Curriculum Vitae for Tor Wergeland
Tor Wergeland's CV - page XXX of 9
Curriculum Vitae for Tor Wergeland
Name: Tor Wergeland Date of birth: 28 July 1952
Current Independent consultant in own company TWC, Copenhagen
Positions: Senior Advisor to MARINTEK, Trondheim, Department of strategy and logistics
Permanent Studiestræde 17, 3.
address: DK-1455 Copenhagen, Denmark
Mobile phone: +45 29258735
E-mail:
Academic qualifications:
1974 Siviløkonom NHH at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
1976 "Høyere Avdelings" Exam in Economics at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (this is an ABD - all but dissertation - Ph.D. programme)
Areas of Expertise:
Shipping, maritime economics, scenario generation, logistics, international economics, international strategy, soft computing (expert systems, fuzzy logic and neural networks), economic modelling, general management topics
Career profile
1975-80 Research fellow and research assistant at the Department of Economics and at the Center for Applied Research at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Participating in a large scale research programme "Verdenshandelens utvikling" (The Development of International Trade).
1980-88 Assistant Professor in shipping economics at the Institute for Shipping Research, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and Research Co-ordinator at the Centre for Applied Research, responsible for co-ordinating the research programme "Markedsutredningen" (World Market Prospects) and initiator of the SIS-programme (Strategy for Improved Shipping Analysis).
1989-90 Managing Director of CIB - Center for International Business - an independent foundation with yearly incomes of US$ 1.5 mill in the fields of research dissemination and executive development programmes (on special leave of absence from the Institute for Shipping Research). Co-ordinator for the large scale research programme "Satsing i Shipping".
1991-92 Research Director at SNF - Stiftelsen for Samfunns- og Næringslivsforskning (Foundation for Research in Economics and Business Administration), a merger of CIB and two other foundations, established 1.1.91 as an independent foundation with yearly incomes of US$ 12-14 mill. from applied research projects.
1992-2000 Associate Professor at the Centre for International Economics and Shipping (SIØS), Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) and shipping research co-ordinator at SNF - Centre for Research in Economics and Business Administration.
2000-01 Associate Professor at the Centre for International Economics and Shipping (SIØS), Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) and
Associate Professor, Department of International Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
2002-04 Associate Professor, Department of International Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, Associate Professor, Agder University College, School of Management, Kristiansand, Norway
2005-07 Lecturer MBA in Shipping and Logistics, Copenhagen Business School and independent consultant, providing services in shipping research and education
2007- Independent consultant, providing services in shipping research and education, principal advisor to MARINTEK, Trondheim, Department of strategy and logistics, lecturer in the Maritime MBA, Euromed Management, Nice
Teaching and research experience
Teaching I have more than 30 years of teaching experience spanning from elementary micro economics courses to post-graduate courses in international economics. I have also been teaching environmental economics, resource economics, international strategy and competition, project evaluation, methodology for thesis writing, decision making support, international trade and my main speciality is shipping and shipping economics.
Recently I have been teaching in the following programmes at NHH and abroad:
Siviløkonomstudiet (which has been renamed the CEMS Master (Community of European Management Schools Master)
The Master of International Business Programme (MIB)
Doctoral programme at NHH
The Master of Shipping Management Programme (MSM)
The MSc in Business Programme at the University of Technology, Warsaw
The executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics, CBS
Typical courses have been:
Shipping economics - a course where applications of general quantitative methods and theories that students already have learned, is the essence. The course covers micro economic modelling, market forecasting tools, risk management techniques (option theory, portfolio theory, the use of futures- and forward markets for hedging strategies etc.), practical use of decision support tools and a general introduction to shipping, including international regulatory framework.
International Competition - where theories of international trade is combined with theories from industrial organisations, Porter's strategy framework and theories of research and development to form a unified framework to understand the term competition both at firm, industry and global level.
