Organisation and employees
At the end of 2019, BI had a total of 873 employees. The total figures include 445 administrative staff and 428 faculty members.
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BI Norwegian Business School is a self-owned foundation, which is led by a board of ten trustees, four of whom are external representatives and two are observers. The Board also has two representatives elected by and among BI's faculty, one representative and one observer elected by and among the administrative staff and one student representative and one student observer elected by the student organization. The Board has ultimate responsibility for supervising BI's operations, and for adopting a general set of rules. It appoints the President and considers strategic plans, adopts budgets and financial statements, and is the ultimate decision-making body in all important issues. See Report of the Board of Trustees for a list of its members.
THE SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE
The Supervisory Committee reviews the income statement and balance sheet, elects the auditor and ensures that the Board's management complies with statutory provisions and bylaws. The Supervisory Committee consists of three members, all from outside BI.
SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE 2019:
Anne Helsingeng, Bull, Chair
Christian Winther, Pangea Property Partners
Olve Gravråk, Valogiant
The President and the Chief Financial Officer attend on behalf of BI.
The Committee meets twice a year, once during the spring semester and once during the autumn semester (normally in May and November).
THE SENATE
The Senate is BI’s top academic body, and its authority is derived from the powers conferred upon it by the Board. The Senate determines the content of BI’s education programmes, admission rules, exemptions, examinations, admission requirements, examination assessments and the expertise profile for the faculty. The Senate proposes faculty appointments to the President, who has the final appointment authority.
THE SENATE 2019 (AS OF 31 DECEMBER 2019):
Inge Jan Henjesand, President, Permanent member
Hilde Bjørnland, Provost, Permanent member
Bendik Samuelsen, Provost, Permanent member
Amir Sasson, Provost, Observer
Lars Olsen, Dean Bachelor’s Programmes, Permanent member
Janicke Rasmussen, Dean Master’s Programmes, Permanent member
Jan Ketil Arnulf, Dean Executive Programmes, Observer
Øyvind Norli, Dean Doctoral Programmes, Observer
Irina Eidsvold-Tøien, Faculty representative, 01.08.2019 – 31.07.2021
Eivind Furuseth, Faculty representative, 01.08.2019 – 31.07.2021
Birgit Helene Jevnaker, Faculty representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Dagfinn Rime, Faculty representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Richard Priestley, Representative for the heads of department, 01.08.2019 – 31.07.2021
Anine Cecilie Hansen, Administrative representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Andreas Bilberg, Administrative representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Ingerid E. Monsen, Student representative SBIO, 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2019
Julie Skauge, Student representative BIS, 01.08.2019 – 31.12.2019
Lars Huemer, Faculty deputy representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Nils Øby, Administrative deputy representative, 01.08.2018 – 31.07.2020
Managers who report to the President may attend meetings of the Senate.
BI’s MANAGEMENT TEAM
BI’s management team 2019 as of 31 December 2019:
President Inge Jan Henjesand
Provost Hilde C. Bjørnland
Provost Bendik M. Samuelsen
Provost Amir Sasson
Executive Vice President Full-time Programmes Marius Eriksen
Executive Vice President BI Executive Lise Hammergren
Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hvamstad
Executive Vice President Communication Yngve Kveine
Chief Digital Officer Elin Borrebæk
Executive Vice President Organization Wenche Helene Nilsen
THE PRESIDENT
BI Norwegian Business School’s President is its Chief Executive Officer and has power of procuration. The Board appoints the President for a period of four years. The President is the general manager of the foundation’s activities and must comply with the guidelines and orders provided by the Board. The President provides recommendations in academic and administrative matters. The President has the final say in appointments to faculty positions and is the chair of the Senate. The President must ensure that the foundation’s financial statements comply with statutes and regulations.
THE PROVOSTS
The Provosts function as the President’s deputy as needed. The Provosts head the Programmes and Study unit, the unit for Research and Academic Resources, and the unit for Innovation and Outreach, respectively.
EDUCATION AFFAIRS COMMITTEES – UUV
BI Norwegian Business School has an Education Affairs Committee for each programme area: Bachelor, Master, Executive and Doctorates.
The Education Affairs Committees are advisory bodies for the dean in the academic issues he/she is in charge of. The Committee deals with academic issues such as treatment of study plans, review of course descriptions (objectives, topics, literature, pedagogical models and forms of assessment), assessment of the areas and levels of expertise of lecturers, counsellors and external examiners, study progress requirements, admission rules, assessment of partners and approval of in-house courses, studies and programmes to be approved with credits.
APPEALS BOARD
The Appeals Board deals with appeals and complaints on specific decisions, and may on mandate from the Board process other complaints put forward by candidates. The Appeals Board has five members with personal deputies. The chair and deputy hair shall satisfy the statutory requirements for Appeals Court judges. The char and deputy chair shall not be employed by the institution. Two of the members must be students.
BAMU
BAMU is BI’s working environment committee. BAMU shall work for the implementation of a fully satisfactory working environment in all our activities. The committee is to participate in the planning of safety and environmental work, and must carefully monitor developments in matters that affect the safety, health and welfare of the employees. BAMU shall ensure that BI’s safety and working environment efforts, as well as HSE measures, are properly handled.
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
In BI’s strategy 2025 operating excellence is emphasized as one of three strategic priorities. Several of BI’s big digitalization initiatives, such as BICX, Discover and GDPR have a great impact on work processes and organizational structures.
In 2019 this, among other things, resulted in a reorganization of the division for full-time programmes. Also, the division for executive programmes and sales and marketing activities were organized in separate units, and a joint customer management system was established across market segments and marketing channels. Digitalization also requires new knowledge and new skills among BI’s employees, and in 2019 the school started to develop more systematic internal training and competence development programmes, partly as e-learning programmes.
The Library and the Learning Lab were placed in one new unit – Library and Learning Resources. One of the purposes for this was to coordinate faculty support and services. It was also seen as important to further develop the pedagogical development work and integrate this in BI’s ordinary work processes. There has also been a focus on arranging for pedagogical competence development in accordance with the new requirements for teaching qualifications, and to support course development thorough learning designs and, moreover, to support the use of digital tools in teaching.
Digital projects, and the KS project in particular, have resulted in a need to develop uniform work processes and to document roles and responsibilities. This work has shown the need for better documentation of BI’s governance structure as a basis for building a common organizational understanding across BI.
It has been decided to establish a new unit for Governance, Risk and Compliance in order to pool resources and work in a coordinated and systematic way in this area. In the same way, the OU (Organization Development) and HR Department was reorganized to strengthen management and project support.
WORKING ENVIRONMENT AND HSE
BI shall facilitate an inspiring working environment that promotes individual wellbeing, health, learning and development. The environment shall be characterized by diversity, equality, care and respectful and open communication.
In 2019 BI had a focus on improving internal communication through, among other things, breakfasts for leaders and the introduction of Workplace for news coverage and dialogue.
The higher education sector survey concerning bullying and harassment was followed up particularly, and at the annual gathering of leaders there was a focus on leaders’ responsibility to deal with undesired behaviour and prevent bullying and harassment.
SICK LEAVE AND HSE
BI’s primary occupational health risk consist of factors related to stress and interaction, as well as musculoskeletal ailments. A psychosocial counselling service for all employees has contributed to preventing sick leave and conflicts, improved conflict management and better stress mastering. The psychosocial counselling, combined with good cooperation with the occupational health service, has contributed to employees returning to work more quickly after illness. The total sick leave at BI rose marginally from 2.7 per cent in 2018 to 2.8 per cent in 2019.