Kahoot! Leadership

Meet the savvy and passionate K!rew captains leading us on a mission to make learning awesome.

Executive management

Eilert Giertsen Hanoa

Chief Executive Officer

Eilert Giertsen Hanoa is the Chief Executive Officer at Kahoot!, with a mission to make learning awesome and empower everyone, including children, students and employees, to unlock their full learning potential. Eilert leads Kahoot!’s vision of building the leading learning platform in the world.

Eilert came in as the first investor in Kahoot! in 2014 and served as Chairman of the Board from 2015 until he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in December 2019. He is also a board member and investor in several tech companies and start-ups.

Åsmund Furuseth

Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder

Before meeting the Kahoot! co-founders in 2013, Åsmund ran a wind turbine technology company called ChapDrive. Now, Åsmund advises and secures funding for various startups, where he holds Board Director roles. He owns a vintage sailboat and would like to spend more time sailing in the Oslo fjord (that he can see from our office window).

Åsmund has a Master of Science Degree in Physics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Lars Erik Grønntun

Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer

Lars Erik has over 25 years of experience from leading professional services businesses, initially founding the leading Norwegian communications agency Gambit, later acquired by WPP plc, followed by several leadership roles in global consultancy Hill+Knowlton Strategies. He is an internationally respected client counsellor and has advised top executives in companies across a variety of sectors. Lars Erik has received a series of awards and accolades for personal and company achievements during his leadership tenure.

Ken Østreng

Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining Kahoot!, Ken held CEO and CFO positions in Confirmit AS; a leading SaaS vendor for multi-channel Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Market Research solutions. Ken has been CFO in both privately held and publicly listed tech companies.

He has studied management and finance studies at BI Norwegian Business School.

Jostein Håvaldsrud

Chief Technology Officer

Jostein has over 25 years of experience in software engineering including the last 20 years in leadership positions. He joined Kahoot! in 2021 after working in Visma, where he led the engineering and product management of a large portfolio of products across Europe. Jostein started his career as a developer in the Norwegian software company Mamut where he delivered production code for 15 years while also working as CTO. Jostein studied Business Administration at the Norwegian Business School, BI.

Elizabeth Kleive

Chief Experience Officer

Elizabeth Kleive is the Chief Experience Officer at Kahoot!. In her role, she drives CX strategy to ensure the best and most engaging experiences for our users, as well as commercial strategy and implementation. Elizabeth joined the Kahoot! K!rew as Program Director in 2020 and served as VP of Customer Experience before her current role as CXO. Previously, Elizabeth worked with technology company Visma for 12 years, leading the customer experience and marketing efforts within the Commercial Unit of the organization. She has over 20 years of experience in marketing and customer experience and more than 15 years in the software industry.

Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing and Design from the University of Otago.

Julie Wessel

VP Corporate development

Julie joined the Kahoot! Group in August 2019 to strengthen Kahoot!’s focus on strategy, partnerships and M&A. Previously, she worked in McKinsey & Company as a project manager.

Julie holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA degree from Norwegian School of Economics.

Ranjit Mahida

General Counsel

With nearly 20 years’ experience as a media and technology lawyer in the US and Norway, Ranjit has a broad range of expertise advising companies on commercial agreements, intellectual property, data protection/privacy, M&A/transactional, litigation, marketing, regulatory and employment matters. He has held senior legal roles at publicly-traded technology companies and law firms in San Francisco, New York and Oslo.

Ranjit received his BA from the University of Michigan, JD from Santa Clara University School of Law and holds CIPP/E and CIPM certifications from the IAPP.

Board of directors

Gavin Patterson

Gavin Patterson, Chair of the Board, has significant international senior leadership experience and has served on boards for companies across FTSE, NASDAQ, AIM and for private equity as well as charities and educational establishments. He has worked across airlines, business services, consumer products, software, technology, telecommunications and third sector.
Gavin completed his executive career as President and Chief Revenue Officer at Salesforce in 2023, overseeing a period when the business almost doubled its revenues. Previously, he served as CEO BT Group, leading the business through acquisitions, investments in sport, a major expansion of the fibre network, and the creation of a market leading cyber security business. He started his career at P&G in Brand Management.

Gavin has an MA MEng in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.

Joe Belfiore

Joe Belfiore, Vice Chair of the Board, is a prominent figure in the technology industry, particularly known for his significant contributions during his tenure at Microsoft. He held various leadership positions within Microsoft, including leading roles in product development for Windows, Edge, Xbox, Windows Phone, and Microsoft Office. Belfiore played a crucial role in the development of several Microsoft products and technologies, including the Windows Start button/taskbar, the award-winning Windows Phone “Metro” experience, moving the Edge browser to Chromium open source, and defining the “Copilot” AI experience across Microsoft apps.

Joe holds a BS in computer science from Stanford University.

