Klas Eklund holds a licentiate in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. In the 1980s he was Deputy Under-Secretary of State at the Swedish Ministry of Finance and advised the Prime Minister, and in 1990–91 he chaired the government's Productivity Commission.
He was SEB's Chief Economist from 1994 to 2007, then Senior Economist until 2015 and Sustainability Economist in 2016–2017. He sat on the European Commission's Group of Economic Policy Analysis (2001–2010), was Adjunct Professor at Lund University (2009–2015) and Senior Economist at Mannheimer Swartling (2018–2023). Since 2024 he has been Chief Strategist at Dahlgren Capital.
He was a panellist at Shipping China in 2006 and at the 3rd Oslo Shipping Forum in 2007.