Since the 1980s several dozen Norwegians have hopped across the North Sea to Scotland to study in the Department, as both undergraduates and postgraduates. Peter Meech has been in touch with some of those who have returned home to work and with others who have stayed on in the UK.
Television and radio production at NRK (the main Norwegian public service broadcaster) has attracted several former Stirling students. Øyvind Nyborg (BA ‘04), for example, has been with NRK Sports for two years and ‘loving every minute’ of working as a production manager, assistant director and video editor. In August 2008 he was in Beijing covering the Olympics. (oyvindnyborg@mac.com)
Also involved with the summer Olympics for NRK were Andreas Sommerseth (BA ’05) and Maria Scheen Schuller (BA ‘05). Andreas started his career on the station’s breakfast show with Øyvind and Maria. He recently got the break he’d been waiting for: producing the 9 o’clock sports news and the long winter sports weekends. (andreas.sommerseth@gmail.com).
Maria, who has been with NRK since graduation, was one of the directors working on the Olympics from Oslo and is currently directing a number of children’s programmes. (maria.scheen.schuller@nrk.no)
In the independent sector Guy Haddeland (BA ‘98 ) has worked in the Norwegian film and television industry since his return home. He has been head of production for Oslo-based Strix Television (2004-), making blockbuster programmes, from reality and docutainment to drama. In 2009 Guy becomes a producer and part-owner of Sheriff TV, a small production company making commercials, commissioned films and WEB-tv. (guy@sherifftv.no)
Someone else working in the independent sector is Espen Horn (BA ‘92). Having run Leo Burnett’s TV department in Norway, he co-founded Motion Blur, a production company with offices in Oslo and LA, which became one of Scandinavia’s largest and most successful in winning industry awards. He’s made two features, Long Flat Balls I (2005) and Long Flat Balls II (2007), starring Don Johnson. This year he’s produced Dead Snow, a Nazi zombie splatter film due for release in 2009. Espen and his wife Cathrine (née Wagner- Larsen), another Stirling graduate, live just outside Oslo with their two children, Joakim (14) and Thea (7). (espenhorn@motionblur.no)
Anne Voie Heier (BA ‘04) is a freelance production manager, who has recently been at work on a threepart series, a reality show and two docu-dramas for TV2, Norway’s largest commercial television station. She was previously MD of the Norwegian Film Service, which promotes Norway as a location for foreign production companies. (anne.voie.heier@gmail.com)
Also freelancing is Bianca Boege (BA ‘94), who has, as she says, ‘several projects currently on the boil’. A four-part TV drama is being developed at NRK; a six-part TV drama, with development funding from the Norwegian Film Institute, is currently with Nordisk Film; plus several children’s projects. She’s also writing the texts/films for the new Hamsun Centre currently being built in Northern Norway. Bianca has a two-year-old son, Thorvald. (bboege@online.no)
By contrast, post-production has occupied Erik Forster (BA ‘93) on and off for many years. Living in Stavanger, Norway’s oil capital, he has just digitised the entire film archive – from the early 1970s to the present – of Statoil, the Nordic countries’ biggest employer. Previously he worked on feature film onlining at Nordisk Film in Oslo. He has recently bought an old farmhouse and hopes to onvert the basement into a studio for music editing and mixing, together with jazz musicians from Stavanger’s conservatory of music. (efxprod@online.no)
Producing material for the Web is an area of increasing importance. Among those who work in this field are Kjersti Horgen (BA ‘04), Truls Johnsen (MScPR ‘96-’97) and Ellen Bustø (BA ‘95).
