CEO, Jan Söderkvist
Colibri's founder and CEO is Jan Söderkvist. Colibri has been his main employer since 1985. In parallel, he held a limited part-time position at Uppsala University in 1989-96.
One of his areas of strength is being a pathfiner and a diagnostician which comes in handy for feasibility studies, failure analysis, and technical and scientific analysis and support. A special field of interest is problems that require detective work and artful, non-standard solutions. Most projects are on a multi-disciplinary system level. His project list includes the development of a micromachined gyroscope that was successfully licensed to the German automotive industry, and later sold to the U.S. defence industry. Most projects are covered by strict NDAs, and Colibri's participation have in some cases also required ITAR clearance from the U.S. Department of State.
He has participated in two Mathematics Olympiads (silver medal; 35th in the world (eight participants per country)), won the Swedish high school mathematics contest, placed 7th in the final of the Swedish high school physics contest, been highest ranked on the Dean's list at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Prof. Gunnar Wallquist's student medal), and been a member of Mensa. He received a Rotary scholarship for his studies in Arizona, U.S.A., in 1982-83, and a one-year inventor scholarship from NUTEK (Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development) in 1992-93. He has received the best paper award at the biennial simulation conference organized by Ansys Inc.. He is author of 45+ scientific publications and the key inventor behind 3 patent families and co-inventor of several other patents.
He is the founder of the Nordic newsletter Micro Structure Bulletin (MSB) and the biennial Micro Structure Workshop (MSW), has been an associate editor of the IEEE Sensors Journal, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JMM), the steering committee of the Micromechanics Europe (MME), the Sensor Congress Committee, and the program committee of the Transducers. He served as the vice chairman for the Swedish Athletic Association's Ultradistance Committee in 2006-07. He is also the person behind the ultradistance race TEC − Täby Extreme Challenge 100 miles.
Education includes M.Sc. Eng.Phys. (83, KTH, graduated in 2¾ years), Lic.Eng. Theor.Phys. Mtrl.Sc. (84, KTH), Dr.Tech. El.Eng. (90, Uppsala Univ., industrial part time PhD student, graduated in 1⅓ years), and Assoc.Prof. El.Eng. (94, appointed by Uppsala Univ.).
Hobbies include family, woodwork and other handicrafts, reading, and long distance running (motto: "relax via running"; 42 marathons (PB 3h43m), 161 completed ultras (incl. two Western States 100 miles, Tour du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), Comrades and London-to-Brighton), and winner of the orientering competition O-ringen (class Open 4, 2014)).
A general presentation (in Swedish): "Med passion för det lilla" - Article in Ny Teknik