Our Team
Thomas Due
Chairman and Managing Partner
Thomas Due has over 17 years of Innovation and Venture Capital Fund raising experience in Norway, and more than 10 years within managing positions in Venturelab. Thomas has spent most of his adult life working where finance meets entrepreneurs and is passionately involved in entrepreneurship, funding processes and company building. He is also a seasoned serial entrepreneur with multiple start ups to his name. Thomas co founded Venturelab in 2000 and has screened over 1500 companies throughout his career. He has helped fund more than 50 Norwegian start ups and early venture companies. He has both led and participated in a number of key deals. He has served as an advisor, strategist, placement manager and private investor and board member in several deals both in the Venturelab portfolio and as a private investor. Thomas is also a passionate curling player, and hold 6 Norwegian Championship Gold Medals a well as few medals from the Worlds and a few from the Europeans.
Chairman and Managing Partner
Thomas Due has over 17 years of Innovation and Venture Capital Fund raising experience in Norway, and more than 10 years within managing positions in Venturelab. Thomas has spent most of his adult life working where finance meets entrepreneurs and is passionately involved in entrepreneurship, funding processes and company building. He is also a seasoned serial entrepreneur with multiple start ups to his name. Thomas co founded Venturelab in 2000 and has screened over 1500 companies throughout his career. He has helped fund more than 50 Norwegian start ups and early venture companies. He has both led and participated in a number of key deals. He has served as an advisor, strategist, placement manager and private investor and board member in several deals both in the Venturelab portfolio and as a private investor. Thomas is also a passionate curling player, and hold 6 Norwegian Championship Gold Medals a well as few medals from the Worlds and a few from the Europeans.
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Tom Skolbekken
Partner and Senior Advisor Tom has several years of international business and industrial experience as well as management consulting. Starting with industrial product development, supply chain management and product management in Norway, USA and Singapore before moving onto management consulting. Tom was then co-founder and vice president of sales and marketing of the internet publishing system, Escenic, that grew into becoming the world wide market leading solution for online newspapers with customers like The Times, Daily Telegraph, Toronto Globe & Mail and 600 others. The company was sold for MNOK 173 to Vizrt. After leaving Vizrt, Tom has involved himself in several ventures such as co-creating the Partnership for Change conference that gathers 700 people over 2 days in the Oslo Opera house for dialogues on creating social change, helping a British software company grow internationally, being chairman of the board for the ideal limited company MINOS that is working with suicide prevention among youths, and several other initiatives. Tom has a 4 year engineering degree from University of Manchester and an MBA for BI Norwegian School of Management. |
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Joachim Svenstad McLean
Investment Coordinator & Manager of XLR8HUB Joachim Svenstad McLean joined Venturelab in Autumn of 2015. Joachim gained startup experience by co-developing a non-profit organization. Through this process, he encountered several of the common challenges facing entrepreneurs, especially in the early stages. After joining Venturelab, Joachim received the role as Hub-Manager for XLR8, in charge of supporting the member companies and growing the hub. Joachim also works on all of Venturelab's investments ensuring project management and mission success. A "doer" by heart, Joachim provides the partners with thorough strategic and financial analysis, along with highly valuable input for strategy implementation. |
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Peder Grimstad
Senior Advisor and CEO of Custos AS Peder has previously built and sold; Super Boards (clearchannel.no), Solsiden av Kvitfjell (kvitfjellvest.no) VIFO kindergardens (norlandiabarnehagene.no). He has been involved involved in processes that have gone through major challenges, which has given him the insights that are the foundation for one of his specialties of advicing companies in turn-around processes. |
Advisory Board
Jennifer Vessels
Senior Advisor and CEO of Next Step
Next Step is recognized as a successful business leader in Silicon Valley and globally. Next Step, a forty person consulting firm has launched and developed over 100 international and US startups in the US. Prior to founding Next Step, Jennifer held numerous sales and marketing leadership roles with Ungermann-Bass. During the 1990s Jennifer was International Sales Director for Tandberg based in Oslo. After the launch of Tandberg USA in 1997, Jennifer returned to Silicon Valley to build Next Step. Some of their US clients include Adobe, Cisco, Genentech, Google as well as many smaller Nordic companies.
Jennifer holds a MBA from San Jose State and a Masters of Occupational Psychology from the University of London, as well as being a Certified Management Consultant (CMC).
Senior Advisor and CEO of Next Step
Next Step is recognized as a successful business leader in Silicon Valley and globally. Next Step, a forty person consulting firm has launched and developed over 100 international and US startups in the US. Prior to founding Next Step, Jennifer held numerous sales and marketing leadership roles with Ungermann-Bass. During the 1990s Jennifer was International Sales Director for Tandberg based in Oslo. After the launch of Tandberg USA in 1997, Jennifer returned to Silicon Valley to build Next Step. Some of their US clients include Adobe, Cisco, Genentech, Google as well as many smaller Nordic companies.
Jennifer holds a MBA from San Jose State and a Masters of Occupational Psychology from the University of London, as well as being a Certified Management Consultant (CMC).
Jørgen Flood
Finance and logistics adviser
Jørgen is a Senior Business Executive with 25 years international finance experience working for Wescott, Unisys, Kvaerner, Hydro and Resources Connection. He has Senior Management experience from England, Norway and the US and considerable M&A and Project Management involvement experience. He has a strong financial consulting background for Domestic and International companies, expertise also involve cash Management, Insurance and Purchasing responsibility. Jørgen is also a resource in due diligence processes in addition to general assistance for US subsidiaries.
Finance and logistics adviser
Jørgen is a Senior Business Executive with 25 years international finance experience working for Wescott, Unisys, Kvaerner, Hydro and Resources Connection. He has Senior Management experience from England, Norway and the US and considerable M&A and Project Management involvement experience. He has a strong financial consulting background for Domestic and International companies, expertise also involve cash Management, Insurance and Purchasing responsibility. Jørgen is also a resource in due diligence processes in addition to general assistance for US subsidiaries.