International trade - an introductory course in international economics, teaching students the basic theories of international trade (Hecksher-Ohlin, comparative advantage), but also modern theories of trade with imperfect competition, Vernon Product Cycle Theories, focusing on the role of the entrepreneur and theories of location. The theories are applied to current challenges in the international environment: The European integration (both within EU and towards the former centrally planned economies), regionalization of world trade and similar main topics.
Investment analysis - an introductory course of the main tool for investment analysis - the Net Present Value method and all the pitfalls and problems in using the method in practice. The course also gives a brief introduction to the area of risk management, introduction of portfolio theory and option theory.
Project evaluation - a course introducing various methods for evaluating projects at different levels of a firm. This could be a single, large project, a marginal new project or the project of starting up a new firm. The course gives an introduction to quantitative methods that can be used in the evaluations and to other, more qualitative techniques to avoid accepting potentially disastrous projects.
Decision making and decision support tools in practice - a course introducing formal models that are used in practice and the problems and dangers in using the tools. The course also employs my own simulation model, ShipSim, where the students can test their abilities of making decisions under uncertainty. ShipSim is developed by me (in co-operation with Anca Vermesan) and is a Windows-compatible software programme that simulates how tanker shipping companies are operating. The students are faced with an uncertain and unknown market development. By getting general news about events in the world economy they are to analyse the potential consequences for shipping markets and make decisions as to buying and selling of vessels, chartering their fleet, operating, maintaining or upgrading of their vessels etc. ShipSim has been successfully used both as part of larger courses and for special seminars in shipping companies, etc. and is regarded as an innovative teaching tool, normally combined with lectures in the economics of the tanker market.
Student I do not know the exact number of students and assistants that I have been guiding
guidance over the years, but on average there have been 2-5 students every semester. That means I must have be guiding some 120-150 in total. Again I am familiar with guiding students at all levels from siviløkonom, via master to Ph.D. level. The topics have been varied, indeed, but main areas have been: Market analyses for various sectors (shipping, energy products, steel, grain, metals, minerals, etc.), risk management subjects (portfolio theory, option theory), international trade and trade policy issues, market strategies, industrial organisation and business logistics.
Project I have been active in defining new project areas, and particularly to define 3-year
acquisition and research programmes with substantially higher financial frameworks that if one had
co-ordination: applied for money for individual projects. I have also been research co-ordinator for those large scale programmes:
1984-86 World Market Prospects (involving some 30 researchers, total budget NOK 8 mill)
1989-91 Satsing i Shipping (involving some 75 researchers, total budget NOK 21 mill.)
1993-94 International co-ordinator for the International Northern Sea Route Programme (INSROP), part III: Trade and Commercial Shipping Aspects. INSROP involved some 170 researchers from 10 countries working on 50 projects and with an annual budget of about NOK 12 mill. Part III had an annual budget of about NOK 2 mill.
Administration My career has consistently been influenced by my numerous administrative tasks, particularly in the area of generating new projects, ideas or concepts. The following examples give an impression of my administrative capabilities:
1985 Member of the Information Technology Committee of NHH in 1985 and was responsible for writing the draft to the new IT Strategy of our university.
1990 Chairman of a similar Information Technology Committee at the Centre for Applied Research in 1990 and drafted a strategy document for the Board.
1990 Member of the committee selected to analyse the possibility of merging the three independent foundations SAF (Centre for Applied Research), IØI (Institute of Industrial Economics) and CIB (Center for International Business) in 1990 and drafted (with professor Victor D. Norman) the report that finally led to the merger by January 1991.
1985- I created the SIS (Satsing I Shipping)-Programme in 1985 - a programme that lasted 12 years. The background for SIS was the lack of success in bringing applied research results in shipping out to the shipping community. I felt that part of the problem was a lack of theoretical insight among the practitioners and that the best way to bridge the gap between researchers and the practical decision-maker was to educate talented economists and engineers with the aim of doing career in business, but with a sound theoretical background. In a co-operation with the Norwegian Research Council, the Norwegian Shipowner's Association and individual shipping companies a special programme was created where talented young economists and engineers are specially selected to be enlisted in NHH's doctorate programme, but at the same time being given a job in a shipping company. When they graduate after two years, they are offered jobs in the shipping industry, but maintain contacts with the university, and currently the 5th group of SIS-candidates are following this programme. Since 1985, 45 students and 21 companies have been part of the programme, and the Norwegian shipping industry has thus begun to create a pool of managers with a very high academic education and understanding. The SIS-programme has been used as a model both for the financial sector and for the tourist sector.
