Pontus Cerin

PONTUS CERIN — EXECUTIVE PROFILE

• Academic Credentials: Docent (Associate Professor) in Business Administration (USBE, Umeå University); Tekn. Dr (PhD) in Industrial Economics and Management (KTH Royal Institute of Technology); MSc in Mechanical Engineering (KTH).
• Dual 'Triple Helix' Experience: Over 20 years of combined experience spanning academia (LiU, SSE, KTH, USBE, Åbo Akademi), government agencies (Former Program Manager at Swedish Energy Agency managing SEK 400M / €40M portfolio), and global industry (Ericsson, Swedish Trade Council Chicago, Forever Sustainable Partner & Head of Research).
• Research Impact & Identity: 13 + ABS-ranked journal articles (score 2 & 3), 30+ peer-reviewed papers, ~2,060 Google Scholar citations. Creator of the Value Chain Stewardship (VCS) framework at the intersection of internationalisation, technology development, corporate governance, and institutional economics.
• Grant Architecture & External Funding: Secured >SEK 40 million (€4M+) in external research grants since 2018 (Formas, Kamprad Family Foundation, Swedish Energy Agency, Viable Cities, EU Horizon Future Rail project, MFA/Business Sweden Rebuilding Ukraine). Reviews research proposals for the Swedish Energy Agency.
• Doctoral & Master Supervision: Initiated, co-outlined, fully funded, and guided 3 PhD projects in Economics, Business Law, and Industrial Economics to successful completion and post-doctoral placements (2019–2025/2026). Supervised/examined 120+ MSc theses (10–14 annually at LiU/SSE).
• Pedagogical Scale & Course Development: Over 11,500 teaching hours across BSc, MSc, PhD, and Executive MBA levels. Has served as the Course Director for different courses for more then ten years - i.e. for A) TKMJ51 Corporate Sustainability Management (220 students/yr in LiU's Industrial Engineering program), rated as one of the program's most valuable courses in course evaluations and for B) 4D1160 Macro-Economics with in-depth focus on microeconomic theory at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Developer of Certified Sustainability Architect (NyTeknik Education) and FEI (Företagsekonomiska Institutet) professional courses.
• Entrepreneurial experience and start-up experience encompasses the long engagement in the consultancy firm Forever Sustainable and the academic Think-Tank Forever Think Tank. We carry out important work for Swedish companies, Business Sweden, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Civil Defence & Resilience Agency in preparing for We have initiated and run the Swedish National Pavilion at the Annual International Fair for Rebuilding Ukraine in Warsaw, by getting companies, agencies, and governmental ministers ombord. Since 2025 we carry out this annual rewarding chores in collaboration with Business Sweden, by the assignment of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We also help companies with Strategic development to incorporate environmental and social aspects into the core of their decision-making as well as improving preparedness for upcoming EU regulatory initiatives.
• Awards and recognitions (selected few): A) Globe Award for Best CSR Research. Motivation: “for an outstanding and tangible research in the field of CSR”. The Prize was presented by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. B) H.R.H. King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50 years celebration's foundation dedicated to science, technology and the environment. Motivation: Efficient reduction of environmental burdens in Society without intruding on quality of life. C) H.R.H. King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50 years celebration's foundation dedicated to science, technology and the environment. Motivation: Environmental burdens from the introduction of new IT tools in small and large companies.

Pontus is an affiliated researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics. He is leading an EU Futures Research Progamme Task Group at Linköping University (LiU) and has until autumn 2026 served as a senior lecturer at LiU for nine years. He possesses a docent of Corporate Governance and Sustainable Investments in Business Administration (Associate Professor) at Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics (USBE), Umeå University. He, moreover, has Doctor's degree in Technology (Teknologie Doktor) from Industrial Economics and Management at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. From the same technical institute he has his Master of Science degree in Industrial Production. 

Pontus is currently running research projects in resilient energy infrastructures, energy storage, correlation between building energy performance and property prices, value chain stewardship (VCS), corporate strategies and implementation of EU regulatory approaches i.e. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and more generally creating business incentives that will increasingly coincide with sustainability aspects of concern. 

Pontus is Sweden's expert for ISO negotiations in sustainable finance and an advisor to the Swedish Energy Agency on financing research and innovation projects. He is also providing education for professionals in CSRD with the ESRS, Hydrogen in the energy system, CBAM, among other areas. 

Pontus has worked in the GRI Economic Indicators group in London, UK, and has been a board member of Swesif - the Swedish Association of Socially Responsible Investors. He has arranged conferences in New York, NY, and New Delhi, India, among other cities around the world, through his Executive Board position for the International Research Conference Organization (ISDRS), based in Hong Kong. Through his previous company, Pontus has conducted CSR training for the Egyptian Ministry of Finance in Cairo, Egypt, and for Chinese and Eastern European enterprises - in collaboration with Swedish Institute and Business Sweden.

Previous employers of Pontus Cerin include, among many others, the Swedish Trade Council in Chicago, Illinois, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, several Ericsson subsidiaries within Ericsson Corporation and School of Business and Economics at Åbo Akademi University (SBE-ÅAU) in Turku, Finland.