Career
He is the vice chairman of the board of the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway, appointed by the government. He is also the chairman of the programme board of the Research Council of Norway research programme Democracy and Governance in a Regional Context. His research areas are innovation, regional development, public policy and planning, and the Northern and Arctic areas.
He has also been a guest lecturer for the diplomatic trainee programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He studied regional planning at the University of Tromsø, and attended the College of Europe 1981–1982 (Promotion Johan Willem Beyen). In 1985, he obtained the candidate.polit. degree at the University of Tromsø, with a thesis on the structuring of labour markets.
