Campus BLÅ Conference 2026

Amund Hellesø

Mayor of Nærøysund and Chair of the Network of Fjord and Coastal Municipalities (NFKK), which brings together around 80 municipalities along the entire coast, home to more than two-thirds of all aquaculture production in Norway. He will talk about how we recruit to the industry, and how we get people to settle in coastal communities. Hellesø has been mayor since 2015, first in Vikna and then in the merged municipality of Nærøysund, and worked both in the private sector and as a teacher before entering politics.

Dag Sletmo

Senior Vice President and Adviser in DNB's Seafood Division, and one of the country's most experienced aquaculture analysts. He looks into the crystal ball towards 2050: open and closed farming systems, land-based and offshore farming, post-smolt, new species and the supplier industry. What is the potential, and what could the mix look like if we get everything right? Sletmo was previously Head of IR at Cermaq and a seafood equity analyst at ABG Sundal Collier, and has followed the global salmon value chain for more than two decades.

Even Tronstad Sagebakken

State Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. He opens the conference with his own vision for 2050 and the role policy must play to get there. Sagebakken is from Mandal and has extensive experience in local and county politics in Agder, including as Mayor of Lindesnes. With a background in the education sector, he has been a clear voice for value creation, coexistence and the development of the ocean industries.

Nina Santi

CEO of the consultancy INAQ, and one of the industry's most prominent experts on biology and fish health. She will talk about how biology and the environment set the limits for how much Norwegian aquaculture can grow, and what must be solved first. Santi is a veterinarian with a PhD in aquatic medicine, has been an associate professor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, and led the breeding company AquaGen as CEO from 2016 to 2022. She also holds several board positions in aquaculture companies.

Tonje C. Osmundsen

She is Head of Research at Studio Apertura at NTNU Social Research, and a political scientist with more than twenty years of experience in research and development projects. She takes us into the intersection of politics, society and industry development. How is the industry's room for manoeuvre shaped by authorities and public expectations? And how does the industry itself respond when challenged? Does the industry contribute to good cooperation with the authorities and to the sustainable development of future aquaculture regulation?

Osmundsen has led a long series of research projects relevant to the aquaculture industry, with a particular focus on how Norwegian aquaculture management performs in the face of the challenges the sector faces. She currently researches how access to production areas can be improved, both near the coast and offshore.

Marianne Bendiksen

CEO of Northern Lights Salmon in Grovfjord and board member of Seafood Norway. Bendiksen will talk about how she believes the aquaculture industry will develop towards 2050, from the perspective of smaller and family-owned farmers.
Bendiksen grew up in the family business, has worked at the Norwegian Seafood Council, and holds a bachelor's degree in management, innovation and marketing from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She has led Northern Lights Salmon since 2020, where she previously held roles in feeding, production, project management and administration.

Runa Fossum Sæterhaug

Runa Fossum Sæterhaug is, together with Sunniva Bondø Sørensen, behind the initiative Jenter i havbruk (Girls in Aquaculture), which in a short time has become a unifying voice for women in the industry. She will talk about the battle for talent: what actually makes young people choose aquaculture, and why the industry still has work to do to attract and retain more women. Runa is from Trøndelag, lives on Frøya, and came to aquaculture after several years in the Norwegian Armed Forces, first at InnovaMar and then as an operations technician at a sea farm.

Hans Bjelland

Research Director for Aquaculture at SINTEF Ocean. He will talk about production methods and technology in the aquaculture of the future, and why different types of aquaculture require different policy instruments. Bjelland has been with SINTEF since 2008 and spent eight years leading SFI EXPOSED, the Centre for Research-based Innovation that developed knowledge and technology for safe and efficient fish farming at exposed sites. He also served on the Government's Aquaculture Committee, which presented the Norwegian Official Report NOU 2023: 23 on integrated management of aquaculture.

Øystein Flatmo

Area Manager for Helgeland at Mowi North, responsible for the company's farming sites from Sømna in the south to Nesna in the north. He will talk about the skills the aquaculture industry of the future will need, and what it takes to attract people to coastal communities – from the perspective of someone who recruits and leads the teams working at the sites along the Helgeland coast. Flatmo has extensive experience at sea, including as Operations Manager for Mowi (formerly Marine Harvest) in Velfjorden in Brønnøy, where he led the Istervika and Slåttvika sites through ASC certification. He is also interested in how camera technology and artificial intelligence are changing day-to-day work at the sites - and with it, the industry's skills needs.

Chris Guldberg

CEO of Campus BLÅ and master of ceremonies for the day. He will guide us through the programme and connect the future visions of Part 1 with the focus on skills and coastal communities in Part 2. Guldberg was previously Chief Operating Officer at the cod farming company Norcod, and has extensive leadership experience from the seafood industry and from knowledge institutions such as the Norwegian Seafood Council and SINTEF. He also has a background from Norsk Helsenett (the Norwegian Health Network) and the listed oil services company EMGS.

Stig Tore Laugen

Director of IR and Communications at Torghatten Aqua, and moderator of the panel discussions. Laugen has followed the aquaculture industry closely for many years, first as a journalist at NTB, VG and Dagens Næringsliv, where he was the Central Norway correspondent. After his time in the media, he served as Communications Director at BN Bank, Executive Vice President at TrønderEnergi and Communications Director at the renewable energy group Aneo, before joining the Brønnøysund-based aquaculture group Torghatten Aqua in 2024.