Sweden nominated outgoing Ikea boss Jesper Brodin to become the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Monday, a rare case of a business leader being backed for a top international policy job.
Brodin, who will step down as chief executive of the company next month, joins a field that includes a former Finnish foreign minister, Turkey's UN ambassador and the ex-migration ministers of Belgium and Switzerland.
"I was happily surprised that the government thought of my name since it's quite unusual that a business leader is put forward," Brodin told the Financial Times after learning of the centre-right administration's nomination. "We need to break the silos in society, whether it's climate or refugees."
Italian Filippo Grandi has led UNHCR for the past decade, but the agency, like the UN itself, is facing big questions about its future, after large budget cuts from the US and some European countries.
Grandi, who leaves the role at the end of the year, told the Financial Times in July that "catastrophic" budget cuts were driving more migration to Europe. Refugees from countries such as Sudan and Chad were heading north rather than staying in their home region where they had previously found support, he said.
President Donald Trump cut US funding for the body from $2bn to about $390mn this year, while Germany, France and Italy have all scaled back their support.
Brodin said he had worked closely with UNHCR when supporting refugees in neighbouring countries to Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and when the flat-pack furniture group offered jobs to Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan.
"The UN is going through important times and changes, and looking for leaders who have experience from big organisations that go across many countries," Brodin said. "Having led one of the biggest foundation-owned businesses with 170,000 in 43 countries, they thought I qualified."
Brodin has led the world's largest furniture retailer through a tumultuous eight years in which he transformed Ikea by pushing into smaller city-centre stores and online retail, while dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the supply chain crisis and the death of founder Ingvar Kamprad.
Benjamin Dousa, Sweden's international development and trade minister, said: "The UN system will be strengthened by a person with business experience, especially given the major challenges now facing the UN. That's why someone who knows how to keep hold of the purse strings and deliver efficient operations is needed."
UN secretary-general António Guterres will choose a candidate from the applicants, who then must be confirmed by a vote in the UN General Assembly.