Erlend Ness is employed as the new chief financial officer (CFO) at Helitrans AS and will take up the position in January 2022.
Ness is 58 years old, educated at the University of Oslo, studied auditing at Trondheim School of Economics and has solid experience in finance. He started his career in the National Audit Office and has held several important positions in Fesil Holla Metall and Trønderenergi, the latter as group accounting manager and finance manager.
He takes over the baton from Laila Mannsverk Rønning, who is stepping down on 31 January after more than 6 years in the position.
“Laila Mannsverk Rønning has done an outstanding job for Helitrans during the period she has been involved,” says Ole Christian Melhus, managing director of Helitrans, and thanks Laila for her efforts in the company.
Melhus highlights Ness as someone who will contribute positively to the restructuring of Helitrans in a period where the entire industry is having a tough time after 2 years of the pandemic.
“I am very pleased to take up the job as CFO in Norway’s largest domestic helicopter company and I am looking forward to getting started and working together with talented colleagues, and that I can contribute to making the company more efficient together with the management,” says Erlend Ness.
Ole Christian Melhus, CEO, is excited to have Erlend Ness join the company’s management team.
“I see Erlend as an extroverted manager with a good understanding of business and his experience from financial management and group management will contribute to important changes in the company going forward,” says Ole Christian Melhus
Last year, however, Erlend Ness became best known as the first to test positive for Covid-19 on Mount Everest, when he was on his second visit to climb the mountain peak in April 2021. From the upper part of base camp at 5,400 m. he was picked up by an Airbus helicopter of precisely the same type that Helitrans uses, and his recording of the trip was shown on CNN and many other news channels worldwide. On his previous expedition in 2018, he and the team reached 8,006 m. before having to abort after being robbed of the oxygen tanks they depended on.
Erlend Ness is long since healthy and ready to work on promoting Helitrans’ position in the Scandinavian market for helicopter services.
– I look forward to working closely with Erlend as part of the management team and am convinced that his joining will strengthen Helitrans and welcome him to us, says Ole Christian Melhus.
Helitrans is the country’s largest domestic helicopter company, with a fleet of 21 helicopters and approx. 100 employees at a total of 15 locations from Alta in the north to Kristiansand in the south. The head office is in Stjørdal in Trøndelag. The company carries out assignments for a number of businesses within the power industry and telecoms, and plays an important emergency response role in, for example, forest fires. Helitrans also offers internal and external cargo flights and sightseeing.
Helitrans is owned by Røysi Invest AS.