Previous Speakers

Aleksander Leonard Larsen

Co-founder and COO, Sky Mavis / Axie Infinity

Aleksander is Co-founder and COO of Axie Infinity, where he is responsible for handling the business side of the company. Aleksander has worked in the NFT industry since late 2017, focusing on blockchain games and player-owned economies. He also serves on the board of directors in the Blockchain Game Alliance where he holds the secretary position.

Before co-founding Axie Infinity, he worked for the Norwegian state and spent his free time playing games and building gaming communities. Aleksander has represented Norway in Warcraft 3 and Dota 1 and has been ranked as one of Europe’s top 200 players in Dota 2.

Dr. John Markus Lervik

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Cognite

Before Cognite, he co-founded Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) in 1997, serving as CTO until 2001, and then as CEO thru Microsoft´s acquisition of FAST in 2008. He held the position of Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Search at Microsoft until 2009. In 2010, John Markus founded Cxense ASA, a software company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2014. 

John Markus holds a MSc from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH), and a PhD from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he was awarded the Esso prize for best overall PhD in 1996/97.

Espen Lind

Artist and song writer

Espen Lind released his first solo album, Mmm…Prepare To Be Swayed, in 1995 under the moniker, ‘Sway’. His commercial breakthrough came in 1997 with the single “When Susannah Cries” which was a hit in several European and Latin American countries.

He has released several albums and collaborated with artists like Sissel Kyrkjebø and Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm. He has won several Norwegian Grammy Awards (Spellemannsprisen), including Artist of the Year in 1998.

During the past few years Espen Lind has done a lot of writing and producing, most notably as co-writer of “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé and “Drive By” and “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train (which they received a Grammy for).

Together with writing partner Amund Bjørklund in the production team Espionage he has also written and/or produced songs for artists Lionel Richie, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Leona Lewis.

Lasse Andresen

IndyRiot

Lasse co-founded ForgeRock, the identity and access management company he led as CEO through the startup phase, achieving 100% year-over-year growth and securing top-tier venture funding from Accel Partners, Foundation Capital, Meritech Capital Partners and KKR — now totaling $140 million.

He continued in leadership as CTO, growing the company to over 550 employees in offices around the world, and establishing a customer base of over 800 Global Fortune 5000 companies, including Thomson Reuters, GEICO, Philips, BBC, Comcast, and Toyota. In addition, some of the largest countries in the world rely on ForgeRock’s Identity Platform to protect citizens and digital assets, supporting authentication and authorization for a variety of government services.

Joachim Haraldsen

Founder and CEO of Heroic

Joachim Haraldsen is a gamer who created a youtube channel that quickly grew to be the largest gaming channel in Norway with 193 000 subscribers and over 130 million views. Joachim has won several prizes for his channel and focuses a lot on gaming for good. Earlier this year he won several prices at Gulltaggen, as well as Cannes Young Lions, with his project "Ingame Norge".

Esben Holmboe Bang

Head chef, co-owner and creative force behind Maaemo.

It’s a bold style of cooking that has won the young chef a legion of fans and a listing as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Chefs in the World. In 2012, just 15 months after opening, Maaemo was awarded two Michelin stars in its first ever mention in the prestigious guide, becoming the first, and only, restaurant in the Nordics to do so. In 2016 Maaemo was awarded a third Michelin star, making Esben one of the youngest chefs to hold Michelin’s highest accolade and the first ever in Norway to do so. Maaemo was also listed as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world at the 2015 World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

Sigurd Wongraven

Founder, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist of Satyricon as well as founder and CEO of Wongraven Wines.

Sigurd Wongraven (Satyr) is the vocalist, lead and rhythm guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Norwegian black metal band Satyricon. He was a founding member of Satyricon and have so far released eight albums.

Robert Steen

Company

Robert Steen was instrumental in the establishment of FINN.no and Schibsted’s international classifieds effort.

Børge Ousland

Polar Explorer

Norwegian polar explorer, photographer and writer. Among many journeys he has made, he did the first solo and unsupported journey to the North Pole from cape Arktichevsky in Russia and he made the first unassisted Antarctic solo crossing.

Jeanette Dyhre Kvisvik

Founder and CEO at Villoid

Jeanette Dyhre Kvisvik is the founder of Villoid, the next generation shopping service, which she co-founded in 2014 with style icon Alexa Chung, e-commerce expert Karin Källman, and social gaming expert Jarle Snertingdalen.

Andre Backen

Founder and CEO at Oliasoft

Co-founded Funcom in 1993 and was CEO until 2003. Funcom grew to 150 employees within two years and did contract work for companies such as Disney where it made Pocahontas and for Sony where it made Speed Freaks. In 1998 it published its own games and built global distribution for games such as The Longest Journey. In 2001 Funcom pioneered the massive multiplayer online role-playing games with Anarchy Online, which today in 2020 still generates about NOK 10 million in annual revenue for Funcom.

Mathias Mikkelsen

Founder and CEO of Memory

Mathias Mikkelsen is the founder and CEO of Timely. Timely was launched in December 2013 and is loved by over tens of thousands of companies and freelancers around the world.

Henrik Müller-Hansen

CEO and founder of Gelato.

Henrik and his team launched Optimalprint in 2007. As Optimalprint grew so did the idea on how to improve the profitability and efficiency within the printing industry. This led to the launch of Gelato in August 2012.