About Anders
So who is Anders Hanson? Well, the basic facts are these.
I was born on the 25th of November 1975 in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in Sweden. My Dad is Swedish and my Mum is English, but they met whilst they worked in Cyprus (my Dad was in the UN Civilian Police and my Mum was a school teacher at an RAF base). I spent the first three years of my life living in Lundby on the island of Hisingen in Göteborg, Sweden’s second city.
When I was three I moved to Sheffield (my Mum’s home city) and spent all my childhood living in Crosspool, a suburb on the western side of the city and close to the Peak District. I went to local schools - Lydgate First School, Lydgate Middle School and Tapton School. This where I spent the next twenty years and is where I consider home. Most of my closest friends come from growing up in this area, whether through being in Scouts or through school.
After leaving school I went to do a geography degree at Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent. On graduation I returned to my parents’ in Sheffield and spent my early working life doing customer service jobs firstly as a Christmas temp for WHSmith and then my first full-time job on board Midland Mainline trains between Sheffield and London.
My big promotion came after a year when I got a job as Assistant Product Manager (later renamed Marketing Executive) at Midland Mainline’s head office in Derby. I moved to Derby city centre a little while later. This job saw me promote leisure travel on Midland Mainline and have a hand in developing their catering offer. But the job also allowed me to get involved in many aspects of the company and rail industry, as I was also elected to the industry-wide National Railcard Scheme Management Group for a few years.
It was during this time that my involvement with the Liberal Democrats that started at university became more serious. I was elected to Derby City Council for Kingsway Ward (taking the seat from Labour and winning from third place) and was the Lib Dem General Election candidate in Derby South (coming third against Margaret Beckett but increasing the Lib Dem vote by 5% in the process). Following boundary changes I had to stand for re-election after just two years and became councillor for Mickleover Ward with the highest vote for any candidate in the city. My next career move though meant that my stint on the city council was shorter than I anticipated.
Despite many happy years at Midland Mainline I decided it was time for a change and moved to Aberystwyth as campaign manager for Mid and West Wales for the Welsh Liberal Democrats during and in the run-up to the Welsh Assembly elections. I loved living and working in west Wales, but unfortunately the funding for my job ran out and I had to move on again.
Sticking with the Liberal Democrats I moved to be Constituency Organiser for Eastleigh Liberal Democrats and living in Chandler’s Ford. In this job I ran election campaigns in the constituency for the borough, county, European and General Elections. Following Chris Huhne’s successful election as MP for Eastleigh I left the area and moved back to Sheffield, where initially I lived with my parents in Crosspool and worked part-time for WHSmith.
I am now working as Constituency Organiser for Sheffield Hallam Liberal Democrats and sharing a flat in Sheffield City Centre with one of my friends.
Photo credit: Dave Radcliffe/Fishnik.com
