Motivated by business opportunities that put a better spin on the globe

Håkon Ryan Tanem is an Executive Vice President at Arendals Fossekompani. His first name is the most used name by Norwegian kings. His middle name is often mistaken to be American. It is, however, a very Norwegian-pronounced name of the farm where his mother grew up.

He spends quite some time in other countries. Travelling is a great hobby. His latest long-haul took him and his wife to Japan, together with a nephew and a niece. They systematically explored Tokyo district by district, and – based on Tanem’s research – tried ten coffee places in search of Tokyo’s finest cappuccino.

“Our trip coincided with Sakura, the cherry blossom season. That was quite a spectacle.”

Tanem was born in the town of Steinkjer in mid-Norway 50 years ago. He would spend most of his 18 first years there, except for the frequent times his parents made a conscious effort to show him and his sisters other parts of the world. This fueled the young Tanem.

He earned a master’s degree in business and economics from the Norwegian School of Economics – nothing too specialized, as he didn’t want to limit his options on the doorstep of his professional life.

He was the kind of material that consultancy firms were looking for; smart, driven, eager to learn, keen to take on a heavy workload, and willing to travel wherever and whenever. Tanem was hired by Boston Consulting Group before he graduated, but quickly moved on to become a Principal at A.T. Kearney.

“My goal was to expose myself to as many situations and cultures as possible, and that was exactly what I was allowed to do. During my 13 years with A.T. Kearney, I worked as a consultant in 35 countries. I assisted during growth strategies, restructuring processes, mergers, and acquisitions. I worked with private equity in all phases: investments, development of portfolio companies, and divestments. It was a blast! I could probably have been a consultant for the rest of my life,” says Tanem.

Driven by perhaps the most common reason for relocating – love – Tanem moved from Oslo to Arendal in 2011. Four years earlier he had married Margrethe, a goldsmith and a medical assistant, and a native of Arendal.

“We didn’t want to stay too long in Oslo. We were looking for something smaller. The idea to move to Arendal was a shared one,” Tanem insists.

His professional background was attractive to many companies in the region, and Tanem quickly found himself hired as a Portfolio Manager at Agder Energi Venture, the investment arm of the regional utility later rebranded Å Energi. During his 11 years with the venture company, he would play a pivotal role in the set-up of Morrow Batteries, a large-scale battery manufacturing facility currently being established in Arendal, destined to make a huge impact on both business and everyday life in the city. Tanem served two years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Morrow Batteries and seven months as interim CEO.

In October 2023, he joined the Arendals Fossekompani management team as Executive Vice President. Based on his experience from active ownership – that is creating value for the owners in close interaction with management – he and the company were seemingly a perfect match.

“My foremost contribution to Arendals Fossekompani is perhaps my understanding for value creation. My toolbox includes strategy, merger and acquisition, restructuring – all in combination with experience from different geographies. I believe it makes me well equipped to make an impact,” says Tanem.

He is motivated by business opportunities that put a better spin on the globe.

He is deeply involved in three portfolio companies – ENRX, Alytic and Ampwell – which are widely different in size and shape. ENRX is a mature company with more than 1,100 employees around the world, offering induction heating and charging technology. Alytic develops sustainable companies with strong domain competence and data at the core. Ampwell is an early-phase company within the battery value chain.

Tanem specifically asked to have this breadth of responsibilities, assuming roles on the boards of both mature and early phase companies.

“I don’t want to be too specialized. I believe that a strength – my strength – is to bring extensive experience and a holistic approach to value creation,” says Tanem.

“The outside-in point-of-view can be very useful. A company’s management team is of course focused on day-to-day business. Having a ‘caring outsider’ challenge them on key issues, can be helpful and important,” says Tanem.

Outside of work, he is quite the book aficionado. He will devour two to three books a month, leaning more towards fiction than fact – with a soft spot for the classics and up-and-coming authors across genres, and with no real interest for crime stories. He keeps a perfect record of all the books he has ever read – 750 and counting – in a spreadsheet, where each book is scored on a scale from 1 to 5.

“Only 70 books have received the top mark,” reveals Tanem. “A perfect score reflects a book that gives me insights into human nature, depicted in an interesting or perhaps historic setting.” 

Reluctantly having to pick the top three books he has ever read, Tanem names Blindness (1995) by Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, Number9Dream (2001) by English author David Mitchell, and Crime and Punishment (1866) by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Tanem has a gentle demeanor. He is inviting and smiling, happy to answer all questions, and able to make the positive first impression last the full hour we spend together. Tanem claims to be the calm and collected kind – never stressed, never loud, never angry. Yes, it sounds too good to be true. Still, his surroundings confirm his claim. There is no way you throw Håkon Tanem of his game. Rock solid, analytical, and calm – even if the world is collapsing.

Fortunately, the interview was not long enough to test his boundaries.