Stacey Childress

Stacey Childress is a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company.
An expert in education innovation, Stacey has mobilized over $1 billion in investments and philanthropy to education ventures through her previous roles as founding CEO of the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, and head of next generation learning at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Earlier in her career, Stacey spent nearly a decade on the faculty of Harvard Business School where she received multiple teaching awards for her course on education entrepreneurship. In 2021, Forbes named her to their 50 over 50 list of women leaders. Stacey holds degrees from Baylor University and Harvard Business School.

Ashley Andersen Zantop

Ashley Andersen Zantop is Chairman and CEO at Cambium Learning Group, the education essentials company delivering high-impact technology solutions for PreK-12 education. Before joining Cambium, she served in C-suite executive roles leading startups, joint ventures and mature organizations in public, private and nonprofit sectors working all over the world.
She received an A.B. in education and an A.B. in English literature from the University of Michigan, teaching certifications K-5 and 6-8, and an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University. Ashley is the recipient of the CODiE Award for Most Influential Thought Leader in EdTech, the ASU+GSV Power of Women Award and has been named a Caliber One Top 25 Women in US PE-backed Software.

Stine Halla

Stine Halla is currently SVP Finance for Nordic Marketplaces in Schibsted, and will take on the role as CFO with responsibility for finance, strategy, legal and M&A in Schibsted News Media in July 2024. Since she joined Schibsted in 2010 she has held several positions within finance in the company.
Stine started her career in PricewaterhouseCoopers, and holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics.

Michael Bruun

Michael Bruun is global co-head of Private Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset
Management. He is a member of the Asset Management Corporate Investment
Committee, Asset Management Growth Equity Investment Committee, Sustainable Investing Group Investment Committee and Asset & Wealth Management Diversity and Inclusion Council.
Michael has held several leading positions in Goldman Sachs, including head of EMEA Private Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, since joining the company as an analyst in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division in 2004.
Michael earned a BA in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, with studies at Cornell University.

Nana Bule

Nana Bule is an Operating advisor with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, working across technology and sustainability investment and value creation.
Nana brings broad leadership and go-to-market experience from more than two decades of working within SaaS and the technology industry. During her tenure at Microsoft, she held various leadership roles in both the Consumer and Enterprise business, including the role as CEO of Microsoft Denmark & Iceland.
She is an experienced board member and currently serves on a number of boards as an independent director and chair. In addition, she holds positions of trust for the Danish Government including Chair of the National Digital Council.
Nana holds a bachelor’s degree from Copenhagen Business School, and later studied at IT University of Copenhagen and IMD.

Andreas Hansson

Andreas Hansson is the Chairman of the Board at Kahoot!. He is partner in 2^Q Ventures, and served as Managing Director at SB Management until March 2022, having first joined SoftBank Group in 2017. Until August 2020 he was a Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. During his time at SoftBank, he has sourced, executed and managed investments in various technology sectors and served on several boards. Before joining SoftBank, Andreas held multiple positions at Arm Ltd. There he served as a technical adviser to the Executive Vice President and the CTO, leading strategic activities around business development and incubation. Andreas received an MSc in Computer Science and Engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden. He also holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology.

Chris Caulkin

Chris Caulkin is a Managing Director and Head of Technology for EMEA focusing on General Atlantic’s investments in the Technology sector. Throughout his 12 years at GA, Chris has led investments in founder-backed businesses in the ed-tech, health tech, food delivery, data, marketplaces and software industries.

Prior to joining General Atlantic in 2011, Chris was an Analyst and Associate at Warburg Pincus in London for four years where he concentrated on investments in the media, technology and business services sectors. Before Warburg Pincus, Chris was an Associate at The Boston Consulting Group in London where he worked on a range of media, technology and financial services projects.

Chris holds a Masters of Engineering from University of Cambridge, and Masters in Finance from London Business School.

Charlotte Kristiansen

Employee representative

Charlotte joined Kahoot! in November 2020 as the first Customer Success Manager for EMEA/APAC. Today, she works as a Senior Customer Success Manager, driving the onboarding and adoption process for businesses and higher education customers. She is based in Oslo, Norway.

Before joining Kahoot!, Charlotte worked at Microsoft and LinkedIn, based in Dublin, Ireland. She has lived abroad for over 20 years, completing her studies in Spain, France and Scotland. She holds a MSc in Marketing from the University of Edinburgh.

Charlotte joined the board as an employee representative in April 2023

Alexander Remen

Employee representative

Alexander joined Kahoot! in January 2017, and is working as a Senior Product Manager, leading the Kahoot! Mobile Apps and the teams that develop them. He is based in Oslo, Norway.

Before joining Kahoot!, Alexander worked at Opera Software for 9 years, both as a developer and as a technical project manager on mobile apps.

Alexander holds a Master Degree in Computer Science from INSA Toulouse, France.

Alexander joined the board as an employee representative in June 2021.