Per Meland (born Per Gunnar Meland, March 12, 1972) is a Norwegian businessman and media entrepreneur. Meland has co-founded several companies within media, publishing and technology. He has also directed documentaries, and owns an award-winning restaurant.
In 1999 he founded Face2Face an advertising and communications agency, headquartered in Oslo, Norway. The agency has around 200 employees with offices in Norway and Stockholm. [1] [2] Face2Face works with field marketing and creative campaigns. [3] The company works with several leading international brands such as Santander Consumer Bank (Norway), [3] American Express, [4] SAS, [1] Shell, [5] Puma, [5] BlackBerry [5] and Telenor [3] in the Nordic region. The company specializes in strategic communications between businesses and their end users, face to face. Usually through "under the radar"-channels like field marketing, word-of-mouth marketing and social media. [3] [1]
In 2007 Meland sold Face2Face to the venture capital company Idékapital AS, where he subsequently joined as one of four equal partners.
Following Meland's entry, Idékapital bought shares in:
In 2012 Meland left Idekapital, bought back Face2Face for an undisclosed amount and rejoined the management of the company.
As of March 2013 Meland holds directorships on several boards:
In addition Meland owns a stake in Dype Skoger AS [10] which makes documentaries and publishes the Norwegian soccer magazine Josimar.
Coast Air AS was a regional airline based at Haugesund Airport, Karmøy in Norway. It was Norway's fourth largest airline and operated domestic services within Norway, in addition to international services. Routes were concentrated along the West Coast, as well as some public service obligation contracts in Southern Norway. The company had a fleet of de Havilland Canada Twin Otter aircraft, later replaced with Jetstream 31s and ATR 42s.
Nokas Cash Handling is a Norwegian company offering management, control and distribution of cash to Norwegian banks, headquartered in Oslo. The company is owned 100% by Nokas AS. In 2008, the company had a revenue of 458 million kr and a net income of NOK 27 million.
Linx AB was a railway company which operated inter-Scandinavian passenger trains between 2001 and 2004. Established as a joint venture between the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) and the Swedish state-owned SJ, Linx operated the routes from Oslo, Norway, to Stockholm, Sweden, and from Oslo via Gothenburg, Sweden, to Copenhagen, Denmark. Services were provided up to ten times per day. However, slow speeds caused by curvy infrastructure in Norway, combined with competition from low-cost airlines, caused the company to lose money, and eventually grounded operations. The services were taken over by NSB and SJ. The main rolling stock were eleven X2 electric multiple units, although it used SJ Rc-hauled trains on the Gothenburg–Oslo service. The company was based in Gothenburg.
Andreas Viestad is a Norwegian food columnist and TV chef. He has hosted seven seasons of New Scandinavian Cooking broadcast in the U.S., China, Germany, Italy, Finland and on BBC Food in over fifty countries since 2003, and is a food writer for Dagbladet and Morgenbladet newspapers in Norway. He has had a monthly column in The Washington Post titled "The Gastronomer". Viestad has been called "Norway's most exciting food writer", and "Norway's culinary ambassador".
Color Air AS was the first Norwegian low-cost airline. It operated from Oslo Airport, Gardermoen in 1998 and 1999 with a fleet of three Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Color Air was a brand extension of Color Line, which shared a common owner in the Olav Nils Sunde-controlled Color Group. The airline operated five daily round trips from Oslo to Trondheim and Bergen, four to Ålesund and one to London, in addition to a weekly trip to Alicante. Color Air pioneered the low-cost business model in Norway, with a denser seating, no frills and lack of a frequent flyer program. Tickets were sold only via the Internet, by telephone or in supermarkets; when bought from travel agents, there was a 200 kr surcharge.
The OBX Index is a stock market index which lists the 25 most liquid companies on the main index of the Oslo Stock Exchange in Norway. All stocks on the OBX list can be traded with options and futures. The companies on the OBX list are rotated twice a year, on the third Friday of June and December.
