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Nationality:
Norway

Languages:
English, Norwegian

Biography:
I am managing director and partner of Opinion, one of the traditional research agencies in Norway, but with a new school approach to the wonderful world of insight - as our slogan states - we deliver insight that bring you forward. We have a 50 people strong staff that can do (well) pretty much everything a MR agency can be asked to do, but we specializie in qual research and the use of community panels (MROC).

I have been in market research for my entire professional life, starting as an interviewer in Feedback (later RI Norway, then Kantar) in 1989. I worked 7 years in Feedback, covering most of the research palette as supervisor, field manager and consultant/project manager. In 1997, two of my colleagues in Feedback and I established Norstat as the first fieldwork specialist in Norway, and developed Norstat from a single call center at Lillehammer to an international company with 18 offices in 8 countries and with a yearly revenue of 33 MEUR as of my departure in 2011. My academic background is as a political scientist from the University of Oslo. I have also been at the board of the Norwegian Market Research Association (NMF) for several years, where I also have involved in NMFs international work. I was the chair of Virke Markedsanalyse, the organization for research agencies in Norway from 2015 to 2021, and I was the ESOMAR representative for Norway between 2011 and 2020.

Obviously, my main experience is from the fieldwork part of the industry, all though I have been working mostly administratively for the last 20 years of my carrier. I am however broadly interested and knowledgeable about the profession as a whole, but lately have I put a special interest in our relations to respondents, whom I regard as pretty much the more or less ignored foundation of market research. My mission for the last couple of years in Norstat has been to wake up the organization and our clients in order to understand the importance of valuing the respondents and ensure the future cooperation with us.

One last piece of advice from someone who know is labelled an old-timer within the industry: Engage in industry associations (as ESOMAR), whether it is national or international organisations
- it is fun, gives perspectives and is inspiring!

Expertise:
Communities, panels, focus groups (Qualitative and Quantitative), Legal & Compliance, Organisational strategy & operations, Primary data collection and processing, Research technology, Sales & Account management