Franz Evegren, PhD, is acting Vice President at RISE and head of the Fire and Safety department, focusing on testing, research, and technical development in fire safety and risk management. The department consists of about 130 persons in 7 units: Fire protection, Societal safety, Fire-safe transport, Fire resistance, Fire research, Fire dynamics, and a staff function. The department conducts advanced testing and evaluation of materials, products, and systems, and develops knowledge and solutions that enhance safety, resilience, and sustainability in society.
Formerly Franz was Director of Total Defence (2026-), with overall responsibility for RISE's delivery capability within total defense, linked to an extended governmental mission for RISE. In 2025 was acting Director of the unit Product Safety, focusing on Battery energy storage, Electrical safety, and ATEX. The unit covers several areas of accredited testing for type approval and certification of (mainly) electrical products and batteries, as well as experimental testing and failure analysis. Prior to this (2020-2025) he was Director of the unit Fire Safe Transport, managing battery abuse testing in the Battery Safety Lab and research groups in Battery Fire Safety as well as Maritime Fire Safety and Risk Management. Before this, he was business developer, project leader, senior research scientist and research scientist in maritime fire safety and risk management. He has coordinated many research projects in this area and has represented Sweden and EU at the UN International Maritime Organization for multilateral maritime rulemaking.