Former A.T. Kearney and BCG consultant joins Norway's Ice Group as CFO

Norwegian mobile operator Ice Group has appointed former A.T. Kearney and BCG consultant Henning Karlsrud as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Karlsrud joins from Telenor Group, where he headed the company’s Group Strategy department.

Henning Karlsrud brings with him nearly two decades of working experience. He most recently served Telenor Group, which with operations in 29 countries is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies. At the Oslo-listed company, Karlsrud worked five years in the Group Strategy business, ascending the ranks from Director to Senior Vice President.

Previously, Karlsrud spent four years in the corporate finance team of Handelsbanken Capital Markets, a subsidiary of Handelsbanken, working primarily with mergers and acquisitions, as well as listings and private placements. He started his career in management consulting, serving two large American consulting firms for seven years. After graduating from the Norwegian School of Economics, Karlsrud joined The Boston Consulting Group in Norway, after which he transferred to rival A.T. Kearney, also based in Oslo.

Commenting on the appointment, JD Fouchard, CEO of Ice Group (which rebranded from ‘AINMT’ in August last year to reflect the group’s Norwegian roots), said; “Henning's deep understanding of the Norwegian market and the international telecoms landscape will make him a highly valuable asset to the company.”

“I have monitored Ice Group in general, and its Norwegian operation specifically, for a few years now. I have been very impressed with the group's customer and data-centric business model, and how it has capitalised on this to build up a genuine challenger in the Norwegian market in record time.”

With a market share of around 50%, Telenor is Norway’s largest mobile phone operator (by number of subscriptions), followed by Telia (35%). Building on rapid growth in 2016 and 2017, Ice Group has moved into fourth position, jumping ahead of Phonero. Norway is estimated to have around 5.72 million mobile subscriptions.

Karlsrud succeeds Murat Erden, who will continue to support the executive management team until March 2018.

Meanwhile in the Nordic consulting industry, Danish-origin strategy consultancy QVARTZ expanded into the Netherlands earlier this month, through a joint venture with local Dutch player Boer & Croon.