Norway Airlines A/S was a Norwegian airline which operated between 1988 and 1992. Focusing on charter, the airline operated two Boeing 737-300 aircraft from 1988 to 1992, after which it operated two McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft, one MD-83 and one MD-87. The airline flew a single scheduled route, between Oslo Airport, Fornebu and London Gatwick Airport, at first on contract with Air Europe and from 1991 at its own expense. At its peak, Norway Airlines had 196 employees. The company struggled financially and lost more than 100 million Norwegian krone (NOK) before terminating operations, having never made a profit.
Christen Sveaas is a Norwegian businessman, investor, art collector and donor. He is the founder and sole owner of Kistefos AS, vice chairman of the board of the Kistefos Museum and chairman of the board of Anders Sveaas Allmennyttige Fond.
Eyvind Hellstrøm is a Norwegian chef and formerly the part owner of Bagatelle restaurant, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in the city of Oslo. He was the president of the 2008 Bocuse d'Or Europe, is frequently a judge at the Bocuse d'Or world finals, and was himself a competition candidate in 1989, placing fifth.
Kjell Erik Almskog is a Norwegian businessman. He is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of several companies, including the Norwegian division of the ABB Group and Kværner.
Teddy Air AS was a regional airline, based at Skien Airport, Geiteryggen, in Norway. Operating between 1989 and 2004, the company operated Britten-Norman Islander, Embraer 110 and Saab 340 aircraft. The company started by providing a scheduled service between Skien and Oslo in 1990, followed by services to Stavanger in 1993 and Bergen in 1994. In 1996, it won a contract with the Ministry of Transport from Oslo to Fagernes. It was involved in intense competition with other regional airlines, notably Coast Air and Guard Air, following the deregulation of the aviation market. It also had a single international service to Gothenburg, and from 1999 it served Stord Airport, Sørstokken. From 1999, the company was transformed to a virtual airline, which wet leased aircraft from Golden Air. The company ceased operations in 2004.
Braathens SAFE's domestic market was deregulated on 1 April 1994. Since then, any airline within the European Economic Area is free to operate any domestic or international route. Braathens rejected a proposal from the main competitor Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) for a merger; instead the helicopter division was sold and the company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. New routes were opened from Oslo Airport, Fornebu to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø, but the routes from Bergen to these cities were terminated. International routes to Rome, Nice and Jersey were introduced. In 1996, Braathens SAFE bought Sweden's second-largest airline, Transwede, and started flying on the Oslo–Stockholm route. The following year, Transwede, with its five domestic routes, was merged into Braathens SAFE. The same year, KLM bought 30% of Braathens SAFE and the airlines started a partnership.
PowerTech Information Systems AS is an Oslo-based Norwegian Internet service provider founded in 1993.
GuardAir AS was a Norwegian airline which operated between 1992 and 2001. Based at Sandefjord Airport, Torp, it operated four Dornier 228s and served eight scheduled destinations in 2001.
Anine Kierulf is Associate Professor of constitutional law at the University of Oslo Department of Public and International Law, and a special advisor to the Norwegian National human rights institution, where she was Research Director from 2017-2020. Her main areas of research are constitutional law, human rights and freedom of expression.
Ivar Hippe is a Norwegian author, political consultant, former journalist and presenter. He received national media attention in 1982 when he was expelled from Argentina by the government. On his return to Norway he began working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). In 1999 he became editor-in-chief of the Norwegian financial journal Økonomisk Rapport.
Kaare Frydenberg is a Norwegian businessperson.
Steinar Stokke is a Norwegian businessperson and former civil servant, with prominent positions in the health sector.
St. Lars is a grill-restaurant in the borough Bislett in Oslo, Norway. It is owned by international TV-chef Andreas Viestad, Face2Face communications agency founder Per Meland and Stargate-producer Tor Erik Hermansen. The restaurant is known for using meat from horses and bear, and even pigs from Bygdø Royal Farm's petting zoo. Everything apart from their horse tartar has been cooked on a custom made grill. The cuisine is based on serving raw or grilled food with an emphasis on Norwegian produce and unusual cooking techniques. The owners have tried to bring some of the ambience from the New York-restaurant The Spotted Pig, owned by Hermansen's StarRoc partner Jay-Z, to their restaurant.
Marie Heiberg Simonsen is a Norwegian journalist who since 2003 has been political editor in Dagbladet. She has previously worked for Dagens Næringsliv and VG.