Jørgen Randers is a Norwegian academic, professor of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, and practitioner in the field of future studies. His professional field encompasses model-based futures studies, scenario analysis, system dynamics, sustainability, climate, energy and ecological economics. He is also a full member of the Club of Rome, a company director, member of various not-for-profit boards, business consultant on global sustainability matters and author. His publications include the seminal work The Limits to Growth, and Reinventing Prosperity.
Early life and education
Randers is the son of the Norwegian physicist Gunnar Randers and the nephew of Norwegian mountaineer Arne Randers Heen.. He received a Masters of Science in Solid State Physics at the University of Oslo in 1968, and a PhD in Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1973, having originally been accepted to complete a PhD in Physics. Whilst at MIT, he became one of the original four co-authors of The Limits to Growth, a "seminal text on the use of computer-modelling in simulating the consequences of economic and population growth in a finite world".
Academic career
In 1973, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For the next eight years, he pursued a career in business. From 1981 to 1989 he served as president of the BI Norwegian Business School, and he served as a professor from 1985 to 2015. Since 2015, he has been Professor Emeritus. From 2001 to 2012, he was a core member of the faculty of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Cambridge. In 2013, he was appointed as Honorary Professor, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. In 2016, he was appointed as Honorary Professor, Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Science, Shanghai. In 2018, he was appointed as Honorary Researcher, School of Marxism, Peking University, Beijing. In 2019, Randers was appointed as inaugural Co-Chair of the Ecological Civilization Center at Peking University's Research Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Randers' research interests are on climate issues, scenario planning and system dynamics, especially on the topics of sustainable development, climate change and global warming mitigation.
Business career
In 1974, he left the MIT Sloan School of Management and founded the Resource Policy Group, based in Oslo, and served as director between 1974 and 1980. In 1980, he was appointed to the Ministry of Long-Term Planning, in Oslo, involved with macroeconomic planning. Subsequently he was appointed as Deputy Director of Deminex AS, an oil production company. Between 1989 and 1991, he served as Managing Director of World City AS, a financial holding company based in Oslo. Between 1994 and 1999, he served as deputy director general of the World Wildlife Fund International in Switzerland.
Board appointments
During his career, he has served as Chair of a number of companies including:
In the year 2005-06 he led the Norwegian Commission on Low Emissions, which "presented a report demonstrating how Norway could reduce her greenhouse gas emissions by ⅔ by 2050". Randers is currently professor of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School. He has also undertaken a number of other Government appointments, including:
2016-17 China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, Beijing
