Early career

He hails from Nordnes

Nordnes

Nordnes is a peninsula and neighbourhood in the city centre of Bergen, Norway. Bergen Aquarium is located at the tip of the peninsula. The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research and Fredriksberg Fortress are also located on Nordnes....

 in Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

, and was an avid skier and snowboarder in his youth. He worked as a ski instructor in Davos

Davos

Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...

 for some time. He took his education in construction engineering

Construction engineering

Construction engineering is a professional discipline that deals with the designing, planning, construction, and management of infrastructures such as highways, bridges, airports, railroads, buildings, dams, and utilities. Construction Engineers are unique such that they are a cross between civil...

 at ETH Zürich

ETH Zurich

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

 before graduating from the Norwegian Institute of Technology

Norwegian Institute of Technology

The Norwegian Institute of Technology, known by its Norwegian abbrevation NTH was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 85 years, after which it was merged into the University of Trondheim as an independent...

 in 1969. He was active in the Student Society in Trondheim, and worked as a research assistant at the Norwegian Institute of Technology as well as a researcher for NTNF for five years.

In 1982 he became the CEO of Asplan. From September to 31 December he worked as CEO of Byggforsk to get that organization on its feet. In 1986 he was named as board member of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk. He was also a board member of Norconsult

Norconsult

Norconsult is Norway's and one of Scandinavia's largest multidisciplinary engineering and design consultancies. The company was founded in 1929, and has its headquarters in Sandvika, just outside Oslo, Norway. Norconsult has about 1850 employees, of which about 400 work outside of Norway...

, and was in 1987 named as chair of Vinmonopolet

Vinmonopolet

Vinmonopolet , symbolized by Ⓥ and colloquially shortened to Polet, is a government owned alcoholic beverage retailer and the only company allowed to sell beverages containing an alcohol content higher than 4.75% in Norway....

, where he stayed until 1995. Shortly thereafter the company KV Forsvar was split from Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, and Rimberg became chair there as well. He was a deputy board member of Statoil

Statoil

Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...

.

Norwegian State Railways

In 1988 he applied for the director-general position in the Norwegian State Railways. Robert Nordén

Robert Nordén

Robert Fredrik Nordén was a Norwegian economist, civil servant and politician for the Labour Party. He was the director of the Norwegian State Railways from 1978 to 1988....

 had left, and Tore Lindholt

Tore Lindholt

Tore Lindholt is a Norwegian economist, civil servant and politician for the Labour Party. He was twice the acting director of the Norwegian State Railways, and Folketrygdfondet from 1990 to 2004....

 was acting director-general. He was hired in September. He had to overcome opposition from Leif Thue

Leif Thue

Leif Thue was a Norwegian trade unionist.He was born in Balestrand. He served as leader of the Norwegian Union of Railway Workers from 1984 to 1992, having served as deputy leader from 1976 to 1984 and secretary from 1971 to 1976. As union leader he was also a board member of the Norwegian State...

 and the Norwegian Union of Railway Workers

Norwegian Union of Railway Workers

The Norwegian Union of Railway Workers is a trade union in Norway. It was formed on 20 November 1892, and mainly organizes workers in Norges Statsbaner—with the exception of locomotive drivers— and the Norwegian National Rail Administration, including related companies such as...

, then the wage question had to be sorted out. He wanted an annual salary of , but the state wanted it to stay where it was, at NOK 384,000. The wage eventually reached NOK 685,000 during Rimberg's time. He started on 1 January 1989. The name of the position was changed from director-general to chief executive officer. In February 1990, after thirteen months in the job, he resigned, citing lack of freedom from political regulations as the reason. Leif Thue and the Union of Railway Workers stated that they did "not lament" his resignation.

Consulting career

In 1989 he had become chairman of the Norwegian Polytechnic Society. He remained so until 1991. In 1990 he became a board member of Den Norske Hypotekforening and Rogalandsforskning, and chairman of Norsk Nyetablering. He was also chair of Chr. Grøner and Terramar, and deputy chair of Byggholt. After resigning Rimberg started his own consulting firm. In 1990 he was a project adviser in Statkraft

Statkraft

Statkraft is a Norwegian state owned electricity company. With a total energy production of 44.9 TWh in 2007, the Statkraft Group is the third largest energy producer in the Nordic region, as well as the largest energy producer based on renewable energy sources in Europe,consisting of 40% of the...

, He was also an adviser for the Norwegian School of Management

Norwegian School of Management

BI Norwegian Business School former name BI Norwegian School of Management is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total 6 campuses with the main one located in Oslo.-History:...

. He also hired other consultants to work in the company, including Siri Hatlen

Siri Hatlen

Siri Hatlen is a Norwegian businessperson.Hatlen is CEO of Oslo University Hospital since March 6, 2009, Scandinavia's largest hospital with more than 20,000 employees. Hatlen holds a civil engineer degree in chemistry from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1980 and a Master of Business...

.

Rimberg chaired Nationaltheatret

Nationaltheatret

The National Theatre in Oslo is one of Norway's largest and most prominent venues for performance of dramatic arts.The theatre had its first performance on 1 September 1899 but can trace its origins to Christiania Theatre, which was founded in 1829...

 from 1992 to 2001. He was chairman of Forskningsparken, Anthon B Nilsen

Anthon B Nilsen

Anthon B Nilsen AS is a Norwegian investment company. It was established by Anthon Bernhard Elias Nilsen in 1879 to export pulp and paper products and lumber. His sons Reidar and Gunnar Holst took over in the 1930s, and ultimately established the Reidar and Gunnar Holst Foundation in 1973 to assure...

, STEP, and Berstad Wallendahl, a board member of Aschehoug

Aschehoug

H. Aschehoug & Co , commonly known as Aschehoug, is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway. -History:...

, Norge 2005, and Aker. He has also been an owner in Aker. In 2006 he had 10,300 stocks in the company, through his own company Kjeld Rimberg & Co.