FREYR Battery Announces Appointments to Senior Management and Board of Directors
10 August 2023 - 8:01PM
Business Wire
Previous Microsoft executive Birger Steen appointed Chief
Executive Officer and to Board of Directors; Co-founder and CEO Tom
Einar Jensen appointed Executive Chair of Board of Directors;
Founder and Executive Chair Torstein Dale Sjøtveit retiring as part
of succession plan
FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR”), a developer of clean,
next-generation battery cell production capacity, has announced two
appointments to strengthen the company’s leadership capabilities
and accelerate key strategic initiatives. The appointments to the
senior management and Board of Directors, are as follows:
- Birger Steen, currently Board Chair of Nordic Semiconductor ASA
and Pagero AB, has been appointed FREYR’s Chief Executive Officer
effective as of August 21st and to the Board of Directors,
effective August 9th. Mr. Steen brings more than 30 years of
technology sector senior leadership and Board of Directors
experience in roles at companies including Parallels, Inc.,
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT; “Microsoft”), Schibsted ASA (OSE:)
and McKinsey & Co.
- Tom Einar Jensen, FREYR’s Co-Founder and CEO, has been
appointed Executive Chair of FREYR’s Board of Directors effective
August 21st. As Executive Chair, Mr. Jensen will work closely with
the leadership team to drive key global corporate development
initiatives, capital formation, and engagement with FREYR’s capital
providers based on a customer centric and partnership- oriented
approach.
- Torstein Dale Sjøtveit, FREYR’s Founder and Executive Chair,
has retired, effective August 9th.
“At FREYR, our Board of Directors and senior management are
determined to push the frontiers of innovation and apply new
technologies to next-generation battery manufacturing. With the
company having recently embarked on its operating journey, we have
taken advantage of our ability to recruit a talented executive to
complement our team. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Tom
for his tireless service and leadership to position the company for
success as FREYR’s Co-founder and CEO. Tom’s deep experience in
maturing disruptive technology and business models, coupled with
his understanding of FREYR’s value chain, creates a unique basis to
unlock public and private capital to drive value creation for
FREYR’s customers, shareholders, and stakeholders. With Birger and
Tom in their new roles, I am confident that we have the skills,
know-how and leadership to propel our next phase of growth,”
commented Torstein Dale Sjøtveit, FREYR’s Founder and Executive
Chair.
“With the addition of Birger as CEO and Tom’s appointment as
Executive Chair, I can retire with full confidence in our
succession plan and with the reassurance that the organization is
in very capable hands. I am grateful for the support of our
shareholders, employees, customers, strategic partners, my fellow
Board members, and other key stakeholders who have been
instrumental to FREYR’s success since our founding in 2018. The
opportunity to grow FREYR from an idea to the battery manufacturer
it is today has been one of the most gratifying and rewarding
experiences of my career, and I wish to extend my sincere thanks to
all of you.”
Tom Einar Jensen, FREYR’s Co-founder and CEO, commented “I am
excited to open this next chapter at FREYR. With FREYR having now
transitioned from an initial concept to a publicly traded
manufacturer of next-generation batteries, this is the ideal time
for us to focus on scaling our business by developing strategic
alliances, securing commercial agreements, and engaging with our
capital providers. As I prepare to assume the responsibilities of
Executive Chair from Torstein, I feel deep gratitude for his
dedicated stewardship of FREYR and his mentorship in our
formational years. On behalf of FREYR’s investors, Board of
Directors, leadership team, and employees, I wish to extend our
heartfelt thanks for his contribution – we wish Torstein all the
best in his retirement.”
Mr. Jensen added, “I am also very pleased to welcome Birger
Steen to the role of CEO and as a Board member. Birger is an
outstanding leader, and he brings more than 30 years of experience
in scaling companies and deep expertise from the technology sector
to FREYR. I look forward to us working closely together to ensure a
smooth transition, and to collaborating on capital markets, global
business development, and strategic initiatives in my new Executive
Chair capacity.”
“I have been impressed by the remarkable growth and global
development of FREYR, and I am energized to help accelerate that
growth together with a leadership team consisting of industry
veterans from both sides of the Atlantic and more than 400 other
intensely committed battery professionals. As one of the few
publicly traded, pure play battery producers in the West, we have
an extraordinary opportunity to establish a differentiated
competitive position as the industrial partner of choice in the
clean battery space. As we ramp up production at our Customer
Qualification Plant in Mo i Rana and scale our business globally, I
look forward to working with the team to accelerate process
automation, production, and testing of chargeable cells and to
start shipping them to our growing list of customers," said Birger
Steen, CEO and Board member, FREYR. “It is becoming more evident by
the day that business as usual is not a viable path to Net Zero,
and I couldn’t be more excited at the opportunity for us at FREYR,
our customers, and partners to make a real difference!”
Prior to joining FREYR, Birger Steen was a Thematic Partner at
Summa Equity. He is currently Board Chair at Nordic Semiconductor
ASA and Pagero Group AB (publ.), and serves on the boards of Nordea
Bank Abp, where he chairs the Operations and Sustainability
Committee, and Pragmatic Semiconductor LLC. He was previously Chief
Executive Officer of Parallels, Inc., WW Vice President of
Distribution & SMB at Microsoft Corp, both in Seattle, VP &
General Manager at Microsoft Russia and General Manager at
Microsoft Norge AS (subsidiaries of Microsoft Corp.). Prior to
joining Microsoft, Mr. Steen was Chief Executive Officer at
Scandinavia Online AS (publ.), a VP at Schibsted ASA and a
consultant at McKinsey & Co. He holds an MBA degree from INSEAD
as well as degrees from the Norwegian Defense School of
Intelligence & Security and Norwegian Institute of Technology
(NTNU).
About FREYR Battery
FREYR Battery aims to provide industrial scale clean battery
solutions to reduce global emissions. Listed on the New York Stock
Exchange, FREYR’s mission is to produce clean battery cells to
accelerate the decarbonization of energy and transportation systems
globally. FREYR has commenced building the first of its planned
factories in Mo i Rana, Norway and announced potential development
of industrial scale battery cell production in the United States
and Finland. To learn more about FREYR, please visit
www.freyrbattery.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
All statements, other than statements of present or historical
fact included in this press release, are forward looking
statements.
These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside
FREYR’s control and are difficult to predict. Additional
information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set
forth under the “Risk Factors” section in (i) FREYR’s Registration
Statement on Form S-3 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (the “SEC”) on September 1, 2022 and (ii) FREYR's Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 that was
filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, available on the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230810500448/en/
Investor contact:
Jeffrey Spittel Vice President, Investor Relations
jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com Tel: (+1) 281-222-0161
Media contact:
Katrin Berntsen Vice President, Communication, FREYR
katrin.berntsen@freyrbattery.com Tel: (+47) 920 54 570
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