Four Decades, Five Shifts
The competitive advantage I bring to Attolloo is not primarily methodological. It is experiential. Every framework in the Attolloo methodology stack was distilled from something I encountered, solved, and internalised in an operating role — across five distinct generations of technology disruption in regulated markets.
1980–1996 GENERATION 1 — THE INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEM
I completed a cand.mag. degree in informatics and economics at the University of Oslo in 1983.
Moving through defence, management consulting, enterprise computing, and technology commercialisation across the following decade, I encountered the same pattern repeatedly: large technology projects do not fail on the technology. They fail on governance and human absorption capacity. Every major AI adoption survey in 2026 confirms this is still true. The pattern has not changed. The technology has.
1996–1999 GENERATION 2 — DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
As CEO of Lokalnett AS from 1996 to 1999, I led the build-out of some of Norway's first municipal internet portals for more than 30 municipalities, with A-pressen as investor.
There was no reference case, no established methodology, and no precedent for how a public institution — governed by democratic accountability, political stakeholders, and regulatory constraint — should engage with a new digital infrastructure layer. I had to create that methodology from scratch, under operational and political pressure, with real institutional accountability. The challenge of deploying AI in a public or regulated institutional context in 2026 is structurally identical. I have been in that room before.
2000–2008 GENERATION 3 — REGULATORY COMPLIANCE AS BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
Working in senior advisory roles in the early 2000s, I developed deep fluency in regulatory compliance not as a legal overhead, but as business architecture — leading e-government implementation and regulatory compliance work across more than 100 Norwegian municipalities.
The core insight that would later underpin the Kando Framework emerged here: regulatory pressure is not a constraint on innovation. It is a forcing function that, correctly structured, produces more durable and scalable business models. In 2003 I founded one of Norway's first e-marketing programmes, formally opened by the Minister of Trade in March 2004.
2014–2019 GENERATION 4 — CYBERSECURITY, TURNAROUND, AND EUROPEAN REGULATORY SCALE
As CEO of Watchcom Security Group from 2014 to 2016, I led an operational turnaround under financial pressure that ended with the sale of the company to a major defence and security group.
For founders in difficulty, this is the proof point that matters most: I have done this in crisis mode, not just in growth mode. As Director in PwC's cyber and risk practice from 2017 to 2019, I led Privacy Tech implementation at European scale — GDPR and MiFID II for clients across the European market, during the period when those frameworks were being written, interpreted, and first enforced. The EU AI Act is now where GDPR was in 2018: in force, still being interpreted, and with its obligations phasing in. I navigated that first enforcement cycle from the inside, for real clients, under real pressure.
2019–present GENERATION 5 — AI GOVERNANCE IN PRACTICE
Since 2019 I have served in a dual executive role at one of Norway's most complex regulated public institutions — holding security, privacy, and data governance on one axis, and people and organisational leadership on the other, simultaneously, reporting to the chief executive.
I operate that integrated model as a permanent governance structure. The AI Compass diagnostic draws on the general experience of operating such a model.
I have also mentored early-stage companies on scaling, governance, automation and culture, among others through Innovasjon Gardermoen.
NOTE ON INTEGRITY
Attolloo Group AS is my own company. I am building it outside my full-time executive role, and it is independent of that role. All Attolloo activities are conducted with strict separation from other executive responsibilities. No information, processes, or relationships from current institutional roles are used in any commercial Attolloo context. This boundary is a foundational principle, not a preference. Attolloo does not take on companies that compete in the pension market, companies whose main customers are pension providers or the public sector, or companies that supply, or are bidding to supply, my current employer.
Academic Foundation
I completed an MBA with specialisation in Digital Business in August 2026. The programme is certified by Universidad Isabel I and delivered by ENEB, the European Business School of Barcelona, which awarded me its Cum Laude Academic Excellence Award. I took the programme late in my career for a practical reason: to check what I had learned in practice against the current literature, and to be made to write the method down.
Before that: a cand.mag. degree in informatics and economics from the University of Oslo (1983), and one year of study in organisation and leadership at Nord-Trøndelag University College (HiNT), now part of Nord University (2000).
The frameworks came from practice first and were connected to theory afterwards. They have not been independently validated. The Research page sets out what that would take.
People and Technology
The idea behind Attolloo is older than its method. The name comes from the Latin attollo, to lift up. Technology should give people and organisations room to grow. Too often it does the opposite: the pace goes up, the pauses disappear, and capable people wear themselves out.
It is rarely for lack of effort. It is effort without recovery, and decisions taken by people who never get to step back from them.
The conditions that keep people going are the same ones that produce good decisions: thorough preparation, time away from the problem, and knowledge that sits in people's heads and not only in their tools. That is why the method puts a break between analysis and decision, asks who is able to judge what the AI produces, and looks for growth before cuts.
One practice of my own belongs here. I practise gong fu cha, the Chinese tea ceremony. I have learned it through courses from the International Tea Academy, my own study and guidance from experienced practitioners. I use it for my own attention, and I have used it regularly as a leader to build motivation and engagement in a team. It brings people close to their senses, which helps when the task is to create something of value, and in demanding situations in security work. It is also part of how Attolloo works.
The longer aim is places and ways of working where experienced people get their energy back and put it into building something new, with AI as one of the tools. Italy has been part of that picture for many years, and is planned as one of the settings for Attolloo's working sessions.
Why Attolloo Exists
Most early-stage AI companies in regulated sectors can find capital. What they often cannot find is someone with executive experience in security, privacy and regulated markets who can tell them what a buyer, a regulator or an investor will ask for.
That is what Attolloo offers: first as a defined assessment for a fee, then for some companies as a board, advisory or mentoring role, and for a few as a longer partnership. The aim is that the governance stays in the company when I leave.