General Oceans Team
General Oceans central leadership team is a lean group of experts in their fields. The goal is to support brands in scaling faster, developing the best talent, funding and organising collaborative projects, and integrating the knowledge and business acumen contained across the Group.
Atle Lohrmann
President
Atle founded multiple companies in the oceanographic sensor space and from 1999 onward, focused on growing the last one, Nortek, into a global technology leader.
Under his leadership, Nortek opened subsidiary offices in eight countries, launched technical expertise centers in Europe and the United States, and established a global network of representatives. Most recently, Atle founded Hefring Engineering, a subsea vehicle company, in the United States.
Atle received a Master of Science in Physical Oceanography and Applied Mathematics from the University of Oslo and holds several pivotal patents in the industry.
Anton Van Heerden
CFO
Anton joined General Oceans as CFO in June 2022 and brings over 20 years of international financial experience. Immediately prior to joining, Anton was the CFO at Tquila Group, a privately held investment group investing in property and disruptive technologies. In the past he was Finance Director of the European Division of the K2 Group, a large technology and talent placement agency. Anton also worked as Group Controller for Deep Ocean Group, a subsea services provider.
Anton brings a wealth of experience successfully managing finance teams from incubation to maturity. His sector experience includes subsea services, staffing, consulting services, property, renewables, and telecommunications. Anton holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool, degrees in accountancy, and is a registered Chartered Accountant with SAICA.
Peter Smith
CPO
Pete came to General Oceans in 2023 in the newly created role of Chief People Officer (CPO), bringing a strong commercial HR background spanning automotive, technology, logistics and manufacturing. He has worked for high-profile brands such as Suzuki, Sony and the Ministry of Defence.
His expertise spans strategic and tactical elements of the CPO role; learning & development, employment law, recruitment, benefits & reward, systems delivery, D&I and employee wellbeing – he will guide us through this pivotal stage of our journey, as we strive to develop the ‘People’ pillar of strategy, with a Group framework that bolsters General Oceans as a destination employer for talented professionals.
Elizabeth Paull
Group Analyst
Elizabeth joined General Oceans in 2023 as Head of Market Analysis, and provides the Group and operating companies with market analytics and insights to support commercial and technology strategy. With a background in ocean science and finance, Elizabeth has over a decade of experience in commercial and strategic leadership in ocean technology businesses. In the past, she was Managing Director of an ocean sensor company and Vice Chair of the Society of Maritime Industries.
Elizabeth holds a Masters degree in Oceanography from the University of Southampton and an MBA from the Open University.
Rachel McAlpine
Group Marketing Manager
Rachel joined General Oceans in late 2023 following the successful acquisition of Tritech, where she served as Marketing Manager. During her tenure at Tritech, Rachel lead the company's rebranding initiative, a successful website launch and doubled Tritech’s social media following. Prior to her role at Tritech, Rachel was a Content Manager for a former government body. Rachel brings with her a wealth of sales and marketing experience with a focus on content creation and project management.
Rachel holds both an Undergraduate and Postgraduate Masters degree from the University of Glasgow.
Board of Directors
The Board was elected in 2022 and provides effective and entrepreneurial leadership of General Oceans. It is collectively responsible for promoting the long-term success of the Group, by ensuring the creation and delivery of sustainable stakeholder value under its guidance.
Gustav Martinsen
Interim Chair
Gustav Martinsen took on the role of Interim Chair in 2025 and also represents the second-largest shareholder, Ferd, on the Board of Directors. He is an Investment Professional at Ferd and was part of the deal team when Ferd invested in General Oceans. In addition to General Oceans, Gustav is responsible for Ferd's investments in Interwell, Norkart and Mintra. Prior to joining Ferd he worked for the Boston Consulting Group.
Gustav holds a Master of Science in Industrial Economics and Technology Management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Siw Ødegaard
Board Member
Siw joined General Oceans’ Board of Directors in December 2025. She has extensive experience in business development, finance, listing, IR and M&A from nearly three decades in the Tech, Telecom, and IT sectors. She has held executive positions in listed companies like Link Mobility (CFO, Head of IR, and EVP M&A), Ayfie (CEO and CFO) and EcoOnline (CFO, Head of IR, and Head of ESG).
Siw is currently on the Board and Head of Audit Committee in Webstep ASA and Board Member in Forte Group AS, Spense AS and The People Company AS/Backer Skeie AS.
Siw holds a Bachelor of Arts from University of London in the UK and Master of Management Programmes from BI Norwegian Business School in Norway. She has also Executive Board Program from INSEAD in France.
Asta Stenhagen
Board Member
Asta Stenhagen joined General Oceans board of directors from December 2023. She has over two decades of legal, finance, and operational experience from her roles at Morrow Batteries, Tietoevry, Wilh. Wilhelmsen Group, and lawfirm Thommessen, as well as numerous board positions in listed and private companies.
Asta has served amongst as the General Counsel in Morrow Batteries ASA, Head of Legal, Security and Compliance at Tietoevry Corp., Executive Vice President of Legal and Risk at EVRY ASA, and Legal Counsel at Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA.
Asta holds a Cand. Jur (Master of Law) Degree from the University of Oslo (UiO), including legal subject matters from University of Århus (Denmark) and project management from UiO.
Kim Steinsland
Board Member
Kim Steinsland was a board member of Nortek AS from 2018 – 2021 and joined the board of General Oceans in May 2023. He is Managing Director of the Norwegian technology company Scanmatic AS and has worked within technology for field instrumentation, control systems and hydro acoustics his whole career.
Prior to his present position in Scanmatic he was central in the merger and creation of Volue ASA in 2020, where his role was Executive Vice President and responsible for the IoT division.
Despite almost two decades in management, Kim insists on being a true technologist. He holds an MSc in Engineering Cybernetics from NTNU and a BSc in Industrial Electronics, in addition to Innovation Management studies at INSEAD.