Eirik Næss-Ulseth, Chairman of the Board, holds an MSc degree in Engineering and a general MBA degree. He was Managing Director of the software and consultancy company Taskon from 1988 to 1999 and Senior Research Scientist and Development Manager at SINTEF SI in the period 1982 – 1987. He has been Chairman of the Board of PROFF, the branch organization for the Norwegian software industry, Vice-Chairman of the branch organization within NHO for the information technology industry in Norway and Chairman of the Board of Oslonett (the first Internet company in Scandinavia).
Jorun Ruud holds an MSc degree in marketing from The Norwegian School of Marketing. She is currently partner at Tyria. She has previously worked as Concept Manager in Concept Communication, as a hotel manager for Fagerfjell Høyfjellshotell in 1994 – 1995, as Head of Customer Service at Internet Provider Oslonett / SchibstedNett in 1995 –1997, and Product and Project Manager for Internet services for business market in Scandinavia Online in 1997 – 1999. She was also the Head of Sales and Marketing and advisor for Internet solutions at Gazette in 1999 – 2002.
Dr. John M. Lervik is the CEO and co-founder of cXense. He was a co-founder of Fast Search &Transfer (FAST) in 1997, and served as CTO till 2001 and then as CEO through the acquisition by Microsoft in 2008. Following the acquisition he served as a corporate vice president of enterprise search in Microsoft till 2009. In 2005, Dr. Lervik was named as one of the technology innovators in the prestigious Forbes E-Gang. Lervik holds a Ph.D from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he was awarded the Esso prize for the best overall Ph.D in 1996 – 1997.
Tor-Kristian Jenssen, Head of Research and Development, holds an MSc and a Ph.D degree in Computer Sciences. He was a lecturer in Informatics at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1998 – 1999, a researcher in the Norwegian Cancer Hospital in 2001 – 2002, and a Board member of two strategic programs at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.
Werner Christie, Special Advisor. He was Norway’s first Minister of Health from 1992 to 1995, He was educated as a MD at the University of Oslo, in addition to degrees in sociology and political science from the University of Oslo and philosophy from University of Bergen, Norway. He worked actively in healthcare industry (both research initiatives and private sectors) worldwide for more than 30 years. From 2004 to 2008, he worked in the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, China, as Science and Technology Counsellor.