30 April 08:30-10:00Eero Restaurant - Ambassaden

Welcome to Verdane 

AI Leadership Breakfast

Practical AI that creates value now — in products, operations, and leadership

  • AI is no longer a “future advantage.” For CEOs of technology companies, the real question is: what should we put into production this quarter that measurably improves growth, retention, and decision quality?
  • This Verdane AI Leadership Breakfast is a focused, practical session for CEOs of Norwegian tech companies. We will share real use cases and case studies from Norwegian leaders who are already using AI day-to-day to create value in today’s business environment.

We’ll explore questions leaders are facing right now:

  • AI in the product: How do you incorporate AI features that add real customer value, improve retention, and differentiate without undermining pricing, margins, or core revenue streams?
  • AI in operations: How do you use AI to make better decisions across sales, customer success, support, finance, and forecasting?
  • From pilots to production: What actually works in practice (and what doesn’t) when teams try to operationalise AI?
  • AI resilience: How do you maintain differentiation long-term, manage model/data governance, stay compliant, and adapt as new trends emerge?

What to expect

Through a panel discussion featuring Norwegian AI thought leaders and peer dialogue, you will:

  • See concrete examples of AI being deployed today in Norwegian businesses (product + operations)
  • Learn practical approaches for governance, risk management, and AI operating models that fit your organisation
  • Pressure-test strategies for pricing and packaging AI features so value capture stays aligned with value creation
  • Leave with a short list of AI “quick wins”

Preparation and networking

No preparation is required. To make networking more valuable, we will share the participant list one week prior so you can identify a few CEOs to connect with during the breakfast.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please email events@verdane.com.



SCHEDULE

08:30

Panel “Leverage AI in the workplace to generate value today”

Geir Engdahl
Chief Technology Officer - AI, and co-founder of Cognite
Trygve Karper
CEO and co-founder of Riff.ai
Paul Jenkins
Senior Partner McKinsey & Company
09:15

Networking & breakfast

SPEAKERS

Geir Engdahl
Chief Technology Officer - AI, and co-founder of Cognite

Geir Engdahl is the Chief Technology Officer - AI, and co-founder of Cognite. Engdahl runs Cognite’s R&D department, leading the development of Cognite Data Fusion. In 2011, Engdahl founded Snapsale, a machine learning classifieds startup. He served as CEO and CTO until Schibsted acquired the company in 2017. Before that, he spent three years working as a senior software engineer for Google in Canada working in the core Google Ads engineering team. Engdahl has a master’s degree in computational science from the University of Oslo.

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Panel “Leverage AI in the workplace to generate value today”

Trygve Karper
CEO and co-founder of Riff.ai

Trygve is the CEO and co-founder of Riff.ai which helps the enterprise world develop AI agents that automate complex operational work. Prior to founding Riff.ai in 2021, Karper served as Vice President of ML Engineering and Head of Data Science at Cognite, building and scaling applied machine learning for the Norwegian unicorn. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior R&D Engineer at Schlumberger and a tenured Associate Professor at NTNU, following postdoctoral positions in the US and Norway. Karper holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University in Oslo.

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Panel “Leverage AI in the workplace to generate value today”

Paul Jenkins
Senior Partner McKinsey & Company

Paul is the global co-leader of McKinsey Business Building and helps organizations across industries develop new digital ventures and improve performance of existing businesses through digital transformation. He brings extensive experience leading digital transformations for global companies with high aspirations, including those in banking, insurance, entertainment, retail, agriculture, and travel. 

By advising clients, Paul helps leading companies stay ahead of the competition by building capabilities and creating seamless digital experiences for customers.

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Panel “Leverage AI in the workplace to generate value today”

Sascha Alber
Verdane Elevate CPTO B2B

Sascha Alber joined Verdane Elevate in 2025 as CPTO B2B, focusing on driving excellence in product and technology across Verdane’s portfolio. 

Prior to Verdane, he was CPTO at zvoove Group and held senior product and technology leadership roles at prevero/Unit4 and SAP. Sascha brings deep experience scaling B2B software organizations and will share practical perspectives on applying AI to accelerate product innovation, improve operational performance, and create measurable business impact. 

He holds an MSc in Informatics/Business from Fachhochschule Darmstadt and a Diploma in Informatics/Business Science from Fachhochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen.

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PRACTICALITIES

Date: Thursday 30th April 

Place: Eero Restaurant top floor -  Ambassaden 

Questions: events@verdane.com

Organised by

Verdane
events@verdane.com

The preferred growth partner to tech-enabled and sustainable growth companies in Europe.