Rising Leaders participants visited Accenture Norway’s headquarters where they were welcomed by Managing Director and Head of Accenture Technology, Torbjørn Eik-Nes. As the first in-person company visit in many months since the pandemic, participants were eager to absorb Eik-Nes’ career insights and professional guidance.
After a quick overview of Accenture facts and figures, Eik-Nes shared his personal career journey within Accenture. His original plan was not working in a corporate setting, but rather playing professional soccer.
Eik-Nes holds a Master of Science in Energy Management from BI Norwegian Business School and has particularly good memories from studies at UC Berkley. San Francisco is close to Torbjørn’s heart, and he considers it his second home. After his studies, he came across an article about Accenture by coincidence, which ultimately led him to the company. “My career started with a lot of coincidences – as I am sure will be the case in yours as well.”
Accenture’s core values and culture have fundamentally remained unchanged since he started in 1996 and are a key reason for why Eik-Nes has stayed at the company for the past 25 years. His various roles within the company provided him new opportunities to learn, be challenged and grow, giving him the feeling of having “new jobs many times, moving to completely different industries with new people and leadership within Accenture.” He did, however, stress that being promoted is not a source of happiness in and of itself, emphasizing that participants should focus on enjoying their work while maintaining a good measure of patience.
Participants posed some quite challenging questions on topics such as work-life balance and diversity, leaving him with “valuable areas to reflect upon.” AmCham would like to thank Eik-Nes for his willingness to share his personal journey with the group and the Accenture team for their hospitality.
Torbjørn Eik-Nes
Rising Leaders, a joint AmCham-US Embassy initiative, brings together entrepreneurs, young professionals, and student leaders in an innovative program that promotes diversity and connects promising talent. Through the program, participants engage international business leaders, learn about AmCham member companies, explore careers, and gain business and leadership skills.
The 2021-2022 Rising Leaders class – comprised of 18 women and 10 men between the ages of 22 and 35 – bring with them experience from healthcare, classical music, urban planning, organizational psychology, immigration, engineering, communications, technology, teaching, economics, finance, and marketing. All 28 program participants have demonstrated leadership, entrepreneurial, and/or business excellence in their educational pursuits and careers thus far.
For more information about the program, or to learn how your organization can get involved, please contact Madeleine Brekke.
For the last afterwork of 2022 and the program finale, Rising Leaders participants and AmCham members had the opportunity to visit hybrid gaming company and Norwegian unicorn, PortalOne’s brand new offices at Aker Brygge.
Rising Leaders and AmCham members gathered at Airthings’ Oslo headquarters in November. CTO and Co-Founder Erlend Bolle kicked off the meeting with a candid, humorous retelling or the Airthings story, highlighting key moments in their incredible journey from Norway-based startup to international scaleup.
Rising Leaders participants visited Yara International’s headquarters where they were welcomed by Senior Vice President of Food Systems Transformation, Pablo Barrera Lopez.