Meet Ragnar - Our chief accounting officer

Hi Ragnar, Welcome to Maritime Optima! Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Thank you! I’m 27 years old and I’ve been living in Oslo since the fall of 2013 when I moved here to study. I’m originally from a small town in Trøndelag called Namsos, where I grew up together with my parents and my two younger siblings. From a very young age it was clear that I’m a very curious person, and this has not diminished over the years. I love meeting new people and getting to know them, as well as reading about the latest gadgets and technologies being developed.

Tell us a little bit about your background? Your education? What are your interests? What have you been doing before you joined Maritime Optima?

I have a bachelor degree in Business Law from BI Norwegian Business School. This education gives me a wide understanding of both the legal and accounting aspects of a business, and I’ve found it very useful so far in my professional life. I started my career working as an external accountant in Oslo and this was a great way to learn about several different companies. For someone as social as me it was especially nice to build relations with clients. After a while I decided that I wanted to experience how it is to work inside an organization to be able to compare the two routes and stake out the course of my career. Working with one company and one team gave me the ability to learn a lot of things that were new to me.

What will be your responsibilities in Maritime Optima?

I’ll be Maritime Optima’s chief accounting officer, so my main responsibilities will be to make sure that our accounts are in order, and that they comply with government regulations.

I’m also responsible for our office, where my main task and goal is to make sure that everything is set up so we can have a great working environment, both physically and socially.

There are so many “digital maritime initiatives” / start-ups - what do you think is unique with Maritime Optima? 

As someone who’s very attached to my mobile I find Maritime Optima's approach to making a mobile office very appealing. The mobile has already taken over the job as a camera, photo album and music collection for most of us and with today’s smartphones there are so many possibilities. The ability to perform your work tasks regardless of location provides a great deal of freedom and I think this will be appreciated by users worldwide.

What do you think a tech start-up needs to have or do in order to be successful?

I believe that the most important thing any start-up needs is passion! Developing something new that changes the way people work and the established standards in the business is no small task. Passion will help you to work the extra hours needed and it will give you the courage and motivation to take on challenges coming your way.

Anything else you want to share with us Ragnar?

I feel very honored to be invited into such a great team, with people from varied backgrounds and professions. I’m looking forward to learning more about the shipping industry, and to be part of the journey to bring a great new product to the market.