Our panel of experts:
Haakon Thue Lie
IP Management Consultant – Dehns
Haakon has extensive an technology and business background. He has a recent PhD in industrial economics and technology management, specialising in open innovation and trade secrets. Haakon is also a European Patent Attorney as well as a European Trademark and Design Attorney. The expertise Haakon offers as an IP Management Consultant is agnostic to the technological field. His clients are SMEs, large firms, research institutes or government – in all phases of the innovation cycle. Haakon’s focus is to create competitive advantage and profit from innovation. He works on IP strategy and management with start-ups, small and large firms, and several research institutes. He has telecom and IT background and has experience from a broad range of industries from life sciences to materials technology and branding.
Suni Aranda
Business Developer and Principal Scientist for Sustainable Minerals and Metals portfolio – IFE – Institute for Energy Technology (Norway)
Suni Aranda has has PhD in Chemical Engineering by University of Zaragoza (Spain) and has been working in Applied Research and Innovation for industrial processes since 2004. She has worked at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) since 2010, in different roles – Researcher, Head of Department and now as Business Developer for Sustainable Minerals and Metals portfolio. Her areas of work include: Development of new hydrometallurgical processes for sustainable mineral and metal production, clean energy generation technologies and advanced materials for CO2-free processes, and new applications for low-value materials and tailings from the minerals industry. Suni is also the coordinator of the AlSiCal project (www.alsical.eu/)
Guro Solem
CEO – Winns & Winns Energy
Guro has 20 years’ experience stemming from a variety of positions within leadership, commercialization of new technology and solutions, organizational development and international sales, with a strong background in renewable energy, oil and gas and public sector. Her qualifications include: Bachelor in Anthropology and Sociology and Master of Management; Business Development and Strategy. Renewable Energy Management Program from St.Gallen University.
Knut Jørgen Egelie
Head of IP Management – NTNU Technology Transfer AS
Knut J. Egelie heads the IP department at NTNU Technology Transfer, which is a university technology transfer company wholly owned by NTNU and Helse Midt-Norge. NTNU TTO manages IP on behalf of the owners and commercializes research results based on innova
tions from employees at both NTNU and HMN. Knut J. Egelie has a professional background in biotechnology with a B.Sc. in chemical engineering and M.Sc. in biotechnology. He has a doctorate in economics innovation from NTNU, where the focus of the Ph.D. thesis was regulation of transparency and IPR in research contracts in collaboration between academia and industry. Knut J. Egelie has extensive experience from the commercialization of research and how to protect and control an organisation’s intellectual assets. He has been both the founder of 2 technology companies, worked as an examiner at the Norwegian Patent Board and led the methods team there. For the past 16 years, he has been head of the IP team in NTNU TTO.
Bjørn Simonsen
Bjørn grew up in a fjord on the west coast of Norway. He developed a fascination early on for nature and technology, that resulted in studies and a career focused on hydrogen – the lightest and cleanest energy carrier out there. After finishing off his process engineering university degree at NTNU in 2008, Bjørn worked in hydrogen research at IFE, heading up the Norwegian hydrogen association for a number of years. Bjørn held a key position in the hydrogen technology company Nel, from 2014 until late 2020, when he joined Saga Pure as CEO. Saga Pure is a listed investment company, focusing on investments in the sustainability space.
Michael Curtis
Founder & CEO @Loopfront AS
Michael leads the team at Loopfront, a SAAS B2B company focused on making the circular economy easy and profitable for real estate owners. He is focused on helping organizations transform from the linear economy to a circular operational model through the use of digital solutions.