Board and Executives

Øystein Stray Spetalen is the Director at Dolphin Drilling and is Chairman and owner of investment firm Ferncliff TIH AS. He is an independent investor. Øystein has worked in the Kistefos Group as an Investment Manager, as Corporate Advisor in different investment banks and as a Portfolio Manager in Gjensidige Forsikring. Mr. Spetalen is a chartered petroleum’s engineer from NTNU.

Martin Nes is Dolphin Drilling's Chairman and brings a wealth of experience especially within the shipping and offshore industry where he has been involved in and led a number of projects. Martin is also the CEO and Partner of investment firm Ferncliff TIH AS. He has a law degree from University of Oslo and also holds a Masters of laws degree from the University of Southampton, UK.

Martin has previously worked several years for the Norwegian law firm Wikborg Rein, both in their Oslo and London offices and for the shipping firm Evensen & Co.

Martin has extensive corporate experience and is the chairman and board member of several other listed companies.

Paul Marchand is a non-executive Director at Dolphin Drilling. He joined SVP Global as a Managing Director focusing on portfolio operations in February 2020. Prior to SVP, Paul spent 11 years at Bain Capital where he was a senior professional in the Portfolio / Operations Group. While at Bain Capital, Paul drove operational transformation at portfolio companies across a number of industries including industrials, software, business services and retail. Paul started his career at Bain & Company strategy consulting where he worked in London/Johannesburg across private equity, mining, chemicals, oil & gas, luxury goods and telecoms. Paul has a MEng from St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge University where he studied Manufacturing Engineering.

Alf Ragnar Løvdal is educated as a Mechanical Engineer and joined the oil and gas industry in 1980. His work experience started with offshore field operations for Schlumberger followed by a number of managerial positions within Smedvig Drilling AS, CEO of Seawell AS (Now Archer Limited), Senior vice president Asia Pacific for Seadrill Limited and as CEO of North Atlantic Management AS, a subsidiary of Seadrill Limited.

Current directorships and senior management positions:

- Dolphin Drilling AS (board member)

- Jacktel AS (board member)

- ARL Invest AS (owner and chair)

Previous directorships and senior management positions – last five years Dolphin Drilling Holdings Limited and Dolphin Drilling Fleetco Limited (board member)

Julius Kling is a non-executive Director at Dolphin Drilling. Julius joined the Board in September 2021 and is working closely with the Board and the management to further build and strengthen the business.

Julius is a Director in the European Investment Team at SVP Global. Prior to joining SVP Global, Julius worked at King Street Capital Management where he focused on investments in the chemicals, consumer, energy, as well as power and utilities sectors. Julius also worked at Oaktree Capital Management and started his career with Morgan Stanley in London. He received a B.Sc. in Economics and Finance from European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel in Germany.

Bjørnar Iversen joined Dolphin Drilling as Chief Executive Office and President in July 2019.

Previously he held the position of CEO for Songa Offshore and also held various senior management positions for Odfjell Drilling where he was in charge of operations, business development, and projects.
Bjørnar has over 25 years experience in the global offshore drilling business.

Johan Finnestad is the Chief Operating Officer at Dolphin Drilling.

Johan joined the Company in 1984 working offshore and has since held several positions, including offshore and onshore management roles.

Johan has over 30 years experience in the global drilling business and has been part of the Dolphin Drilling management team since 1996.

Stephen Cox is the Chief Financial Officer at Dolphin Drilling. Stephen’s 25 year career spans various finance and operational roles at Proserv, General Electric, Vetco Gray, Transocean and Sedco Forex.

Stephen oversaw the successful restructuring of Proserv in May 2018 and has over a decade of experience working with company Boards.

Steen E. Damgaard joined Dolphin Drilling as Chief Commercial Officer in October 2019.

Steen previously held the position of Vice President Marketing for Seadrill and has held various senior management positions for A.P.Moller-Maersk, North Atlantic Drilling and Ocean Rig.

Steen has over 30 years experience in the global offshore drilling and maritime industries.

Per Vangsgaard joined Dolphin Drilling as Chief Technical Officer in January 2021.

Per previously held the position of Vice President Technical for Awilco Drilling and has held various senior operational and technical management positions globally in Seadrill.

Per has over 25 years of experience in the global offshore drilling industry.