[4] Riben devoted himself to the naval profession from his earliest youth and already sailed in 1882 as an aspirant aboard the corvette Norrköping.

In autumn 1883, he was accepted as a cadet and went through the then six-year Royal Swedish Naval Academy with summer expeditions on the corvette Saga and the frigate Vanadis.

[1] Riben was a cadet officer at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy from 1896 to 1900 when he was promoted to lieutenant and then served in the Fleet Staff from 1900 to 1901.

[1] In the years 1912-1914, Riben held the position as head of the naval schools in Karlskrona, but due to the worrying political situation in the world and the resulting demand for increased preparedness, he came to be largely deployed during this time in his mobilization position as head of one of the Coastal Fleet's destroyer divisions.

[1] Riben was head of the Military Office of the Minister for Naval Affairs (Sjöförsvarets kommandoexpedition) from 1921 to 1923 when he was promoted to rear admiral.

[4] Even after his retirement from active duty, Riben was keenly interested in his old service branch and when the naval association Flottans män [sv] was formed in 1935, he made himself available as its chairman and remained as such for ten years.

[1] He was elected chairman of the Directorate of the Swedish Nobility Foundation in 1941 succeeding Count Henning Wachtmeister [sv] who died the year before.