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The choice of the head of governmental agencies is crucial due to their power to decide how the agency operates. But what characteristics does these head of agencies have? This paper examines 208 Swedish heads of agencies appointed by the Swedish government between 2015 and 2021. Through conducting an ideal-type analysis, concerning the characteristics of the appointed heads of governmental agencies, investigating if they are alike field-professionals or career managers and to which extent managers have a political background. Type of manager is crucial to what values are favoured, for example a career manager is generally more concerned about the agency’s reputation than a field-professional. The findings of this paper are that the appointed head of Swedish governments are similar to field-professionals rather than career managers and that a minority of managers have a political background except from one particular type of manager. This paper further the knowledge of which people have power in Sweden’s governmental agencies, which is necessary for an accurate demanding of responsibility by elected officials.