1988- I was one of the initiators (with professor Andreas Falkenberg) in starting the NHH Master of International Business Programme in 1988
1992- I created it, I taught in it, and I was Programme Director for the MBA in Shipping Management. This was a national joint venture in creating an international part time MBA for maritime personnel who would like to combine full time employment with further education. The first 18 students graduated in December 1995 and the second group of 16 in 1999. This was a co-operative effort with 4: The Norwegian Univeristy of Science and Technology, Trondheim (Department of Marine Technology), the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Oslo, and the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo. The programme was later discontinued due to lack of support from the industry.
2000 I headed a project involving 42 senior researchers in Norway writing a report on “he Future development of shipping and the shipping markets”, on request from the Norwegian Shipowners Assciation
2001 A new internordic MBA in Shipping and Logistics, developed by me in co-operation with 7 other universities, was started up at CBS. The tfourth group of students started up in 2007 and will graduate in 2009.
International networks and experience
Conference I have no exact overview of all conferences I have contributed to with papers and
participation presentations, but selected trips where formal papers have been delivered, include
1989 Seatrade Academy seminars on ship finance: Hong Kong and New York
1992 POLARTECH 92 in Montreal
1992 Ostseefährverkehr - conference in Rostock
1992 First Research Roundtable Conference on Shortsea Shipping in Delft
1993 NEVA 93 in St. Petersburg
1994 Joint KMI/IAME Conference: International Trade Relations and World Shipping in Seoul
1994 Second Research Roundtable Conference on Shortsea Shipping in Athens
1995 CAIA 95 (Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Applications) in Los Angeles
1996 ShortSea96 in Bergen
1996 IAME 1996 International Conference: Shipping, Ports and Logistical Services - Solutions for
Global Issues, Vancouver
1998 RINA 98 - Fast Freight Transportation by Sea, London, December 1998
1999 HIPER’99 - International Conference on High-Performance Marine Vehicles, Zevenwacht, South Africa, March 1999
2005 Shipping Conference Lisbon, Portugal (paper to be published in Portuguese by the
American-Luzo Foundation, 2006)
Conference
organisation I have been responsible for organising international events in Bergen:
1989 International Shipping Seminar (50 participants from 17 nations)
1990 Solidarity conference for Eastern Europe (100 participants from 12 nations)
1990 Meetingplace Europe (120 participants, half of which from former Eastern Europe)
1994 Meetingplace Europe (180 participants, almost half of which from former EE)
I was a member of the International Organising Committee for the European Research Roundtable Conferences on Shortsea Shipping. Three such conferences have been held so far, and I have been part of the organising committee for all three and personally responsible for the last:
1992 First Research Roundtable Conference on Shortsea Shipping in Delft
1994 Second Research Roundtable Conference on Shortsea Shipping in Athens
1996 Third Research Roundtable Conference on Shortsea Shipping in Bergen
Other I was one of the founding members of the International Association of Maritime activities: Economists (IAME) in 1992 and have been member of the International Council of
IAME since the beginning until 1996. I was also editor of the IAME Newsletter from the beginning until 1994.
1993- I was selected to be member of a research group of Nordic academics, studying the transition process of the Baltic states. Our results have been published by Edwar Elgar, we organised seminars in the Baltic states and are funding projects that hopefully will speed up the process of successfully transforming the Baltic states to modern market economies.
I have been member of the INSROP Joint Research Committee that is responsible for the research plans and budgets of the INSROP programme (mentioned above). In the course of this work, experience has been gained in negotiating with people from other cultures (Russia and Japan) and also other science disciplines (biology, geography, political science, etc.)
I have organised and supervised a number of international student excursions to places like, notably: