Board of Directors
Chairman of the board
Gestur G. Gestsson
Board member
Benjamin Kramarz
Board member
Tania Howarth
Board member
Live Haukvik
Board member
Ylva Berg
Board member
Maria Brunow
Board member
Elisabeth Vestin
Board member
Alireza Etemad
Board member
Franck Cohen
Board member
Michael Bruun
Board member
Carol Roche Austin
Chairman of the board
Gestur G. Gestsson
Gestur G. Gestsson is the chairman of the board. He was the Group CEO of Advania from 2009 to 2019 and has extensive management and board experience in IT and telecommunications. Previously, he was the CMO and later CTO at Vodafone Iceland, CMO of the interactive gaming company Betware and CEO of the Icelandic pioneering ISP Margmiðlun. He has served as Chairman of the Board of top-level domain registry Internet in Iceland and had the same position at Vodafone in the Faroe Islands. Gestur holds a degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Iceland.
Board member
Benjamin Kramarz
Benjamin Kramarz has vast experience in investing in and building businesses across the Nordic Region. He is currently a partner with the Nordic based private equity fund, VIA equity, and is an active board member in several Nordic based technology companies. Benjamin holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from Harvard School of Government. In addition, Benjamin has earned a B.Sc. in Economics and an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Copenhagen where he was awarded with the Crown Prince Frederik Fellowship.
Board member
Tania Howarth
Tania Howarth is a Non Executive Director and advisor to Private Equity funds, working across a variety of industry sectors. Tania has over 25 years of Executive level experience, largely in transformation leadership roles in global CPG businesses PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and Nomad Foods. She has led large scale technology and process redesign programmes as a CIO. As COO of a European Food Company, Tania led business turnaround through culture shaping and strategy execution, supply chain leadership and operational efficiency initiatives and has considerable experience of M&A and integration. More recently Tania was a Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal in the European Private Equity practise. She holds a degree in European Studies and Modern Languages and resides in the UK.
Board member
Live Haukvik
Live Haukvik is working as an advisor and board member. She has extensive board experience from several blue-chip companies. Live was CFO/COO in Komplett Group from 2012 until January 2020. She has wide experience as an executive director of a diverse range of listed, fast-growing companies. She also has experience as partner at Considium Consultng Group and for KPMG. Live holds a Master of Finance from Université de Fribourg, Switzerland, and a Master of Management from The Norwegian Business School (BI).
Board member
Ylva Berg
Ylva Berg has a broad international business experience with focus on the Northen part of Europe. She has held various executive and senior management positions in both IT and Facility management industry, in Lawson software and within Coor Service management. At present she is holding the position as CIO at Tyréns, a company in the industry of Design & Engineering. She is member of several board of directors. Ylva has a M.SC degree in Civil Engineering from Uppsala and Luleå University of Technology.
Board member
Maria Brunow
Maria Brunow joined IK Partners in 2018 and is a Director in the Mid Cap Investment Team in Stockholm. She is responsible for portfolio investments across the Nordics and in involved in the Healthcare sector team. At IK Partners, Maria has been involved in Netel and Visolit. Prior to joining IK Partners, Maria worked in corporate finance for Deutsche Bank in London and Lazard in Stockholm. She holds an MSc in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Board member
Elisabeth Vestin
Elisabeth Vestin is a lawyer and expert in intellectual property, data, technology and commercial law, with over fifteen years of experience of advising Swedish and international companies in the technology industry. She is a partner at Hannes Snellman Attorneys Ltd and heads the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology practice at the Stockholm office. She is also a member of the Swedish Bar Association. Elisabeth holds an LL.M. from the University of Lund and an LL.M. in Innovation, Technology and the Law from Edinburgh University. In addition, she has trained on the bench at the District Court in Lund.
Board member
Alireza Etemad
Alireza Etemad joined IK Partners in 2015 and is a Partner, leading the Investment Team for the Mid Cap strategy across the Nordic countries as well as sector lead for the Industrials sector across IK Partners. At IK Partners, Alireza has been involved in many investments across multiple industries, such as Advania, Aspia, Attendo, Ellab, Netel and Visolit. Prior to joining the firm, Alireza lead the global corporate finance team at SEB and have worked within management consulting and investment banking for more than 15 years. Alireza studied for a Master in Engineering at Linköpings Institute of Technology and also holds a Master degree in Management from Institut National des Télécommunications in Paris.
Board member
Franck Cohen
Franck Cohen began his career in 1987 launching an ERP company in France. Ten years later, he joined Intentia, a Swedish ERP company, where he held several roles including General Manager of EMEA and EVP of Sales Worldwide. In 2006, when Intentia merged with Lawson Software, Franck relocated to the United States. Franck joined SAP in 2009. In 2010, he was appointed President of EMEA. in 2016, he became global Chief Customer Officer for SAP In 2018, Franck took over the responsibility for all product and development activities with the objective to migrate from an on premise to a cloud architecture. Today, Franck Cohen is a board advisor of Workday , UIPATH and C3.AI Franck is the chairman of a non profitable association, PassW promoting inclusive AI and he is also the chairman of Geektime in Israel, the largest tech media platform in Israel.
Board member
Michael Bruun
Michael Bruun is EMEA head of corporate equity and head of India corporate and growth investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He is a member of the MBD Corporate Investment Committee, MBD Growth Investment Committee, Sustainable Investing Group Investment Committee, and the Asset Management Inclusion and Diversity Committee. Michael joined Goldman Sachs in 2004 and was made managing director in 2013 and partner in 2016. Michael earned a BA in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, with studies at Cornell University. Michael currently serves on the boards of Ecoonline, HRA Pharma, Navico, Northvolt, Noveltech, Renew Power and Trackunit.
Board member
Carol Roche Austin
Carol Roche Austin is a Non-Executive Director and Advisor to Private Equity funds. She has over 15 years of international, executive level experience, largely focused on Human Capital Management. Founder and Director of CRA Human Capital Ltd, her prior leadership positions include Head of HR at Permira Advisers, HR Director at 3i Group plc and HR Executive at Siebel Systems. Carol holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and is a Meyler Campbell and IoC accredited Executive Coach.
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