The Order of the Polar Star to Tom Johnstone

Tom Johnstone has been awarded the Order of the Polar Star for his personal services to Sweden and Swedish interests. The County Governor Lars Bäckström presented the order at a recent ceremony at the County Governor residence in Göteborg.
Tom Johnstone was born in Scotland and is a graduate of the University of Glasgow. He started working as a salesman with SKF's British subsidiary SKF (U.K.) in 1977. Thereafter, he has held a number of managerial positions within sales and marketing within SKF. He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the SKF Group since 2003.
The Order of the Polar Star is a Swedish royal order instituted in 1748 by the Swedish King Fredrik I. Until 1975 the Order of the Polar Star was a reward for Swedish and foreign "civic merits, for devotion to duty, for science, literary, learned and useful works and for new and beneficial institutions". Nowadays it is only awarded to members of the Swedish royal family and foreign citizens for personal services to Sweden and Swedish interests.
Among those who have received the Order of the Polar Star in the past are Christopher Polhem, Jonas Alströmer and Greta Garbo.

Göteborg, 26 November 2008

SKF News

SKF receives Best Quality Award from Siemens

SKF has won the prestigious "Best Quality Award" from Siemens Large Drives (SLD) for the fiscal year 2007. The prize is awarded for proven quality performance.

SLD is a part of Siemens Automotive and Drives Division, which currently has more than 2,000 suppliers. SLD produces propulsion systems, converters and traction motors, as well as industrial drives at 16 production facilities worldwide.

SKF was the only bearing supplier to be considered for the award from a shortlist of SLD’s 40 top suppliers.

SKF mainly supplies SLD with electrically insulated INSOCOAT bearings and cylindrical roller bearings for railway traction motors.

INSOCOAT is a registered trademark of the SKF Group.