The corporate assembly of Statoil ASA has today, 23 August, elected the board of directors for StatoilHydro. The board becomes operative on 1 October when the merger between Statoil and Norsk Hydro's oil and gas business takes effect.
Eivind Reiten was elected as chair of the board with eight votes for and four against. Marit Arnstad was elected as deputy chair.
Elisabeth Grieg, Grace Reksten Skaugen, Kjell Bjørndalen, Roy Franklin and Kurt Anker Nielsen were elected as members of the board.
In line with the merger agreement between Statoil and Hydro, the shareholder-elected directors will have a term of office until 2010.
The employee-elected representatives on Statoil's present board, Lill-Heidi Bakkerud, Claus Clausen and Morten Svaan will also be employee directors in StatoilHydro. In addition, two representatives of the employees in Hydro, Ragnar Fritsvold and Geir Nilsen, will attend board meetings.
CVs
Eivind Reiten, chair (born 1953), is president and chief executive officer of Hydro. Prior to joining Hydro in September 1986, he was state secretary in the Ministry of Finance and later minister of fisheries. In 1989-90 he was minister for petroleum and energy. He has been a manager in Hydro’s agricultural division (now Yara International), president in Hydro’s energy division, refining & marketing division and Hydro Aluminium, metal products. In 1999 he was appointed executive vice president with an overall responsibility for Hydro’s aluminium business and became a member of the corporate management. He has been chief executive since 2001. Mr Reiten holds an economics degree from the University of Oslo. He has been a member of the board of the Central Bank of Norway, and chair of the boards of the Norwegian Postal Service, Telenor and the International Primary Aluminium Institute.
Marit Arnstad, deputy chair (born 1962), is a lawyer and works as an adviser in the Schjødt law firm in Trondheim. Ms Arnstad was minister of petroleum and energy in the period 1997-2000 and a member of parliament representing the Centre Party in the periods 1993-97 and 2001-05. She has been senior executive officer in the Ministry of the Environment, and assistant lawyer in the Wiersholm, Mellbye and Bech law firm. Ms Arnstad is chair of the board of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (NTNU), and a director of NTE Nett AS, Aker Seafood ASA, Acta ASA, COWI AS and Access Mid-Norway. She has been a member of Statoil’s board since 2006.
Kjell Bjørndalen (born 1946) is general secretary of the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions and a member of the secretariat for the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions. He is a member of Statoil’s corporate assembly and a board member of Bank1 Oslo. Mr Bjørndalen is also leader of the amalgamation of industrial employees in the Nordic countries. He has been a member of the Labour party’s central board since 1992.
Roy Franklin (born 1953) was chief executive of the UK independent oil and gas company, Paladin Resources plc from 1997-2005, and group managing director of Clyde Petroleum plc from 1991-97. He has a long career behind him with BP, where he gained exploration, commercial and management experience in several countries. Mr Franklin has a BSc in geology from Southampton University, UK. He was chair of Brindex, the trade association for UK independent oil and gas companies, and a member of Pilot, the joint industry/government task force, from 2002-05. Mr Franklin is non-executive chair of Bateman Litwin NV, and sits on the boards of the Australian oil and gas company Santos Ltd, and Novera Energy Ltd, a leading UK company in renewables. In 2004 he was awarded the OBE for services to the UK oil and gas industry.
Elisabeth Grieg (born 1959) is co-owner of the Grieg Group and CEO of Grieg International AS. She is also chair of the board of Grieg Shipping Group and vice president of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association and member of the boards of Star Shipping AS, Grieg International AS, Grieg Maturitas AS, the Grieg Foundation and SOS Children’s Villages in Norway. She is a member of Orkla ASA's corporate assembly and election committee and the council and election committee of Det Norske Veritas. Ms Grieg has been a member of Hydro’s board since 2001, and has been deputy chair since 2006.
Kurt Anker Nielsen (born 1945) has previously held senior positions in Novo A/S and Novo Nordisk A/S, including as CFO and managing director. He is presently deputy chair of the boards of Novozymes A/S and Dako A/S, and sits on the boards of Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Fonden, ZymoGenetics Inc and Westas Wind Systems A/S. He is also chair of the board of Reliance A/S. Mr Nielsen has been a member of Hydro’s board since 2004.
Grace Reksten Skaugen (born 1953) is an independent consultant. She was previously director of corporate finance at Enskilda Securities, Oslo. She has also been adviser for Aircontactgruppen, Oslo and Fearnley Finance Ltd, London. She did research in the field of microelectronics at Columbia University, New York. Ms Skaugen has a PhD in laser physics from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University, and an MBA from the Norwegian School of Management. She is board chair of Entra Eiendom, deputy chair at Opera Software and board member of Invest AB and Atlas Copco AB. Ms Skaugen has been a member of Statoil’s board of directors since June 2002.
Lill-Heidi Bakkerud (born 1963) is a full-time union official as head of Industry Energy (IE) in Statoil. She is a qualified process/chemistry technician. Ms Bakkerud has worked as a process technician at the Bamble petrochemicals plant and on the Gullfaks field in the North Sea. She is a director of IE and has several elective posts as a result of this. Ms Bakkerud has been an employee director of Statoil since 2004. She was also on the board from 1998-2002.
Morten Svaan (born 1956) has a PhD in chemistry from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and a bachelor degree in business from the Norwegian School of Management. He joined Statoil in 1985 and has worked in the Manufacturing & Marketing business area, and in petrochemicals and research and development. He is at present project manager for health, safety and the environment in the Technology & Projects business area. Mr Svaan was a key union official representing NIF/Tekna from 2002-04. He has been an employee director on Statoil's board since 2004.
Claus Clausen (born 1954) is an engineer from the Bergen College of Engineering. He joined Statoil in 1991. Mr Clausen has held various positions within the process discipline since 1997. At present, he is specialist manager for technical process systems on the Statfjord field. He is deputy leader of the Norwegian Society of Engineers (Nito) in Statoil and of Nito’s company branch in Stavanger. He is also a member of the union-management committee in Statoil's Exploration & Production Norway business area. Mr Clausen has been an employee-elected director since 2006.