Working with several projects on the Nordic market, either full time or part time. Some of what I have done:

IT2Trust A/S – 2015 Part-time 
IT2Trust A/S is one of Scandinavia’s leading distributors of business-critical IT solutions within IT security and networking. They have good market penetration in the Danish and Swedish Market, but not in Norway.  I will help build a reseller network in Norway, as well as introduce the international vendors to the the market.

Elverdal – 2015 Part-time
Elverdal is a vendor of equipment for architectural playgrounds and other outdoor spaces of high quality. They want to enter the Norwegian market. My job is to do market research in Norway, and find leads to enter the market and increase market share. In the process, I will be a kind of intercultural interpreter of the nuances between the Danish and Norwegian market.

Europa Communications 2014 –  Part-time
Projects in lead generation for various IT vendors like IBM and Vodafone. Niche products they do not have sales departments for in Scandinavia. Target group is all Scandinavia. The goal is to use our local knowledge and language to enter new markets, instead of calling from other European regions to the Nordics.

Varonis Systems: 2013-2014  – Full-time

Varonis Systems has unique solutions in Data Security, Data Governance and Big Data. They have grown quickly around the world, but have not succeeded in Nordic region. I was contracted as a Nordic Sales Manager for knowledge and understanding of this market.

Challenges were plenty:

• We were totally unknown in the market.
• We have an American headquarter with founders from Israel. The overall responsibility for Northern Europe was managed from France. A very interesting and rewarding mix, which also provides many opportunities for cultural misunderstandings and interpretations. My job has been to provide the right Nordic interpretations in a language understood upward in the organization.

We solved the task of quickly identifying key segments and get customers onboard in the space of a few months.

JSL Publications 2012-2013 Part-time
Salg manager for the magazine “Vi med Hund” in Norway. Higher ad volumes were needed. I introduced “Vi med Hund for the major players in Norway, with higher sales as a result.

Iper Direkte AS 2012 – Part-time
Iper Direct AS is working to improve the quality of their own and customer databases. I’ll do market research, find leads, book and conduct meetings.

The Nordic branch of middleware and databases for Oracle is situated in Copenhagen. I learned from the experiences of my colleagues from Finland, Denmark and Sweden. These lessons was used so to optimize sales and counselling for my Norwegian customers. It is much to learn from inter-Nordic cooperation.

Omikron Data Quality is a leading niche IT Company headquartered in Germany. The solution FACT-Finder is the market leader in search and navigation in online shops. Within Data Quality, they have the unique tools to clean the data, as well as search and navigation in CRM systems.

Omikron wanted to enter the Nordic market and I was hired as Sales and Marketing. The challenges we had was plenty:

• Our company and our solutions was unknown in the market – also internationally
• We had a small organization in Scandinavia and Germany
• German business culture and way of thinking can be quite different

We solved the challenges by segmenting the market in our campaigns and get the Germans to agree on the strategy. Customers like Thomas Cook Northern Europe, Avis Scandinavia, Ellos, Bestseller, Elkjøp Nordic, Halens and Jula Postorder was landed

Account Manager, Aquisition Manager, Large Opportunity Representative.

The call center for Dell in Copenhagen was just established when I joined as Account Manager. It was a small call center with only 50 people from the Nordic countries, filled with an entrepreneurial spirit.

I got I learned about the nuances of the markets in the Nordic region. Example: The Danes sold on price, but we Norwegians sold on functionality. It was very instructive and interesting. Read more on the blog

I have worked with intercultural understanding as a volunteer and employee of AFS. I went on an exchange program in Florida in 1982-83. Later I volunteered, and as vice president of AFS Norway’s Board of Directors, I was responsible for the European cooperation.

In 1997-1999 I worked as Development Manager at AFS Norway’s office, where I was responsible for our relationships with sponsors in the public and private sector.

AFS awakened my interest in cultural understanding. In this organization is where I have worked most internationally and not only in the Nordic region.

Position – Key account manager

Sporrong is a company in the field of advertising and gift articles, which was started in Sweden in 1666. The head office is in Sweden, the production line was in Finland, and we had a sales office in Norway. This led to much inter-Nordic cooperation and was highly instructive.

My customesr were the defense department and the largest Norwegian NGOs The projects were followed through from idea, planning, production and delivery. This included extensive Nordic cooperation.

AIESEC is the largest Exchange Organization for economy student. I had responsibility for Scandinavian cooperation. 2 Summers I had full-time responsibility to accept all students in Bergen from AIESEC and IAESTE. Take in against the student, provide papers, introduce to the work place, as well as arrange for the social. My first real experience with responsibility towards cultures from all over the world. Fun, interesting and, not least, instructive!