Board of directors

Tore Engebretsen (Chairman of the board) Tore Engebretsen, born 1951, is educated at the University of Oslo, where he received a Cand. Real. degree in theoretical astrophysics in 1978. He held the position as CEO in the Norwegian listed company VMETRO from 1986 until 2003, and was prior to this employed with Norsk Data. Engebretsen became a partner in Nunatak in 2006. He is chairman of the Norwegian listed company Nordic Semiconductor in addition to holding several board positions in the Nunatak portfolio. Engebretsen was awarded Chairman of the Year in Norway in 2005 and has a long track record of assisting tech focused startup companies as investor and board member.

Steinar Bjørnstad (CEO / founder / board member) Steinar Bjørnstad is Cand.Scient in physics from the University of Oslo (1991) and Ph.D. in telecommunication from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim, Norway (2004). He started his career developing electronics at Ring-master AS and NERA Contec design AS. He then joined Telenor R&D, working as a senior scientist with research and development on optical networks. After 10 years he was responsible for development of Video over IP products at Network Electronics (Now Nevion). He then joined Ericsson Norway, responsible for system design of QoS mechanisms in Ethernet switches. From 2004 he has also been assistent professor at NTNU, teaching and supervising master and Ph.D. students in optical networking topics. He is author/co-author on more than 40 scientific papers and has two international patent-families.  

Haakon Bryhni (Member of the board) Haakon Bryhni, born 1968, holds a PhD in high speed communication and multiprocessor server systems from the University of Oslo and a MSc from Norwegian Institute of Technology. His professional experience includes research in packet radio protocols at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, and high speed internet protocols at Apple Research Labs. Bryhni was co-founder of Advanced Communication Technology in 1998 where he was a pioneer in mobile Internet technology. This company was sold in 2000 and Bryhni served as CTO until 2006. Bryhni was a co-founder in Nunatak in 2001 and commenced full time engagement from 2006 and holds several board positions in the portfolio. In addition, Bryhni is assistant professor at the University of Oslo, Department of Informatics. Bryhni received the Telenor research award in 2005.

Dag Roar Hjelme (Member of the board) Dag Roar Hjelme has since 2000 been Chief Technology Officer at Invivosense and since 1995 professor at the institute of electronics and telecommunication at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). At Invivosense he is leading the development of new fiberoptic sensors for medical appliances. At NTNU he is supervising Ph.D. and master students. He holds a master in electronics from NTNU and a Ph.D in electronics from the university of Colorado, USA. Before the start in Invivosense he was 7 years at SINTEF photonics as senior scientist where he was leading research projects within optical communication and sensor technology. He received Simrad Optronics physics prize for hes work within optical communication and sensor technology. After receiving his Ph.D. he was 4 years at the University of Colorado as Post Doc, and later research scientist, working on projects addressing semiconductor lasers, fiber optics, waveguide optics and microwave optics. He is author and co-author of more than 40 journal papers and 80 conference presentations. He has 8 international patents and 6 international patent applications. He is a member of Norwegian technical science academy (NTVA).

Nina Bøyum (Member of the board) Nina Bøyum, born 1965, holds a Master in Computer Science from the University of Oslo, and additional studies in psychology and finance. She is currently holding the position of Chief Technology Officer at Wema System AS in the automotive industry. Prior to this, she was in the telecom industry with ADVA Optical Networking, Germany. She joined the company as VP of R&D in 2000 following 4 acquisitions with the task of integrating, restructuring, and streamlining ADVA’s five R&D centers to improve efficiency. In 2005 she moved to China to set up an ADVA subsidiary covering R&D, procurement, outsourced manufacturing and sales to enable the company to address the Asian market. She has a strong track record in technology focused start up environments and was instrumental in building and scaling ADVA to a major player in the worldwide Metro DWDM market. Prior to ADVA, she worked for Siemens’ Information & Communications Networks division in various research and systems engineering positions in the Metro Access area, both in Norway and in Germany.