“Both of them will be bring valuable contributions to the board, and to our strategic focus areas which is to create faster and easier pathways from idea to market, facilitating Norwegian manufacturing – and thus more jobs, as well as strengthening exports from the life sciences,” says CEO of The Life Science Cluster, Delphine Costa.

Georgina Askeland

Georgina Askeland works as a Principal in the life sciences VC fund Hadean Ventures. She has an academic background in molecular biology from University College London and University of Oslo. Askeland has worked closely with the Norwegian life science innovation system the last 10 years, also previously as an innovation consultant on R&D projects, helping early-phase companies with funding strategies. As part of the new board at The Life Science Cluster, she also brings with her a highly valuable international network.

“I look forward to contributing as a board member and getting a more in-depth knowledge of the cluster’s focus areas. My focus will be to continue building a good innovation system and raise awareness among researchers to build companies on great ideas. Norway and The Nordics performs well on the innovation scoreboard, but we need to continue to build a robust environment for start-ups to grow,” says Askeland.

Christer Valderhaug

Christer Valderhaug is CEO of Arctic Bioscience, a company coming out of Ørsta on the Norwegian west-coast that produces pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical products based on bioactive marine compounds. Valderhaug has an extensive experience from international business and holds a Master of Economics degree from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and the University of Mannheim in Germany.

“I strongly believe in building arenas where Norwegian biotech companies can meet, share network and exchange knowledge. At Arctic Bioscience, we are especially interested in manufacturing of medicines in Norway as well as market access. I’m looking forward to being a part of the board,” says Valderhaug.

The new board members will replace Øivind Enger from Sarsia and Gunnar Kongsrud from Abbvie. Enger will further on be a part of the election committee. Bjørn Brudvoll from Head4More, who have led the election committee, will now leave the election committee, which from now on will consist of Lars Lund-Roland, Øivind Enger, Jonas Hallén.