About Earth Wind & Power
The Earth Wind & Power team benefits from some of the most experienced professionals with backgrounds in energy, data centre industry, finance, governance, and security. Our senior management team has an impressive track record of value creation within oil and gas and in pioneering wind and solar power projects.
The Board
Olav Skalmeraas
Chairman of the Board & Co-Founder
30 years of experience in the oil & gas and aluminum industries, mainly commercial negotiations, sales & trading activities, business development, M&A, and mining and refinery operations from Equinor, Hydro and Saga Petroleum. MSc in Marine Engineering and postgraduate studies in economics.
Lars Helge Helvig
Board Member
Lars Helge Helvig is Founder and Chairman of Norsk Vind Energi (est. 1996) and Valinor (est. 1997). He founded Valinor as holding company for Norsk Vind Energi, and under his leadership Norsk Vind Energi has grown into Norway`s largest private wind power developer. He serves as Chairman of the board in the renewable energy companies Norsk Vind Energi and Norsk Solar. He also serves on the board of infrastructure companies like Zaptec, CealTech and Halodi Robotics. In addition, he serves on the board of the technology innovation cluster Norwegian Energy Solutions (NES).
Michael Wurmser
Board Member
Background as a Currency Trader at Citibank Zurich. He was involved in the late 90s covering the new booming IT, successfully listing several companies on the AIM Stock-Market; London & Canada. Achieved himself a reputation as a Deal Maker and was mandated by governments in Europe and Asia on the creditor and debtor side, delivering successful debt-settlement deals. Michael is fluent spoken in 6 languages, holds 2 degrees, and is Dept. CEO and Founder of Norge Mining plc.
Tobias Hobbach
Board Member
15+ years of experience as Chief Financial Officer, Manufacturing Excecutive and Renewable Energy Entrepreneur. Founder and Managing Director of Sustain Power and Sustain Solar in South Africa. The journey as energy entrepreneur in Africa has taken him across numerous countries applying various technologies including biogas, waste to energy, solar PV and battery storage.
Management Team
Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Former Minister of National Public Security with overall responsibility for the Directorate for Public Safety and Emergency Planning, the Civil Protection Act and cyber security. She was also Minister of Svalbard and the Norwegian polar regions. Prior to this position, she served as Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Energy. In her portfolio she had exploration policy, development and operations, and exploration activity. She was also responsible following the Ministry’s contact with other petroleum producing countries, in addition to the government’s national climate policy and international environmental issues. She has held several managerial positions in both public and private sectors. In her early days, she worked as a professional climber and instructor for the Norwegian Military Academy, educating officers of the Norwegian Army within leadership, rescue techniques, and safety.
Kai Michaelsen
Chief Finance Officer
Kai has been working 24 years as manager and partner for KPMG in Hamburg, New York, Oslo and Stavanger primarily for clients from the Oil and Gas service and manufacturing industry before joining Norsk Vind AS as CFO in 2016. The main responsibilities of Kai are to ensure compliance with accounting, taxation and corporation regulations in addition to budgeting, cash management and reporting to board, shareholders, and international investors. Kai is holding master degrees in Business administration (University, Hamburg) and in Accounting & Auditing (Handelshøyskolen BI, Oslo). Furthermore, he is qualified as State Authorized Accountant (Norway) and Certified Public Accounting (US). He is native German and has been living in Norway since 1999.
Marie Andrea Stenfeldt
Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Experienced Chief Executive Officer with 15+ years experience as Managing Director in both corporate and private sectors, with a track record of building and operating over 150MW of HPC data centre capacity in Europe and Central Asia. Marie has worked internationally in the Shipping Industry and served amongst others as a CEO and Board member for A.P. Moller Maersk, positioned in the Middle East and South East Asia where she was involved in the planning and execution of multiple heavy construction projects such as Sea Ports, Container Depots and large Warehousing and Distribution facilities. Marie has also fulfilled her lifetime dream of driving a motorcycle around the world for two years.
Hamed Behnoud
Senior Project Manager
Hamed is a highly experienced energy professional with a focus on energy transition and net-zero. He has over 20 years of global experience in the energy industry, with expertise in upstream, renewable energy, and digitalization. Throughout his career, Hamed has a strong commitment to sustainability and driving positive change in the industry.
Hamed has held several managerial positions in international energy and engineering companies.
Maryann Løcka
Business Development Manager
Maryann started to work in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 1997, bringing over 25 years of experience in policy making and regulation in the energy sector. She has led the office responsible for oil field development, operation and decommissioning on the Norwegian shelf, where environmental and climate considerations have been an integral part of the policy. She was appointed assistant director general in 2002 and has worked with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), offshore wind, economic analyses and development and internationalisation of the Norwegian supply and services industry in the Ministry. Maryann worked as Energy Counselor at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. and Ottawa from 2012-2015. Maryann is an Economist from the University of Oslo.
Alexander Sebastian Aguilera
Chief Investment Officer
Over 10 years of experience from O&G industry and investment banking, 6 of them in Singapore.Past 5 years focusing on the renewable energy space. BBA in Management from BI Norwegian Business School. Delivered large scale EPC contracts with commercial co responsibility for the Norwegian Continental Shelf with Equinor as direct client (Gudrun Platform).
