Board of Directors and Management

The board of Directors have 5 members:

Dirk Blaauw, Oslo. Board Chairman. Blaauw holds a business management degree from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. He has more than 20 years of experience from managerial positions in a number of shipping and offshore companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, and has worked with business development. From 2004-2008 he worked as CEO and managing director for Blom. Blaauw owns 1 214 066 shares in the company.

Per Kyllingstad, Bærum. Board member. Kyllingstad holds a law degree from the University of Oslo and a Master of Law degree from Temple University, Philadelphia. He has almost 20 years of experience as an attorney, and his main fields of practice include offshore, shipping, banking and finance, property, board appointments and general business law. Kyllingstad is partner of Kyllingstad Kleveland Advokatfirma DA. Kyllingstad owns none shares in the company.

Gunnar Hirsti, Drøbak, Board member. Hirsti holds a drilling engineering degree. During the last 20 years he has held various managerial and board positions in various private and listed companies, both nationally and internationally. His managerial duties have been related to companies where, for example, structural and strategic changes have been required.

A close associate of Gunnar Hirsti owns 1 384 533 shares in the company.

Bente Loe, Oslo. Board member. Loe holds a BSBA and a MBA from the University of Denver with specializing in finance. She has experience from corporate M&A and financing of projects for Kværner Investments in Oslo and London and has the last 8 years worked as partner in TeleVenture Management in developing Telenor Venture Fund’s companies within the IT and Telecom sector. Loe owns no shares in the company. 

Brita Eilertsen, Oslo. Board member. Eilertsen was elected as board member in Blom ASA 12 April 2007. Eilertsen is an Economist and authorised financial analyst from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. She has worked as an Investment banker for 14 years, the last years at Enskilda Securities. She works now as an independant consultant. Eilertsen is a board member of Scan Subsea ASA, Choice Hotels Scandinavia AS, Europay Norge AS, Carnegie Kapitalforvaltning AS og Itera Consulting Group ASA. Eilertsen holds no shares in the Company.

Management:

Håkon Jacobsen (1962), Oslo, CEO. Jacobsen holds a Master of Science degree from NTH, Trondheim Norway. Before joining Blom as Managing Director and CEO he worked 20 years as management and IT-consultant in Scandinavia, America and ASIA Pacific. Jacobsen came to Blom from Accenture where he was Partner and Senior Executive. His last role was as managing director and responsible for client service operations for Telecom, High Tech and Media sector in Korea, China, South East Asia and Australia. Jacobsen has lived and worked 6 years in Beijing while he was responsible for building up Accenture’ s Telecom and High Tech sector in China.

Jan Erik Braathen (1962), Oslo, CFO.  Braathen is an Economist from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and holds a MBA from Darden, University of Virginia. He has worked for several years as a financial services adviser for companies like First Securities and Goldman Sachs. He has also worked for several years at Storebrand, holding positions like Acting Finance Director, Group Controller, and Vice President - Finance. He came to Blom from Luxo ASA, where he was part of the Group Management and worked as CFO. Braathen was a board member in 2 subsidiaries of Luxo ASA. Braathen holds no shares in the Company.

Nils A. Karbø (1963), Ås, Production Director. Karbø holds a master degree in photogrammetry and geodesy from the Norwegian Agricultural University in Ås. He has worked for several years in the private and public mapping industry of Norway. He came to Blom from the Norwegian institute of land inventory (NIJOS) where he was Director General. NIJOS is a governmental agency responsible for land resource mapping and forest inventory in Norway. Until he started in Blom Karbø was appointed by the Ministry of Environment as a member of the advisory board of “Digital Norway”, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure of Norway. Karbø holds no shares in the Company.

Andreas Holter (1961), Lørenskog, Head of Resources. Holter holds a master degree in photogrammetry and geodesy from the Norwegian Agricultural University at Ås. Holter has several years of experience from the private mapping industry in Norway. Holter comes from the position as the Managing Director of Blom Geomatics, the Norwegian subsidiary of Blom ASA, before he was appointed Head of Resources for the Blom Group. Before his position at Blom Geomatics he had a 15 year long managerial career at Norkart AS. His last position was as Technical Director.  

Arne Saugstad (1964), Oslo, Business Development Director. Saugstad is an Economist and holds an MBA from USF, Florida and in addition he completed the International Executive Program at Insead. For many years he worked with international business development for companies like Nera and Zenitel. Among other things, he once established a joint venture in Pakistan and carried out a due diligence of a company in India. Last appointment was with UPC Norge, where he was on the Executive Board and was Regional Director and as such responsible for the operations and sales of UPC offices outside Oslo. Saugstad holds 11,800 shares in the Company.