Overview

Gender

male

Knut holds a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Bristol University, England. Knut is the CVP International Markets and co-founder of eSmart Systems AS. He has more than 20 years of experience managing, developing and delivering IT solutions to the energy industry world-wide.

Knut started as a system developer of User Interface Management Systems for nuclear reactor control rooms, working closely with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Chattanooga, US. He has been lead project manager for many large software implementation projects around the world including an infrastructure delivery to the California Power Exchange, OMX’s settlement system delivery to the Korean Power Exchange together with ABB, Tieto’s CIS delivery to Fortum in Sweden and Tieto’s CIS delivery to Hafslund in Norway.

Knut co-founded US Hand-El Inc in Silicon Valley California, which was later relocated to Pasadena in Los Angeles. He was responsible for marketing, sales, and product strategies for all power exchange and ISO systems in the US, and was instrumental in building a 20 person support, service and development organization for the US market.

Knut was also responsible for Tieto’s utility business development sector and was an instrumental part of getting state funding for a 10-year Norwegian Centre of Expertise program (Smart Energy Markets). He was also an initiator and project owner of a state funded smart grid project that was one of the very first smart grid research projects in Norway.