people
Katia: First, tell us about yourselves and
walk us through your backgrounds.
Astrid Marklund
Current Treasurer of the Houston Consular Corps
Honorary Consul General, Consulate General
of Sweden in Houston
Margherita Young-Zellweger
Former Treasurer of the Houston Consular Corps
Honorary Consul General, Consulate of Switzer-
land in Houston
By Katia Hadjiyska
iF Magazine Contributing Reporter
/ EnCourage Group Companies President
50 iF Magazine | April 2017
Astrid Marklund: I was born in the
southern part of Sweden and moved
to Stockholm to work in finance for
a Swedish engineering firm. I have an
MBA from Baylor University. My hus-
band is also Swedish and we have two
children. We moved our family to Texas
in 1985 when my husband was trans-
ferred to manage a subsidiary of Nobel
Industries – the corporation founded by
Alfred Nobel, the creator of the Nobel
Prize. We came on a two-year contract
and we liked Texas a lot and decided to
stay here permanently. Since moving to
Houston, I have been active in different
Swedish organizations. For many years
I served as the President of the Swed-
ish American Chamber of Commerce,
when in 2011 I was asked to replace my
retiring predecessor, Jan Dryselius, as
the Honorary Consul General for Swe-
den. I am also the CFO of a Houston-
based Chemical company and split my
time between the Consulate and the
company. Our children and grandchil-
dren all live in Texas.
Margherita Young-Zellweger: I
was born in Lucerne, Switzerland and
I became a physician assistant in Ba-
sel, which is on the border of France,
Germany, and Switzerland. The tri-
border area is called the “Drei Laender
Ecke”. There, I worked in biology at a
University. I met my husband in Basel
where he finished medical school. We
planned to come to Houston for one
year for his internship and this year
turned into 47. We have four children
and after they grew up I started work-
ing at MD Anderson Cancer Center
full- and part-time for 18 years. At that
time the Consulate General of Switzer-
land in Houston, which had a big of-
fice Downtown, closed and they were
looking for an Honorary Consul. The
Consul General approached me and
asked me if I was interested. Not in a
million years did I think I would be a
Consul and I decided to accept. Over
the years I always felt that my roots are
still in Switzerland. I have held this po-
sition now for 10 years.