“We are happy to announce that Kjetil Solbrække has accepted the position as CEO for SINTEF Brasil. He will commence in his position the 1st of November”, says Jack Ødegård, President of the Board of SINTEF Brasil.
Mr. Solbrække comes from the position as CEO in Panoro Energy (previously Norse Energy). Before that, he was working in Norsk Hydro/Statoil Hydro and played a major role in the company's business development in Brazil. Mr. Solbrække has been working in Brazil since 2006, and has developed an extensive network in the petroleum business community. Amongst several other roles he is a board member of the Norwegian Brazilian Chambers of Commerce.
Kjetil Solbrække was educated Cand Oecon from University of Oslo in 1989. Later he spent six years in the Norwegian Ministry of Oil and Energy before he moved to a position in Norsk Hydro.
In Norsk Hydro he held the positions as CFO for the Oil and Energy division, Senior Vice President for international business development, General Manager in Brazil for Norsk Hydro and Senior Vice President for the South Atlantic region in the merged company Statoil Hydro. His carrier has clearly been directed toward international business development.
SINTEF is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia with about 2100 employees, and create value through knowledge generation, research and innovation, and develop technological solutions that are brought into practical use.
SINTEF is an independent, non-commercial organisation, and is a broadly based, multidisciplinary research organization that possesses international top-level expertise in technology, medicine and the social sciences, and our aim is to become the most renowned contract research institution in Europe.
SINTEF Brasil was established in January 2011. In April 2012 the institute received the formal accreditation from ANP for conducting research and development under the Brazilian Special Participation Fund, as the first international research institute.
The research institute is still in its initial stage, presently with about 15 employees, but is about to qualify a number of research projects for start-up in the very near future.
“We expect to grow substantially in the years to come, basically by recruiting excellent researchers locally. Our long term ambition is to be acknowledged as a leading independent research organization in the South Americas, and aims to be located in several regions in Brazil, and cooperate closely with a number of the country’s best universities”, says Jack Ødegård.
Kjetil Solbrække is looking forward to enter a new and challenging role – to build and grow an international independent research organization in Brazil.
“I was attracted by SINTEFs vision "technology for a better society", and felt immediately that this vision fits very well for the development now taking place in the Brazilian society. The successful model and experience from Norway is adoptable to the situation in Brazil, generating values both for industry and the society”, says Mr. Solbrække.
Kjetil Solbrække is replacing Øyvind Hellan who has worked as CEO for SINTEF Brasil since the start. Øyvind will now go back to take up a position as Research Director at the SINTEF Company Marintek in Norway.
