 I followed that with a book called The Locked Net (Det låsta nätet, in Swedish) that argued that cryptography would turn out to be a core political issue for control over the web even after the cipher wars were won in the US. The third book, Secure your company (Säkra ditt företag, in Swedish) was an introduction to information security from a social perspective (in Swedish) in 2005. Finally, I wrote a short booklet on artificial intelligence, published in 2014 – called If machines could think (Om maskiner kunde tänka, in Swedish) – exploring what AI can teach us about our self-image as humanity. I write between 5-10 essays a year on these issues in various Swedish magazines. In 2021 I published a book on the philosophy of questions – Question Wise (Frågvisare in Swedish) together with Fredrik Stjernberg, professor of philosophy. The book explores the craft and ability to ask questions from a number of perspectives – philosophical, evolutionary and technological.
Board work – since 2018 I am a member of the board of a Marginalen AB – a Swedish financial group that includes two smaller banks in the Nordics. I joined to better understand regulated industries and contribute with a tech perspective. I have also served on boards of public affairs companies and NGOs, as well as several advisory groups and expert committees. In my investment work I have taken on a board position at Jord Innovation AB – an exciting GreenTech venture innovating in key everyday materials.
Founder and angel investor at Blue Cabinet AB. Since 2020 I am running a small angel investing firm called Blue Cabinet, where we look to invest in early stage companies. Our investments are small, but include some green tech, health tech and medical companies in Sweden. I also co-founded a current affairs magazine, Magasinet Neo, that ran for 15 years in Sweden as a centre right ideas-driven publication.
Eisenhower fellow. Was elected Eisenhower fellow in 2006 for Sweden in the multi-nation program, travelling the US for three months.
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Elected member in 2010.
Adjunct professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). I was an adjunct professor at KTH for a number of years.
Government and international advisory roles. I have worked in different advisory roles for the several European governments, as well as the OECD, the EU and others. From being a member of the European Commissions e-Europe advisory group to various commissions and reviews across different countries.
Personal
Born 1971. Father of three, two boys and a girl. Married to Emma, a surgical nurse. Avid kayaker, black belt in aikido. My roots are in the archipelago outside of Stockholm.
NICKLAS BERILD LUNDBLAD 