Kjersti moved back to Norway after two years as a photographer in Glasgow. She joined Aller Edge, a multi-media company specialising in video production and video conferencing over the Net. In July 2008 she became an adviser on video production and live broadcasting for the Government website. Kjersti lives with her boyfriend in Oslo, has started climbing/bouldering, is a Red Cross volunteer and is learning Punjabi. (Kjersti.Horgen@dss.dep.no)
Truls is employed as website administrator for Students Services in Trondheim (SiT). Prior to this he worked as PR manager for UNINETT, the public company responsible for the national computer network connecting Norway’s colleges and universities. He and Marianne Fon ‘finally married’ in October 2007 after being a couple for 15 years. They live in Trondheim with their son. (trulsj@mac.com)
Meanwhile Ellen, having worked in a sixth form college, including as Head of its Department of Media and Communications, is now an adviser to the County Library of Vestfold, south of Oslo. She has recently been engaged on a project to establish Norwegian library services in the virtual world of Second Life. ‘Still married to Duncan,’ she says. ‘Kids growing up (two boys, 15 and 9)’. (ellenbusto@gmail.com)
Marketing is another area that has attracted Norwegian graduates, including Marianne Fon (MScPR ‘96-’97) and Roger Lian (BA ‘00). Marianne left the fish farming industry in 2008 to become a marketing consultant with the software company Powel ASA. She and husband Truls Johnsen have a five-year-old son, Ole Magnus. (mfon73@hotmail.com)
Roger has been in media, marketing and sales since graduation, including stints as a freelance journalist and media director/adviser at the media agency Mediacom in Oslo. After gaining a Masters in Marketing at the Norwegian School of Management BI, he has been Director of Marketing at Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park (‘Norway’s biggest tourist attraction’) in his hometown since 2007. Roger and his wife Kristin Waage have a son Fabian (3) and a daughter Sofia (1). (Roger@dyreparken.no)
Two other graduates working in business are Nicolay Bruusgaard (BA ‘99 ) and Tomas Crespo Moreno (BA ‘92).
Nicolay initially was an online journalist, but nowadays is a communication officer and press spokesperson for DnB NOR, the country’s largest bank. He lives in Oslo with his wife, Lise Strøno Bruusgaard (another Stirling graduate), and their three children, Henrik (5), Julie (3) and Aleksander (1). (nicolay.bruusgaard@dnbnor.no)
Bergen-based Tomas is Vice President Export of ARTA AS, a telecoms company. He has recently started his own business, BREAK THE LIMIT, together with former Olympic kayak gold medalist Kjell Tore Solvang. Tomas and his wife, Monica Søvik, have two children, Enrique (14) and Sara (10), ‘both very active in sports’. (tcm@ARTA.no)
Dan-Erik Aggvin (BA ‘97, MScPR ‘05-’08 ) is Head of Communications at the government Brønnøysund Register Centre (‘the central source of information in Norway’). He started as a journalist at HQ Defence Command Norway, then worked in the local press, including in his hometown of Odda. In 2005 he married Kjersti Nodland Hansen with several friends from Stirling present. (dan-erik@aggvin.no)
Everyone mentioned so far has returned to Norway. However, Guro Eide (BA ‘00), Charlotte Wiig (BA ‘00) and Marit Meyer-Bell (BA ‘92, MScPR ‘93-’95) are among a smaller group who have chosen to remain in the UK. After three years at the BBC, working on various science and arts documentaries for TV, Guro has recently moved to radio. Still based in London, she is now a production manager in the BBC World Service, responsible for a variety of arts, music, current affairs and religious programmes, as well as documentaries. (Guro.Eide@bbc.co.uk)
Also working in London, Charlotte set up her own freelance photography business there in 2003. Her main interest is press photography, but she also does some commercial and corporate work. She is pictured here with Nick Cave. (mail@charlottewiig.co.uk)
Marit is the Surrey-based Director of Communications & Public Affairs for CEMEX (Northern Europe). She also heads up campaigns in support of projects such the 2012 London Olympics. Marit has two children, Ruben (16) and Brogan (10), and in her spare time ‘often nips back to Norway to do a spot of skiing, sailing or fishing’. (marit_meyer_bell@hotmail.com)
Finally, let’s not forget that work isn’t everything. Helèn Storsveen (BA ‘91) returned to do a Masters in media studies at the University of Oslo. After working as a teacher of media and communication studies, she now devotes herself full-time to her family. She and her husband Anders have three children, Matias (16), Emma (14) and Sofia (4). ‘Quite a challenge,’ says Helèn, ‘but great kids. Nice husband too, come to think of it.’ (jstorsveen@hotmail.com)
