Kimberly Mathisen starts as new CEO
This week, Kimberly Mathisen formally joined the ocean technology center C4IR Ocean as CEO. The technology champion with a strong international background knows where she wants and needs to take C4IR Ocean.
The first week at her new job as CEO of C4IR Ocean is rapidly coming to an end. Kimberly Mathisen comes from the role as General Manager of Microsoft Norway, which she held for the last five years. She has 20+ years of experience in digitalization and technology, Branded Consumer Goods, Pharmaceuticals, and Media leading across geographies in North America, Europe and Asia.
“C4IR Ocean may be a tiny organization compared to Microsoft, but we have a GIANT ambition and potential for IMPACT. I find that incredibly energizing! This is the most important job I have ever taken, which is also quite humbling.”
“We aim to become the world’s most important data collaboration hub. That is a huge goal. Let me add an even bigger goal. We will change the fate of the ocean through data, technology and collaboration,” says Kimberly Mathisen, the new CEO of C4IR ocean.
Lighthouse projects to deliver value and create ocean impact
Behind those very ambitious goals, there is a steadfast belief and clear direction on how to.
“We’ve re-defined our new strategy, and it is exciting to see how it is already serving to bring clarity, focus, and energy to our organization and our partners. The strategy calls on us to mobilize around a few key points”, says Mathisen.
The C4IR Ocean will establish the few, massively important, lead projects that address head-on its prioritized impact areas, like accelerating the world to 6X more food from the ocean and 40X more renewable energy sustainably. In these projects, the foundation will provide data-driven solutions to accelerate sustainable, productive solutions for ocean management and ocean industries.
“We call these projects Lighthouses. They materialize when we partner deeply with the most important “movers and shakers” in the world to deliver value that captivates and attracts others. Driving value through these lighthouses and using them to push our platform and data assets forward is hugely and immediately important for us all,” Mathisen explains.
And the starting point is data.
“For the world to succeed in changing the fate of the ocean, we need easily accessible data, contextualized and visualized to provide the insight we must have. Or, as the UN Ocean Decade for Science says, the data we need for the ocean we want. But this is in no way limited to science data,” says Kimberly Mathisen.
Launching the Ocean Data Platform
She turns to a significant milestone for the foundation and its Ocean Data Platform, planned for general availability at the UN Ocean Conference in June in Lisbon.
“It is the heart of what we offer to the world, and it is inspiring to see us innovating as we do. The Ocean Data Platform has come a long way since its inception a few years back and now includes some of the world’s most popular scientific ocean data sets, among other exciting things. I am super proud of the positive reaction from the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Committee (IOC), who found our solution highly interesting”, says Mathisen.
The platform enables anyone to be able to build data products, applications, and services that answer to reflecting the needs of a broad community of users. The platform dramatically reduces the time and energy it takes to draw out raw data and insights from these rich data sources.
“That is valuable time for all scientists whose work is vital to changing the fate of the ocean. And we very much need the industrial data too. There is so much data trapped in silos, which could provide us with game-changing more insight and understanding”, says Mathisen.
“Our progress in the Ocean Data Platform is strong, and I believe we can build on all we have done, make a few adjustments ourselves and in tighter alignment with Cognite, and take this work to the next level,” she adds.
Name change coming up
There is a small but also significant milestone coming up soon, one that the foundation is very excited about.
“We are changing our name,” says Mathisen.
Mathisen explains that she is very proud that the foundation is one center among the 15 C4IR centers worldwide, founded by the World Economic Forum. To her, it is an important affiliation, THE place to belong. Unfortunately, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the C4IR, is not a household term. It is hard to say and even harder to remember.
“So, we are working on another name for our hub, reflecting our goals and what we already are”, says Kimberly with a somewhat secretive smile.
The biggest challenges
“Yes, there are some considerable challenges ahead.”
Kimberly Mathisen leans energetically forward.
“I see earning the trust of the actors in each of our three sectors – government, science, and industry – and particularly industry to unlock their data as one of the biggest challenges. I have been deeply involved in digitalization and working with data in industry for the past five years. We have come a long way in building understanding, but it is still immature.”
To become the worlds’ MOST IMPORTANT data collaboration hub, C4IR Ocean first needs to succeed profoundly with its Lighthouse approach. At the same time, in parallel, the foundation is building a highly capable data platform and must generate enough awareness to vault its efforts up to a global level to capture the attention of key international audiences.
“We will have to be ambitious, courageous, profoundly savvy and skillful to achieve this. And I am convinced we will succeed!”, CEO Kimberly Mathisen concludes on a high note of confidence.
For more information, contact:
Vigdis Hvaal, Communication Director, C4IR Ocean
Tel: +47 952 00 932
E-mail: vigdis.hvaal@oceandata.earth