Jens Risom was born in Denmark in 1916 to an Architect father who encouraged his son to study business and contemporary design.   He studied at the Business College of Niels Brock in Copenhagen and worked for Erns Kuhn in Denmark, crating several furniture designs for Normina.   His designs for Normina were exhibited at the Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition in 1937.   He also worked with Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) where he was able to connect with the designs of Aalvar Alto and Bruno Mathsson.   In 1939 he arrived in the United States and went to work for Knoll, designing in 1941 one of the first chairs to be manufactured by them.   The chair was made of birch and surplus parachute straps!  His work was included in the 1939 New York Worlds Fair "House of Ideas" presented by Collier's.   The first production of Hans Knoll's cooperation with Jens Risom was launched with the 700 Line.  Later, after Risom had broken away from Knoll, he produced lines off office furntire and Lyndon B. Johnson chose one of his chairs to use in the Oval Office in the White House.
A proponent of Modernism in all his designs, he continues his work which helped bring the United States into the vanguard of Modern Design.   The opened the doors of Jens Risom Design in 1946.