Hans Petter Øya
CIO
Norsk Hydro
Hans Petter is educated at BI (Norwegian Business School) and has held different leadership positions within finance, procurement, and IT for more than 30 years. He has experience from Oil & Energy, Agriculture, Aluminium, Shared Service Centers and Corporate functions.
He is currently the CIO at Norsk Hydro - a leading industrial company, with 32,000 employees, committed to a sustainable future. Their purpose is to create more viable societies by developing natural resources into products and solutions in innovative and efficient ways.
Learn more about the Nordic CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
More than 30 years ago, I started as a financial controller in an offshore oil project. Then I took on my first leadership position as Procurement Manager and continued into a role as Finance and Administration Manager in a company producing equipment for the Oil & Gas business.
Since 2000, I have been focusing on IT, specifically procurement, finance, governance, IT and digital strategies and several M&A processes. Leading strategic tasks and working closely with senior management led me into my current position as CIO.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
The most important principles for me are cooperation, openness and closeness to my employees. You need to be able to get the organization to cooperate and that requires openness at all levels and an understanding of what is going on with your teams.
Open dialogue will get the best out of your employees, and remember to create opportunities that provide the best possible work-life balance for all.
With disruption being a key theme of recent years, where do you see the CIO role going in the next 1-2 years?
The role of the CIO will continue to be seen as a business leader with the capabilities to drive change from digitalization. The responsibilities of cyber security will be even more challenging as more complex digital solutions are implemented. Requirements to work from everywhere with access to everything will also give challenges to the CIO position.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CIO?
Get as broad an understanding as possible of what is going on in your company and ensure that you have a blend of the "best people" close to you - with regard to technology and commercial understanding. Build cross-functional networks to be able to make the right recommendations and decisions.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I love tasting all different types of beer.
- I am a fan of Italian food.
- I love running, but do it almost never these days.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
It is the knowledge sharing and the ability to contact peers in an easy way when I would like to discuss topics on the table of the CIO.
Evanta Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.
by CIOs, for CIOs
Join the conversation with peers in your local CIO community.