Executive Profiles

Conax Leader Group

Berit Svendsen

President/CEO

Berit Svendsen holds an MSc in Electronics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (1988), and a Master of Technology Management from NTNU and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (1995). She joined Telenor in 1988 as a Research Scientist. From 2000 to 2005 she was Executive Vice President and CTO of Telenor and also working Chair of Telenor R&D. In January 2005 she took up the position as Vice President and Head of Telenor Nordic Fixed with overall responsibility for the fixed network business in Norway. From 2002 to 2007 Berit Svendsen was a member of the European Commission / IST Advisory Group. She joined Conax as CEO in May 2008.

Geir Bjørndal

EVP, Products and Markets

Mr. Bjørndal’s rich career within the pay-TV industry began in 1992 in the development engineering team of Telenor’s TV division. In 1994, Mr Bjørndal moved to daughter company, Conax. Gaining extensive experience within the technical aspects of pay-TV operations, Mr. Bjørndal later joined Conax’ commercial operations as Product Manager for Pay-TV Systems. From 2003 until 2009, Bjørndal led the Conax Sales & Marketing Division during the period highly significant in establishing Conax as a leading global player within content security. He also held the dual role of COO. Today, Conax’s EVP, Products & Markets, Mr. Bjørndal, is responsible for leading the development of Conax’ extensive global partner, product strategy, business development and marketing activities.

Øistein Westgaard

EVP, Operations

Mr. Westgaard joined Conax in 2001 as head of Payment Systems Solutions and has served as Director Operations since 2004. He is also a board member of Conax India. Before joining Conax, Mr. Westgaard held senior positions at Telenor Business Solutions and served as Marketing Director of Telenor Pos AS. He has experience from senior positions in Tandem Computers, Union Bank of Norway, Ford Motor Company Norway and the Norwegian Directorate of Management and Administration before joining Telenor. He holds a B.Sc in Information Technology from Agder University College.

Erik Tordhol

EVP Sales

Mr. Tordhol joined Conax in November 1997 as Area Sales Manager responsible for the Nordic countries and northern Europe. During his career in Conax Mr. Tordhol has held different key positions within sales both in Europe and SE Asia. He was appointed Director of Sales Europe, in January 2008. In September 2009 he was appointed VP Sales/Head of direct Sales. Mr. Tordhol has 20 years of experience in domestic and international business to business sales of advanced technical solutions in the industrial automation business and pay TV markets. Mr. Tordhol holds a degree in Engineering, Industrial Engineering.

Tore Gimse

EVP/CTO

Mr. Gimse, Ph.D. in Applied mathematics from the University of Oslo, has research and teaching experience from universities. For seven years he was working with technology and business development in the petroleum sector (FrontSim software). In 1998 he was appointed managing director of the Applied mathematics department in SINTEF, the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia, where he stayed until he joined Conax in May 2006.

Conax Germany

Michael Schacht

CEO, Conax GmbH

Mr. Schacht joined Conax in April 2006 as Chief Executive Officer of Conax GmbH in Germany. He worked for more than ten years as CTO and Head of Interactive Services for Premiere, the German Pay-TV provider. As Executive VP Platforms and Technology for the Bertelsmann Broadband Group and as Head of Digital TV and Network Management for RTL New Media, Mr. Schacht has acquired experience in IP- and application based services. He holds a diploma in Political Science, History and Public Law from the University of Hamburg.

Conax India

Petter Schønberg

CEO, Conax Access Systems Private Limited

Prior to joining Conax in 2007, Mr.Schønberg worked the telecom sector for 13 years. He has held engineering and management positions with Nortel Networks, MCI Worldcom in the UK and Siemens, Norway, working with both fixed and mobile systems. At Conax , Mr. Schønberg has held leading positions within Delivery & Support delivering the CAS 7 systems and also enhancement of project delivery processes. He holds a Bachelor and Master degree in electronic engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

Conax China

Theo van Aalst

CEO Conax Digital Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Theo van Aalst began his career in 1979 within digital TV research. In the late eighties and early nineties, Mr. van Aalst held both technical and management positions at Philips in The Netherlands and France and later joined Irdeto where he participated in one of the first implementations of digital TV. He later took CTO positions during the design and realisation of pioneering digital cable and DTT systems in the Netherlands and held technical and business development consultancy jobs around the globe within all areas in the field of digital TV. In 2005, Mr. van Aalst joined Conax where he held the positions of Business Development Manager and International Product Marketing Manager and since July 2009 the position of CEO Conax Digital Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Mr. van Aalst holds a cum laude MSc degree in EE engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology and is a Dutch national.