Claes Anders Rickson was born on 9 March 1955 in Sandviken, Sweden, and graduated from the Faculty of Forestry at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in 1980. During his professional career in Sweden, Claes Anders Rickson has managed woodworking industry companies such as the SCA Timber sawmills Tunadal and Lugnvik (1990–1996), the Notnäs sawmill (1996–1998), the Swedish timber measuring organisation VMF Qbera (1998–2012), and the Swedish national forestry sector data centre SDC (2012–2018).

Since Latvian timber buyers and sellers entered the ownership structure of SIA VMF LATVIA in 2006, and since the establishment of SIA Koksnes plūsmas datu centrs in 2019, Claes Anders Rickson has successfully chaired the boards of these companies. Under his leadership, the volume of timber measured by SIA VMF LATVIA has grown sevenfold and its turnover by 4.2 times.