Audun is the interview of the month in NorskFisk!

What is the smartest thing he has done? What is his leadership philosophy? Norsk Fiskerinæring portrays Audun in its latest issue.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
https://norskfisk.no/2025/08/14/audun-sivertsen-fjeldvaer/?

Here is a translated extract of the article:

“I SAY IT’S 43!”

And with that, the tone was set. This month’s interviewee is cheerful, an unusually pleasant guy to talk to, and he certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously. His arithmetic skills are also in good order. When you are born on April 21, 1982, you are indeed 43 years old today. The fact that he was delivered at Orkdal Hospital does not necessarily mean that he comes from Hitra — but he does. Later came two siblings: brother Trond and sister Maria.

Audun Sivertsen Fjeldvær grew up in Ansnes in Hitra municipality, right in the middle of what we might call salmon-farming country. His closest neighbors were Sivert and Ove Grøntvedt. His father and uncle started their own fish-farming company in the late 1980s — Fjeldvær Fiskeoppdrett AS — and our interviewee quite literally grew up on the edge of a cage. Fish disease and weak finances forced the family site to be sold after only a few years.

April 21, 1982 was no particularly special day in world history. The Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union’s 14,000 members went on strike that Wednesday, something surely felt on Hitra. The day before, the historic Finnegården in Bergen had burned to the ground, which hardly ruined the joy of the Fjeldvær family’s firstborn. We may perhaps remember 1982 best as the year cable TV came to Norway, Oddvar Brå broke his ski pole, and the Falklands War raged between Argentina and Britain. It lasted only a few weeks and was at its most intense when our interviewee took his first breaths.

The Olsen Gang’s “very last heist,” which turned out not to be the last at all, filled cinemas, while Swedish band Attack’s “Oaa hela natten” topped the charts. And of course, 1982 was the year of the liquor-store strike. All outlets were closed from November 20 to December 8. Many surely breathed a sigh of relief when that strike ended.

After middle school and high school on Hitra, Audun moved to Trondheim, where he studied marketing at BI Norwegian Business School, graduating in 2003.

— “It was a degree you could use for almost anything, and even back then there was a little salesman in me,” he says. “During my studies and in the first period afterward, I worked at the clothing store Brando, which sold brands like Jack & Jones. I enjoy talking to people. In 2006, I moved back to Hitra with my partner Grethe and started working as an operations technician at SalMar — first at a sea site on Hitra, then on Smøla and in Åfjord. We bought my grandmother’s house in Ansnes, and eventually had two children — Jonas, now 18, and Stina, 16.”

— “After seven years at SalMar, I was offered a job at Aqualine AS, which later became ScaleAQ,” he continues.

— “I really enjoyed working at SalMar, but when the opportunity came to become Sales Manager for Central Norway at Aqualine, I didn’t hesitate. That way I could also make better use of my sales and marketing background from BI. The desire for personal development and new challenges made the choice easy. Aqualine had its headquarters in Trondheim and an assembly and production base on Frøya. The next years I worked selling cages, nets, and moorings to farmers in Central Norway. In 2015, I was promoted to Sales Director for Norway at Aqualine. The products were the same, but now with customers all along the coast. At that time, Aqualine had an annual turnover of about NOK 400 million,” Fjeldvær recalls.

In 2019, it was decided to merge Aqualine AS, Steinsvik AS, and Aqua Optima AS into ScaleAQ AS. The merger was launched at Aqua Nor that autumn, and our interviewee was appointed Sales Director for the Nordic region.

— “Shortly after ScaleAQ was established, we acquired Moen Marin AS, where I was briefly Sales Manager, and later Maskon AS in Stjørdal, which mainly produces vaccination equipment for fish. In 2021, I became Director of Product Strategy at ScaleAQ, before becoming CTO in 2023. Early in 2023, we switched to a group model under ScaleAQ Group. Then I was given responsibility for the division called ScaleAQ Seabased. I held that position until last year, when I was offered the chance to take over as Group CEO after Svein Arild Vestermo and before him, Geir Myklebust. That happened in August 2024, and that’s the position I still hold.”

— “When you started at Aqualine 12 years ago, turnover was around NOK 400 million. Now it’s approaching NOK 4 billion.”

— “Yes, it’s been a fantastic, exciting, and fun journey. Working with skilled colleagues and contributing to production, technology development, and infrastructure deliveries for aquaculture has been a joy from day one. In 2013, we had about 80 employees at Aqualine. Today we are nearly a thousand in ScaleAQ Group. I see that as strong confirmation that our customers regard our products and services as relevant and competitive.”

— “What spoke for, and perhaps against, when you accepted the role of Group CEO?”

— “I can’t think of anything against it, and I didn’t need much time to consider. It’s of course a great responsibility to lead such a company, but I knew I had many skilled people on the team who could complement my weaker sides. No one is the best at everything.”

— “What are your strongest sides in the job?”

— “I like to think I’m good at seeing and understanding people, and that there’s a rational reason why humans are equipped with two ears and one mouth. I’m good at getting people to cooperate, both internally and with customers. And I’ve worked many years in the industry, also as a farmer. I understand where the shoe might pinch. That’s important when leading perhaps the world’s largest supplier company to aquaculture. That industry experience is very useful both for daily decisions and for long-term strategy.”

— “What’s not as fun?”

— “I’ve thought about that, but can’t come up with anything specific. Challenges are there to be solved, and I like to succeed. Some might say it’s not fun to work on problems you don’t master as well. I’d say the opposite: it’s fun to challenge yourself.”

— “Is the salesman in you bigger than the engineer?”

— “Yes, you could say that. I like to think I have good technical understanding and experience, but the salesman takes up most space. An important part of sales is to understand the customer’s real needs and have enough knowledge to see how we can fulfill them.”

— “Do you have a leadership philosophy?”

— “Yes! My job is to make sure all employees at ScaleAQ always have what they need to do their work, and that we do it safely and well both on land and at sea. At the same time, it’s about creating understanding and joy that we solve challenges and succeed through good teamwork. I try to be as available as possible. We have a flat structure, and the Group CEO always has five minutes if someone needs something. The headquarters is in Trondheim, where I currently share an apartment with my son Jonas, who has moved there to study. For the past six months I’ve been more in Trondheim than Hitra, splitting my time between the office on Frøya and the home office in Ansnes.”

— “How many travel days do you have?”

— “I don’t know. Of course there’s a lot of travel between Hitra and Trondheim, but we also have sites in many other places along the coast. On top of that, some trips abroad, so yes, there are some days on the road. But we have salespeople and technicians who travel much more than I do.”