“Whenever we travel, for whatever reason, we always make an effort to visit local businesses. On average, we meet with 150 companies across Norway every year,” says Elnar Holmen, State Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Accompanied by his fellow State Secretary, Ingvil Tybring-Gjedde, from the same Ministry – both representing the Progress Party – Holmen was introduced to GCE NODE participants Scanmatic and Telenor Maritime.
At Scanmatic’s head quarters, CEO Kim Steinsland presented a company that delivers system solutions and products in the fields of instrumentation, data collection and remote monitoring and control.
“We are a multidisciplinary engineering company with wide-ranging expertise in transportation infrastructure, energy, defense and offshore/marine,” said Steinsland.
“Our four markets are relatively even in size, which is also our goal. It serves as an insurance against the cycles we experience in some of these markets. When the oil price collapsed, we experienced a surge in demand for our services in infrastructure. That has served us well,” says Steinsland.
150 employees make up the staff of Scanmatic in Arendal, Ås and Stockholm. Founded 47 years ago, Scanmatic has a near perfect track record of turning a profit, recording surpluses in 45 of the 47 years.
MOBILE OPERATOR AT SEA
At Telenor Maritime, the global mobile operator at sea, the state secretaries were greeted by CEO Frode Støldal, CHRO Morten Martens Breivik and CSO Offshore Tom Løwehr.
“Our mission is to build standardized cross-industry, connectivity solutions. Our main markets are defined as ‘Passenger and Crew’ for cruise lines and ferries, ‘Offshore Operations and Crew’ for the oil and gas industry and wind farms – and ‘Fisheries’, which includes aqua farms and fishing vessels,” explained Støldal.
The company, which Telenor bought in 2006, has its headquarter in Arendal and additional offices in Bergen, Stavanger, Stockholm, Miami and Singapore.
“We are currently operating the most complete offshore mobile infrastructure on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the first step in a global strategy. Our cooperation with Statoil has enabled efficient deployment of a complete offshore 4G network,” said Støldal.
“This has been very useful,” said Tybring-Gjedde. “We appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better and listen to whatever demands and wishes you might have from the political side.”
