Otovo has hired Petter Ulset as Chief Financial Officer. Ulset joins Otovo from
Cognite, the global industrial software company, where he served as Senior Vice
President of Corporate Development. He will start on 1 March this year.
- We are very excited to get Petter onboard. He brings experience in scaling the
global, high-growth SaaS company Cognite and deep energy-related corporate
finance and M&A experience from his time with Aker ASA and McKinsey & Company.
He will for sure contribute to accelerating Otovo's growth, says Andreas
Thorsheim, CEO of Otovo.
Ulset leaves Cognite where he was Senior Vice President of Corporate
Development, responsible for scaling Cognite's offerings into new asset-heavy
industries and geographies and heading the company's strategy and corporate
finance functions. Before joining Cognite, he worked as an Investment Manager
with Aker ASA and as a Junior Partner with McKinsey & Company, working primarily
in the global energy industry.
- Over the last five years I have been so fortunate to be part of building
Cognite - taking the company from a good, but unproven business idea, to
Norway's first unicorn. My time with Cognite has taught me a lot about what it
takes to blitzscale technology companies. I hope to put some of these learnings
into work with Otovo. Here I see a company where a strong team has built a
business model with a strong moat, working a market opportunity with no roof.
The self-reinforcing flywheel in Otovo's model of connecting consumers and
installers is strong, and will accelerate as we scale. I know the next years
will be an epic journey with loads of fun, says Petter Ulset.
- After spending time with Andreas and the team I became positively convinced
that this was an opportunity to good to pass on. When you walk through Otovo's
office you see a lot of smiles and enthusiasm, feel unparalleled energy and see
a desire to succeed with Otovo's mission of putting solar panels and batteries
into every home in Europe. This raison d'être I 100% subscribe to, Ulset adds.
Ulset joins Otovo on 1 March 2022 and will be working out of Oslo. He will be
part of Otovo's International Management team and also be responsible for
Otovo's Strategy and M&A functions, as well as being asset owner for EDEA
(European Distributed Energy Systems, Otovo's asset owning entity), whose CEO
will report to him.
Ulset holds a Master's degree in Industrial Economics and Technology Management
from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Otovo thanks Lars Ekeland for his strong and dedicated tenure as acting CFO.
Ekeland will now return to his role as General Counsel.
***
About Otovo: For homeowners, Otovo is the easiest way to get solar panels on the
roof. Otovo is a marketplace that organizes hundreds of local, high-quality, and
qualified energy installers. The company uses its proprietary technology to
analyze the potential of any home and finds the best price and installer for
customers based on an automatic bidding process between available installers.