Early beginnings

In 1984 Heikensten was employed as a chief economist at the Swedish National Debt Office. From 1985 he was a director and later director-general and head of the Economic Affairs Department at the Ministry of Finance. During this time he was responsible, amongst other things, for government reports known as the Long-Term Surveys of the Swedish Economy. He became known to a wider public when he around 1990 argued for the need to reform the public expenditure system. Between 1992 and 1995 Heikensten was chief economist at Handelsbanken and a member of the Executive Group for Handelsbanken's investment bank, Capital Markets.

Central Bank of Sweden

In the autumn of 1995 Heikensten became Deputy Governor of Sveriges Riksbank with particular responsibility for monetary policy. He retained this position after the reform where the Riksbank became independent and an executive board was set up in 1999. He succeeded Urban Bäckström as Governor of the Riksbank in 2003.^[1] During the ten years when Heikensten worked at the Riksbank – from 1995 to 2005 – major changes occurred: the inflation target policy was established and interest rates fell significantly (the repo rate was decreased from 8.91 to 1.5 per cent). At the same time the Riksbank became one of the most transparent central banks in the world.^[2] Also, the workforce was drastically reduced (from over 900 to around 400 staff).

European Court of Auditors

Heikensten left in 2006 to become the Swedish Member of the European Court of Auditors,^[3] the external auditing organisation of the European Union located in Luxembourg. During his first years he worked with the court's communication, trying to contribute to a more open institution. He was also involved in projects to modernize and make the court more efficient. Publicly he advocated structured changes among them reducing substantially the number of members (now one from each country). During his last years Heikensten audited the external policies (incl. aid) of the European Union.

Nobel Foundation

Heikensten was appointed executive director of the Nobel Foundation in 2010, a position he held until the end of 2020. During this period the economic position of the foundation was strengthened as a consequence of healthy growth in capital and a strict spending policy. The relation between cost and capital was at the end of 2020 the best for at least the last 50 years. The outreach activities connected with the Nobel Prize developed rapidly during the period and revenues had more than doubled when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020. In parallel, the Nobel Foundation worked with a Nobel Center, "a home for the Nobel Prize", with exhibitions, school activities and a broad public program. Originally, the center was planned to be built at Blasieholmen in the center of Stockholm, but the City of Stockholm in 2018 changed position and cancelled the project. A new concept for the Nobel Center along the water at Slussen has now been developed. If the project is realized the Nobel Center can be opened 2028. During his time at the Nobel Foundation Heikensten also had to deal with an acute crisis in the Swedish Academy in 2018–2019.

Honours

• Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star (2022)^[6]