Janerik Larsson was born in (1944) and educated in Helsingborg in the south of Sweden. He was a reporter for the evening paper Kvällsposten in Malmö 1966-1970. From 1970 until the end of 1979, he was an editorial writer (from 1975 political editor based in Stockholm) and columnist in the nonsocialist morning paper Sydsvenska Dagbladet (Malmö).
He was a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, CA, 1973 -1974.
He was editor-in-chief for SAF-tidningen (a business weekly published by the Swedish Employers´ Confederation) January 1980-March 1987.
In December 1980 he was awarded the Swedish Pulitzer prize, Stora Journalistpriset, for his work.
From April 1, 1987 until September 30, 1995 he was Senior Vice President, Swedish Empolyers´ Confederation in charge of the Information Department. He was a member of the Executive Policy Group of the Confederation.
From 1988 he was also president of ”Näringslivets mediainstitut” - a media institute that has published many reports on how media has approached various issues. In that role he also devoted a lot of effort to help abolish the Swedish state run radio- and TV-monopoly. Commercial radio and TV was introduced in Sweden in the early 90s.
From October 1, 1995, to June 1, 1999, he was Executive Vice President of Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik, an international conglomerate with headquarter in Stockholm. At the same time he was Director of Information of the telecom group NetCom AB (today renamed Tele2) and the paper- and pulp industry Korsnäs AB. Korsnäs was owned by Kinnevik and NetCom/Tele2 was until 1996 a part of Kinnevik.
He left Kinnevik June 1, 1999 and worked with Kreab, a large communications consultancy in Sweden, as a senior partner until June 1, 2005 when he joined the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise as Executive Vice President. He left the confederation November 1st 2010 and started to work a senior consultant at Prime PR in Stockholm.
He now also works as an advisor to Stiftelsen Fritt Näringsliv (Free Enterprise Foundation, http://frittnaringsliv.se/the-swedish-free-enterprise-foundation/) where he used to be a board member (see below).
From 1988 until 1995 he was member of the board of Timbro, a pro-market think tank. 2006 – 2010 he was a member of the board of Stiftelsen Fritt Näringsliv, a foundation set up by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise to promote pro-market thinking.
From the fall of 2010 until 2021 was a member of the board of the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation (http://www.axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/)
He was editor of “Marknadsekonomisk tidskrift” in the 80s; he was a columnist in “Dagens Politik” and wrote a regular column in the political weekly NU 1995 - 2000.
Janerik Larsson has published more than 20 books, most of them on political, social and economics topics.
He wrote his first book together with Sven Rydenfelt in 1966 on the illegal (and later abolished) activities of the Swedish secret police, ”Säkerhetspolisens hemliga register”. He has written several books on aid to Third World countries including one book on the World Bank, ”Världsbanken - makt i utveckling” (1977).
He wrote three books on nuclear energy in the late 70s. ”Har kärnkraften en framtid?” (Is there a future for nuclear energy?) was published in 1980.
Together with the well-known Swedish writer of mystery novels, K A Blom, Larsson wrote two political thrillers in the mid 70s: ”Attentatet” (1975), ”Massakern” (1978); both under the nom de plume Thomas B Werner. Together with Staffan Roos he wrote the TV-play ”Dö 10 april” (1971).
He has written several books on the political situation in various countries: ”Jugoslaviska ansikten” (on Yugoslavia) with Per Luthander in 1978, ”Schweiz - okänt land mitt i Europa” (on Switzerland) with Svante Löfgren and Robert Rock in 1982, ”Ett annat England (on Thatcher´s United Kingdom) in 1983, ”Det andra Finland” (on Finland as one of the most firmly capitalist countries in the Western world) together with Mats Kockberg in 1984).
He was based in Washington D.C. October 1985 - June 1987 and his book ”Det stora klivet” (1986) deals with cross cultural conflicts and other management issues in Swedish subsidiaries in the US. His book ”Jobb och lön i USA” (1987) deals with the US labour market and his book on the US debate about poverty, hunger and homelessness was published in ”Tillväxtutredningen 2” (Näringslivets ekonomifakta 1987).
He wrote a book about the American middle class, ”Bortom Harlem och Dallas” (1987).
His book ”Bortom vänster och höger” (1995) deals with Swedish politics beyond left and right. His book ”Den goda politiken” (together with Markus Uvell, 1996) deals with the same set of issues.
In addition to these books he has also published these non-fiction books: ”Politisk terror i Sverige” (1968), ”Spionen som politiker” (1969), ”Idrott och politik” (1970), ”Vård eller förvaring? Ungdomsvårdsskolan inför framtiden” (with Bertil Göransson (1970), ”Svek mot u-hjälpen?” (1972), ”Ustasja” (1972), ”Använd våra kärnkraftverk” (1979, with Hans Bergström), ”Om kärnkraften avvecklas” (1979), ”Samtal om Sveriges framtid” (1979), ”Vändpunkten - boken om 4 oktober 1983” (1983).
His analysis on media issues , “Mediekritik och medieanalys”, was published by the Bertil Ohlin Foundation in October 1998.
His book on the Obama presidency is “Överlever den amerikanska drömmen? Tankar om USA före, under och efter Barack Obamas presidenttid” (2009). His book “Företagarrörelsen och opinionen” (2011, new edition 2013) is a short history of the free enterprise networks in Sweden and their influence on public opinion.
His essay “Man kan inte lita på medierna” was published in “Vem granskar medierna – den svenska mediegranskningen 1988 – 2012” (redaktör Torbjörn von Krogh, 2012).
His book” De nya industrialisterna” om Swedish venture capital and private equity was published in March 2013.
The book “Blir Texas det nya Kalifornien ?” was published in March 2014. Janerik Larsson writes on California, Roland Poirier Martinsson on Texas.
In “Klassresan” (ed Tobas Krantz, Karin Rebas, 2015) Janerik Larsson writes about the American Dream.
His book “Det långa loppet – Svenskt Näringsliv 20 år” (Elerlids förlag) was published in March 2021.
Today he is a regular contributor to the op-ed pages of Svenska Dagbladet. He also writes for Svensk Tidskrift (a weekly web publication) and used to write for the magazine NEO. He has also published articles in the magazine Axess.
Janerik Larsson has been married since 1978 to Gunilla Larsson Hedlin, M.D., Ph.D., who is professor at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Their son Simon was born in January 1988. The parents live in Stockholm, the son in the US.