Kenneth Vareide

CEO of Digital Solutions Kenneth Vareide’s journey in DNV started in 1996 as a technical trainee after graduating in Naval Architecture from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Since then he has held several managerial positions across the company’s business areas and regions, which eventually led him to become CEO of Digital Solutions in 2019.

Family on the top of Hallingskarvet.

Since then a lot has happened and with a new strategy launched this year, the ambitions are getting even higher. Kenneth is known for his collaborative leadership style and preaches the power of teamwork whenever he can. What exactly his ambitions for Digital Solutions are and why collaboration is so important, he will tell us soon.

But first, let’s go back in time… You are always just a phone call away from an expert. Anywhere in the world, working on any subject, you are part of an organisation that has the answers.

As the son of an engineer, Kenneth understood that math and physics were important subjects in school, and it came naturally to him. Working with other students who were struggling with these subjects, he found that in collaborating he gained something as well.

“Collaboration came very naturally to me from a young age, and it’s really been a theme throughout my life. I think working with other students early on sparked something in me, and I saw great benefit in working with others, getting inspiration, and finding new ways of approaching tasks,” he says.

His collaboration skills nearly led him into a teaching career, but Kenneth’s own teacher at the time was very clear with him. He was destined for a life as an engineer.

And so, Kenneth went on to attend the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, where he earned a degree in Naval Architecture. He says that the curriculum for that degree was basically straight from the DNV archives, and that many of the students went directly from the university into the company. Kenneth was one of them, and with a little negotiating and a bit of luck, he was placed in Houston for his traineeship. A couple of weeks after arriving in Houston, he was sent off to Keppel AmFELS’ yard in Brownsville to carry out upgrades on the rig.

“While being on the rig, we had to conduct an inclining test, a test performed on the rig to determine its stability and the coordinates of its centre of gravity. I remembered that we got some strange results and I had to decide whether we should accept the results or not. I called the Høvik office and even though it was out of working hours I got hold of someone in the stability department and asked for help. 30 minutes later, I got a phone call back reinsuring that the results were good to go.”

This incident contributed to Kenneth’s realisation that he was part of an organisation that is rich of knowledge, competence, and expertise.

“You are always just a phone call away from an expert. Anywhere in the world, working on any subject, you are part of an organisation that has the answers,” he continues.

Throughout Kenneth’s career, he had great leaders in DNV from whom he gained both knowledge and inspiration. All of them had one thing in common; they looked after the company for the next generation and served its strong purpose of safeguarding life, property, and the environment, while taking care of the employees – the heart of the organisation.

“As a firm believer in the power of collaboration, my ambition is to create a culture based on teamwork and trust that creates opportunities to use all available resources and skills. I want to bring the best that the company has to offer in terms of competence, expertise, services, and products to our customers.”

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS NEW STRATEGY

In the beginning of the year, Digital Solutions launched its new strategy with the ambition to enable customers in digitalising and managing business critical activities in a sustainable, cost-efficient, safe and secure way.

“We can see a tough business environment and faster update of digital technologies, not least due to the ongoing pandemic. Digitalisation is inevitable and taking the benefits of it will help us generating a competitive advantage.”

Kenneth believes that technology and great people are a winning combination and again, collaboration plays an essential role here. ”Great organisations, like any sport’s team, can’t rest on the shoulders of a single person. We need to work together and break internal silos in order to succeed, especially in times of change. Teamwork is essential to our new strategy to expand our business, to grow our software business and to implement an efficient digital operating model offering superior customer experience,” he explains. As part of the new strategy, the Product Line Director role has been established. The five Product Line Directors will be introduced on the following pages. The introduction of the new role does not only mark the beginning of Digital Solutions transformational journey, it is also a measure to improve collaboration across the organisation.

“The Product Line Directors are part of the executive leadership team and have the ownership for product and business development through closely monitoring customers and market needs. The ambition behind establishing that new role was to align all operations across the customer journey and to work closely with all our functions and units,“ he says.

THE BAKER

When Kenneth is off work, you can find him either at the soccer field cheering for his son’s team or at the sports hall, where he acts as an assistant coach for his daughter’s handball team.

“Since my start in DNV, I’ve been all over for the company, from Houston to Korea. This makes me appreciate the time with my family even more,” he says.

A quick glance at the photo library on Kenneth’s iPhone will reveal more photos of bread than people. Baking bread has become something of an obsession for Kenneth, and he prides himself on making fresh loaves for his family each week. It can be an arduous process, taking a great deal of time and patience to produce the perfect loaf.

“I am still trying to master the perfect pizza. Italians would probably laugh at me, but I am getting there. I am even considering buying a wood fired oven,” he ends. •

Baking and ingenieering. Two important things in life.