Norway: Ex-football star takes over as CEO of Kvaerner

Karl-Petter Løken has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kvaerner, the Norwegian oilfield engineering and construction (EPC) projects Kvaerner.

Løken will take over during the spring as soon as he has ended his current position as head of Project Development for the oil company Lundin Norway.

The appointment comes almost a month after the company’s previous CEO Jan Arve Haugan said he would resign as President & CEO of Kvaerner and start his new role as CEO of the newly established oil company Aker Energy.

As for the new CEO, Kvaerner has shared that Karl-Petter Løken (51) is educated as a civil engineer from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Since 1991, he has held key positions in the oil and gas industry for companies like Statoil, Aker Solutions and Lundin Norway.

For many years, Løken was in parallel with his industrial career also a top league football player in Norway, including 36 matches for the national team, and 216 matches for Rosenborg where he scored 64 goals.

Edvard Grieg field

From 2011 to 2015, Løken was Engineering Manager for Lundin Norway’s Edvard Grieg field development, where Kvaerner was the key contractor.

“I am looking forward to becoming a part of Kvaerner. I already know a bit about the organisation, the people and what they stand for. Over the past years, I have also been impressed by how Kvaerner has become recognized by international customers for being the contractor that always delivers as planned. The company’s expertise, capacity and position is a strong base for continuing this systematic performance, and for simultaneously developing the business further”, says Karl-Petter Løken.

Kvaerner’s EVP & CFO Idar Eikrem will continue as interim CEO until Løken takes up his position.