Board of Directors
Rob Woodward
Chair
Rob has held leadership positions as Chair, NED and CEO across both public and private companies. Since early on in his career he has specialised in the TMT sector. Appointed by the UK Government he has been Chair of the Met Office since 2018, a role he will relinquish this year after two terms. His experience includes over 10 years as Chief Executive Officer of STV Group plc. He had previously been Commercial Director at Channel 4 Television, Managing Director with UBS Corporate Finance and lead partner for Deloitte’s Telecoms, Media & Technology Industry Group in Europe.
Rob is also currently Chair of Court at Glasgow Caledonian University and Chair of listed marketing analytics provider, Ebiquity plc. As Chair he oversaw the sale of technology company Blancco plc last year to US private equity.
Bente Sollid
Board member
Bente Sollid is CEO of Digital Hverdag and non-executive director of Polaris Media, Hafslund, Europris, Motor Gruppen, Questback, Nortel and Eika Gruppen. She is also chair of Placewise Group and Ocean Visioneering. Storehaug has been a member of several policy advisory boards for government ministers in Norway. Storehaug established her own internet consultancy in 1993, which is listed today on Oslo Børs as Bouvet ASA. She is the youngest member ever of the Norwegian Association of Editors.
Ashkan Senobari
Board member
Ashkan is a Director at Hanover Investors where he leads public market deal origination and execution across Scandinavia. He also sits on the board of ZetaDisplay AB and has previously been Board observer for itslearning AS, a Norwegian EdTech business. Ashkan joined Hanover in 2018 from private equity fund EQT Partners where he worked in Stockholm and New York on mid-market private equity buyouts. Ashkan started his career in the M&A division of J.P. Morgan in London. Other current board assignments: ZetaDisplay AB.
Giles Smyth
Board member
Giles is a Partner at Hanover Investors, where he leads public market deal sourcing and sits on the Investment Committee for the Hanover Catalyst Fund, a high conviction, unconstrained investor in small cap listed equities. He currently serves on the boards of eCOGRA, Escher and Kalibrate, and has previously served on the board of Brady Technologies. Giles joined Hanover in 2017 from McKinsey & Company where he was an Associate Partner in the Technology, Media & Telecom and Private Equity practices, and spent time as the COO of a fast growth software business. He started his career in the Strategy division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Other current board assignments: Kalibrate Technologies, eCOGRA and Escher Group.
Fred Lundqvist
Board member
Fred is a Partner at Hanover Investors where he sits on the Investment Committee and advises the investment team on target assessment, financial analysis and deal execution. He currently serves on the Board of ZetaDisplay AB, a Swedish digital signage and software provider. Fred joined Hanover in 2006 as an investment analyst and became a partner in 2011, leading deal execution until 2021, completing public and private transactions across a wide range of sectors and geographies including the UK, Europe, Africa, Latin America and India. In his early career as an analyst Fred worked on the identification and analysis of both public and private investment opportunities across a wide range of sectors including consumer finance, media, logistics and diversified industrials. Other current board assignments: ZetaDisplay AB.
Anne Dahle
Board member (Employee Representative)
Anne Dahle teaches Norwegian at Sonans Nettstudier and Sonans Privatist, Bergen. She is Head of the online Norwegian section and has developed the online course in Norwegian language and literature at Sonans Nettstudier. She started teaching at Sonans in 1995, after a year in public education. In addition to teaching, she has worked with sales and student counselling. Mrs. Dahle studied French and Norwegian literature and languages and finished her Masters at the University of Bergen in 1994. In 1999 she worked in the travel industry in Spain for two years followed by two years as a student advisor at MI Bergen, now Høyskolen Kristiania, before being offered to return to teaching at Sonans in 2004.