A sexual harassment scandal, a reduction in prize money, controversial winners and a rise in populism that threatens the liberal values espoused more than a century ago by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Lars Heikensten, executive director of the Nobel Foundation, has his work cut out as he faces challenge after challenge to the world’s most prestigious prizes.
“I thought that this was an interesting job, a privileged job — but a pretty harmless job,” the 67-year-old says in the foundation’s offices in Stockholm.
A former head of Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, and member of the European Court of Auditors, Mr Heikensten left two organisations with hundreds of staff for the Nobel Foundation.