A theoretical physicist by university training, Roland spent the first 11 years of his career with AT&T in the Netherlands and in Italy, holding different business management positions. His last assignment there was as Regional Managing Director for Northern Europe.

After AT&T, Roland spent a sabbatical year looking at new developments in understanding the dynamics of organizations, as well as publishing and lecturing on the topic of complex systems.

From 1999 to 2010 he joined Royal Dutch Shell in various senior executive functions, including Vice President for Sustainable Development and Vice President Global LNG. He was closely involved with strategy and scenario planning.

He has published widely, including in HBR, on Project Syndicate and co-authored a lot of books. Roland was a co-author of a report commissioned by the German Government on a New Growth Path for Europe. In 2013 he was the Director for the inception phase of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.