White, over 50, and with a background in oil and gas
The Gray eminences of innovation
Shifter has reviewed the background to the boards of Innovation Norway, Investinor and Nysnø. There is a long way between the reasons.
The people who will manage the transition from oil and gas to technology-driven startups and sustainability have a lot of petroleum experience and little youthful creativity. This is shown by Shifter’s review of the boards of the state-owned companies that will help Norwegian entrepreneurs: Innovation Norway, Investinor and Nysnø Klimainvesteringer.
– Now the board does not make operational decisions, but the board sets strategy and agenda. That is why it is important to have representation on boards, says Marie Louise Sundereasons and general manager of Gender equality check.
The company develops tools that help other companies keep an eye on.
The review (which you read in its entirety below) shows that the boards have a good gender balance.
– It shows that it has helped to put gender equality on the agenda. Today, however, equality is about more than gender, she points out.
For example, there is not a single person with a minority background on the three boards.
– For companies that represent government risk capital, it will in future be important to to a greater extent represent start-up companies and the problems / groups for which they solve problems. This means greater age range, better minority representation, and one should also look at the competence composition, she says, and adds both basic background, investor background or core competence in other fields where technology and growth should be present.
Below you will find out how things are in the boards Shifter has examined.
Innovation Norway’s district politicians
Innovation Norway’s new board, which was presented this week, has an average age of 53, 55 if you exclude the employee representatives. The proportion of women is 45 percent.
While Minister of Education Ola Borten Moe replaces the entire board of the Research Council as a result of economic turmoil, there are only three new members of the Innovation Norway board for the period up to 2024, all born in the 70s.
The last time a member of the Innovation Norway board was born in the 80s or later was when Kim Daniel Arthur entered 2016 as a 36-year-old. Arthur sold the startup he helped build to the gaming group EA in 2009.
ALSO READ: Game legend Kim Daniel Arthur’s showdown with himself as boss – became a “tough process dude” after the billion acquisition
In today’s board, it is 50-year-old Arne Ingebrigtsen who must be said to have the heaviest entrepreneurial background, with time in, among others, Contendo and Questback.
Several of the board members have a long career in politics. The new board member Kristine Nore has been a local politician in Krødsherad municipality for the Liberal Party. She was born in 1978 and works as a general manager in Omtre AS, a consulting company for circular economy and reuse of wood. Former parliamentary policies for the Labor Party, Thomas Breen (50), is director of the internal organization Norsk Vann BA.
Investors financial experts
The average age in Investinor is 55 years, while the proportion of women is 50 percent. The chairman of the board of the state’s tools for investing in startups is the daily CEO of the shipping company Western Bulk and the owner of a farm.
Deputy leader Anne Kathrine Slungård has been mayor of Trondheim for the Conservative Party and held a number of board positions in public and private companies.
Olaug Svarva has by far the heaviest CV, as long-term leader of Folketrygdfondet until 2018 and as current chairman of the board of DNB. But it is Executive Vice President Morten Henriksen (54) in Arendal’s Fossekompani and with board positions in, among others, the battery factory startup Beyonder who has the most experience with start-up companies, having spun several from Arendal Fossekompani in recent years. Henriksen worked for many years in various roles at Statkraft, including the development of larger wind power plants.
Jorun Aas (50) is the general manager of Farmforce AS, an IT company that will bring “digital transparency” to buyers of agricultural products. Aas has worked at Scatec and as a consultant at Sigla.
The youngest member of the Investinor board, Åsmund Bjørndal Heen (45), has a background in banking and finance and has worked at the London School of Economics Hedge Fund Research Center.
Nysnøs advisers from the oil and energy industry
When the state’s climate fund Nysnø presented its new “advisory board” last week, listening was heavy with experience, especially from oil and gas, but light on youth and actual time spent in startups.
The new leader is none other than former CEO and longtime CFO Eldar Sætre (66). He brings with him former top politician for SV and ex-minister Kristin Halvorsen (62), who is head of the Cicero center for climate research – and now chairman of the board of the Research Council. Kimberly Mathisen (50) has been head of Microsoft Norway and now heads C4IR Ocean – Røkke’s center for marine research.
Auke Lont (64) left her top job at Statnett last year, after 13 years. Lont worked at Statoil (now: Equinor) in his time and has extensive experience from the power and energy industry and Econ Pöyri.
Last but not least is the ex-McKinsey man Tore Myrholt (65), who has been active in the Norwegian oil and energy industry for many years, and who today runs his own consulting company from Qatar and is chairman of the venture fund and startup fund. factory Antler.