Current chief financial officer (CFO) of Saga Robotics Anne Dingstad has been selected as the company’s new chief executive office (CEO) and will be its first female CEO.
She will commence the role with immediate effect, the company has said.
Dingstad has a background in mobile and digital businesses, having held various international executive leadership positions prior to joining Saga Robotics.
She lives on and runs a farm as the 15th owner in her family and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and International Management from the Norwegian School of Economics and St. Gallen. She has also studied entrepreneurship at Boston University.
Dingstad said she is “honoured” to take up this new position.
“It is a privilege to lead our talented and dedicated team in developing less labour-constrained products and services and creating value for customers,” she said.
“We want to be the preferred scalable technology partner for soft fruit, horticulture and viticulture growers, enabling them to reach their full crop potential while reducing waste, use of chemicals, and carbon emissions.
“Building on our world leading Thorvald platform, we will expand our markets, scale, and build a robust operation to create shareholder and societal value.”
She succeeds Pal Johan From, who founded Saga Robotics in 2016 with Lars Grimstad. Johan Form will transition into the role of chief product officer. Welcoming the transition, he said:
“As we grow it’s ever more important to have the right people in the right role and I’m delighted to be able to hand overall leadership of the company to someone as talented as Anne.
“I’m also excited to be able to focus on the part of the company where I can make the biggest difference – the evolution of our product range.
“I look forward to working with this amazing team to scale up our offerings and develop products that create even more value for our customers.”
Saga Robotics
Saga Robotics designs, develops and operates the world-leading agricultural robot, Thorvald, which uses advanced algorithms to navigate in challenging conditions on farms.
First built in Norway in 2014, there are now more than 50 Thorvald robots in operation in five different countries.
The company has received support from Innovate UK, Innovation Norway, the Norwegian Research Council, and the EU’s Horizon 2020 program.
The technology has been developed in collaboration with the University of Lincoln, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Cornell University, the University of Florida, Berry Gardens and others.
