New board chair in Alginor ASA
In early January, Thorleif Thormodsen informed the nomination committee of his decision to step down as chairman of the board, prompting the committee to propose a successor. Having found a nominee, an extraordinary general meeting was held on 12 March where the shareholders elected Wenche Kjølås to chair the board of Alginor ASA.
Alginor’s newly elected chair, Wenche Kjølås, is an experienced director in both executive and non-executive positions. Like Thorleif, she is an NHH graduate and has furthered her education at IMD Lausanne and INSEAD.
She began her career in Deloitte in ’86, and later joined Hakon Gruppen AS (1991–1995), before holding various managerial positions in Kavli Holding AS (1995–2006).
In 2006, Wenche entered the Grieg Group where she has held numerous executive roles, including CFO of Grieg Logistics, CEO of Grieg Maturitas AS and Grieg Group Resources AS. She is currently the Group COO and Company Secretary of Grieg Maturitas AS.
Wenche serves on the boards of Deep Ocean AS, Borgestad ASA, the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Vital Seafood AS (as chair), and Rimfrost Holding AS. She has previously chaired the boards of Flytoget AS, Keolis Norway AS and Magseis Fairfield ASA, and acted as board member in Grieg Seafood ASA, DOF ASA, PGS ASA, and Cermaq ASA.
Her background is well suited for Alginor, spanning marketing, finance, innovation, maritime operations, seafood production and processing. Wenche brings industry-specific expertise into the board, in part owing to her experiences from Vital Seafood which as a business shares similarities with Alginor.
Celebrating ten years of Alginor
On 24 March, we marked the tenth anniversary since Alginor was founded in Haraldsgata 162, Haugesund.
Since passing ten full-time employees in 2018, the group quintupled that headcount last year. As chairman in 2014–2017 and 2021–2024 and as CEO between 2017 and 2021, Thorleif has overseen and put his industry acumen to good use in all aspects of the business. Under his guidance and with his initiative and involvement, Alginor and subsidiaries have been awarded more than NOK 250 million in public grants and subsidies for research and industrial development, highlighted by the AORTA (EU SME-II) and DACOTA (EIC Accelerator) projects.
Across all share offerings, which were carried out between 2017 and 2021, Alginor ASA has amassed NOK 550 million in equity. On the first record date in VPS (Verdipapirsentralen), 2 January 2019, Alginor had 25 shareholders, with the largest being Zirconia AS, Thorleif’s holding company. Yesterday, on 11 March, the figure was 550.
With Thorleif at the helm, Alginor has grown and evolved into a company ripe for stock exchange listing, with independent harvesting and production capabilities and a substantial and sound commercialisation plan laid out.
The paragraphs above constitute a story which without him would never have been written. In the truest sense of the word, we consider Thorleif a pioneer, and we are eager to see what he does next.