Our Team

Torbjørn Engedal

CEO, Founder and Board Member

Holds an MSc in Engineering Cybernetics from NTNU, Norway. Engedal is founder and CTO of Optilift, and has over 20 years’ experience with industrial research and development, including innovation management, commercialization and business development.

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Arild Finne
CTO

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.

Ann Kristin Hilleren

Head of Finance and Compliance

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.

Camilla B. Nylund

Managing director of Optilift

Several years of experience in sales and marketing . 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.

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Albert Geldenhuys

Team Lead – Hardware Development

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

Team Lead – Control Systems

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.

Terje Leira

Team Lead – Perception

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.

Harald Nøkland

Senior Robotics Engineer

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.

Thomas Leirfall

Robotics Engineer

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 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.

Daniel Coward

Agile Tester

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 Revillard
Senior Software Engineer

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.

Jørgen Holme Qvist
Research Scientist, PhD

Jørgen holds a PhD in condensed matter physics from QuSpin at NTNU, Norway, specializing in the field of spin-based qubits. At VOCA, Jørgen is performing research and development within AI.

Kjell Skappel
Chair of the Board

Skappel is founder, partner and managing director of Stavanger Venture and Managing Director of TD Veen AS. Skappel is investor and board member in several technology companies, and has previously held the position Regional Director for Europe-North in Cisco Systems and TANDBERG.

Gunnar Hvammen
Board Member

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.

Torbjørn Engedal

CEO, Founder and Board Member

(See resume on top of the page).

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