VOCA

Stig Larsen

Chair of the Board

Stig Larsen LinkedIn

Larsen has worked several years as an auditor, and was up to 2020 partner in KPMG. His role now involves supporting companies to scale and grow, and started as Chair of the Board of VOCA during spring 2021.

Kjell Skappel

Board Member

Kjell Skappel LinkedIn

Founder, partner and managing director of Stavanger Venture. Managing Director of TD Veen AS. Investor and boardmember in several technology companies. Kjell has previously held the position Regional Director for Europe-North in Cisco Systems and TANDBERG.

Gunnar Hvammen

Board Member

Gunnar Hvammen

Mr. Hvammen has a degree from Norwegian Business School (BI). He has been an independent founder, investor, CEO and board member in numerous companies, including S.D. Standard Drilling Plc, Songa Offshore ASA and Spectrum ASA.

Tom Fidjeland

Board Member

Tom Fidjeland LinkedIn

CEO of GCE Node. More than 30 years experience from mainly oil and gas related companies in Norway. Special competence in strategy, management of change and technology. Held the position as Vice President Engineering and Manufacturing – Drilling Systems at Cameron, Houston for several years. Before Cameron, Fidjeland has 20 years of experience from NOV, last years as Vice President Drilling Equipment Engineering.

Torbjørn Engedal

CEO & Board Member

Torbjørn Engedal LinkedIn

Founder and managing director of VOCA, founder and CTO of Optilift. Holds an MSc in Engineering Cybernetics from NTNU, Norway. Engedal has 20 years experience with industrial research and development, main competencies within computer vision, robot technologies and industrial computer systems.

Arild Finne

Chief Technology Officer

Arild Finne

Arild holds an MSc within Computer Science from University of Agder, Norway. Has extensive experience as both a software developer, team lead and product champion. Before he joined VOCA, Arild worked for more than a decade at Identec Solutions, developing track-and-trace solutions for personnel- and equipment-tracking.

Camilla B. Nylund

Managing Director of Optilift AS

Camilla B. Nylund LinkedIn

Several years of experience in sales and marketing, and has been account manager for major oil companies during previous employments. Nylund is experienced in delivering complex solutions that involves  improvement of work processes at customer sites. She also has experience in HR, recruitment and business development.

Ann Kristin Hilleren

Head of Finance and Compliance

Ann Kristin Hilleren

Holds an MSc in Business Administration from the University of Agder (Høgskolen i Agder), Norway. Hilleren has extensive experience within financial- and HR roles, and has worked for a number of companies in Norway, leading or assisting management with financial reporting and planning.

Håvard Ulvik

Quality/Project Manager at Optilift

Håvard Ulvik

Håvard has a BSc within Petroleum Engineering from the University of Stavanger, Norway. He has extensive experience as a project manager and before joining Optilift / VOCA he worked with mud-logging and drilling optimizations, lastly at NOV.

Harald Nøkland

Senior Robotics Engineer

Harald Nøkland

Holds an MSc within control engineering from NTNU, institute of Engineering Cybernetics (Norway) and a BSc within automation from UiO (Norway). Extensive experience from design, implementation and delivery of perception- and control algorithms for robotic systems.

Albert Geldenhuys

Senior Mechanical Designer

Albert Geldenhuys

Albert Geldenhuys has extensive experience in mechanical design of tools and products for the oil and gas industry. His background is among other from designing, testing and commissioning of drilling machines and equipment at Cameron Sense (Schlumberger).

Jakob Lunde

Mechatronics Engineer

Jakob Lunde

Holds an MSc within Mechatronics from the University of Agder, Norway. Lunde is specialized within automated control of machines, utilising state of the art sensor technology. Among other, he has experience with robotics, computer vision, embedded software development and applied mathematics.

Emiel van Dam

Senior Software Engineer

Emiel van Dam

Emiel has a BSc within International Game Architecture and Design from NHTV in Breda, The Netherlands. He is an experienced, pragmatic and versatile full stack developer with extensive experience within C++.

Terje Leira

Senior Software Engineer

Terje Leira

Terje holds a MSc within ICT from University of Agder, Norway. He is a senior software engineer with extensive experience in both embedded development, C++ and development of certification systems.

Henrik Brådland

Machine Learning Engineer

Henrik Brådland

Henrik has a MSc within ICT from University of Agder, Norway, with a focus on AI for industrial applications. He also has a BSc within mechatronics, robotics and automation from the University of Agder.

Thomas Leirfall

Robotics Engineer

Thomas Leirfall

Thomas has a MSc within cybernetics and robotics from NTNU, Norway and a BSc within mechatronics from University of Agder, Norway. His specialization is within modelling, prediction and control of non-linear systems.

Tor Arve Tønnessen

Robotics Engineer

Tor Arve Tønnessen

Tor Arve has a MSc within cybernetics and robotics from NTNU, Norway and a BSc within electronics from University of Agder, Norway. His specialization is within modelling and control of robots and vehicles.

Carlos Tierno

Robotics Engineer

Carlos Tierno

Carlos has a BSc degree within Computer Science from University of Zaragoza in Spain and is finalizing a MSc in Computer Vision, Robotics and Computer Graphics from University of Zaragoza while working at VOCA, specializing in Visual SLaM and Robotics.

Daniel Coward

Agile Tester

Daniel Coward

Daniel has a MSc and BSc in mechatronics from the University of Agder, Kristiansand, and is also qualified within metal work and assembling of hydraulic and mechanical systems. Before joining VOCA, he was product engineer and later on product owner for the control system of the pipe-handler machine at MHWirth.

Christian Deliler Olsen

Electrical Engineer at Optilift

Christian Deliler Olsen

More than 10 years experience as technician and electrician on- and offshore, special competence in EX-maintenance at Westcon. Has also worked with installation and classification of drilling equipment for MHWirth and NOV, and participated in “green shift projects” for Odfjell Drilling, Elkem and Glencore.

Christian Revillard

Senior Software Engineer

Christian Revillard

Christian has a MSc from Ecole Centrale Paris, France. He has more than 20 years experience as a software engineer within both the telecom- and oil & gas industry. He has extensive and broad experience within among other backend, databases, distributed systems, front-end, simulation and more.

Martin Dahlseng Hermansen

Software Engineer

Martin Dahlseng Hermansen

Martin has a BSc within mechatronics from University of Agder, Norway, and is working as part of the VOCA-team in parallel with his finalization of his MSc.

Arild Bårdsen

Advisor

Arild Bårdsen

Holds a MSc in Business Administration and an MBA in Strategic Management. Bårdsen has more than 30 years experience from management, operations and finance in Norwegian industrial business and offshore business.

Martin Engelsgjerd

Software Engineer

Martin Engelsgjerd

Martin has a MSc within computer game Engineering from Newcastle University and a BSc within computer engineering from San Diego State University. He has work experience within mixed reality and game development, and has also worked with an improvement-tool through memory profiling within the Unreal Game Engine.

Jone Jeremiassen

Software Engineer

Jone Jeremiassen

Jone has a BSc within Computer Games Programming from Kingston University in London, and has worked with both game- and mobile application development as well as databases.