IImar Reepalu (born 11 October 1943) is a Swedish Social Democrat politician who was the 17th chairman of the municipal board in Malmö from 1994 to 2013.After a professional life as an urban planner in Borås and Malmö, he became a municipal commissioner of Malmö in 1985. In opposition from 1985 to 1994, he then served as chairman of the municipal board - a position similar to that of mayor - from the 1994 election until his retirement on 1 July 2013.During his term as chairman of the municipal board, Reepalu was consistently lauded as being instrumental in the transformation of Malmö from an industrial town in decline towards being a centre of knowledge, modern architecture, culture and green technology. Jehoshua Kaufman, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Malmö, has stated that "Reepalu transformed the city from a port town to a post-industrial place with a lot of enterprise"."