Crowdfunding Seminar - – 08 February 2017

Crowdfunding is a fast-growing phenomenon globally. The seminar will address key questions related to its manifestations, potentialities, and challenges. This will be done with a concrete focus on the current state of things in the Nordic region in general, and particularly in terms of regulation.

The seminar is arranged by UiA School of Business and Law in tight cooperation with Forburkerrådet (the Norwegian Consumer Protection Council), and thanks to support provided by both Sparebanken Sør and Forbrukerrådet.

Part 1 BREAKFAST SEMINAR 08.00 - 09.30

 What is crowdfunding? By Associate Professor Rotem Shneor  Experiences and Lessons from a Successful Equity Crowdfunding in : The Case of Bad Norwegian by Marius Kristiansen, CEO "Bad Norwegian"

Part 2 SEMINAR 09.45 - 13.00

 09.45 - 09.50 Welcome – Jorge Jensen, Forbrukerrådet

 09.50 - 10.15 Global perspectives and trends in Crowdfunding: Insights from the Cambridge Alternative Finance Reports, by Louise Westerlind - Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

 10.15 - 10.45 Reflections and Highlights from the Finnish Crowdfunding Act by Aki Kallio, Managing Compliance Officer in Corporates & Institutions unit of Danske Bank A/S Helsinki Branch, Finland; former Ministerial Advisor for the Finnish Ministry of Finance

 10.45 - 11.15 Crowdfunding in Denmark: Regulatory Issues and Insights from the Dansk Erhverv Report by Kristine Pontoppidan, Founder of Ninja Consult, former Head of Section at the Danish Business Authority

 11.15 - 11.35 Break

 11.35 - 12.00 Crowdfunding in Norway – opportunities and regulatory needs by Tore Vamraak, State Secretary, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance

 12.00 - 13.00 Panel discussion

 13.00 Lunch

Dr. Rotem Shneor School of Business and Law, University of Founder of the Nordic Crowdfunding Alliance

Dr. Rotem Shneor is an associate professor at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. He is currently leading the Nordic Crowdfunding Alliance of platforms, which constitutes a cross-border collaborative effort to educate, promote and improve crowdfunding in the Nordic region. He also serves as a member of the Cambridge University Alternative Finance Leadership Board. He is the academic director for entrepreneurship educational programs at the University of Agder’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, and has over a decade of experience in teaching entrepreneurship at various levels. His research interests include entrepreneurial intentions and motivations, Crowdfunding behavior and motivations, as well as Internet marketing. He has published in various academic journals, and has contributed chapters to edited volumes published by leading publishing houses.

Marius T. Kristiansen CEO, Bad Norwegian AS

Marius T. Kristiansen, CEO and co-founder of BAD NORWEGIAN AS. He holds a MSc International Marketing & Management. After working as a management consultant for five years, he started full-time with BAD NORWEGIAN in 2012. The company has raised funding from private investors, institutional investors, public funding and in 2016 it was one of the first companies in Norway to successfully complete equity- crowdfunding.

Louise Westerlind Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Louise has an extensive industry experience in both crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending at managing director level internationally. She also co-founded and ran an e-commerce platform in Hong Kong. Previously she worked at the World Bank/CGAP in Washington DC and at various financial services and consulting firms in New York City. Louise received her MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School and her BSc in International Business from Copenhagen Business School and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Aki Kallio Former Ministerial Advisor for the Finnish Ministry of Finance Managing Compliance Officer in Corporates & Institutions unit of Danske Bank A/S Helsinki

Mr. Aki Kallio currently works as a Managing Compliance Officer in Corporates & Institutions unit of Danske Bank A/S Helsinki Branch. Previously Mr. Kallio worked as a Ministerial Adviser in the Financial Markets Department of the Ministry of Finance of Finland, where his main responsibility area consisted of various assignments relating to divergent legislative and other actions of Financial Markets Department especially in the field of capital and bond markets. Mr. Kallio worked with issues falling under the scope of European Commission’s Capital Markets Union and oversaw the assessment and development of both Finnish bond market (acting as a head secretary of the Finnish Bond Market expert group) as well as alternative finance market (responsible for drafting the Finnish Crowdfunding Act and acting as a co-head of the Financial Market Department's Fintech - expert group). In addition, Mr. Kallio has acted, among others, as a Finnish representative of the EU Commission’s informal expert group European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum (ECSF) which assisted the Commission in developing EU-wide policies for crowdfunding and alternative finance. He also actively participated to preparatory and follow-up work and meetings of European Stability Mechanism, EWG Task Force on Co-ordinated Action, Expert Group of European Securities Committee and various Council Working Groups. Prior to joining the Ministry of Finance of Finland Mr. Kallio worked for two leading Finnish law firms and as a corporate counsel. He holds an LL.B. and LL.M. degrees with distinction from the University of Helsinki.

Kristine Pontoppidan Former Head of Section at the Danish Business Authority Founder of Ninja Consult

Kristine Pontoppidan is among the leading experts on crowdfunding and is the founder of NinjaConsult. Kristine has worked with crowdfunding and crowdsourcing for the past 3 years and has been the project lead on the cross-governmental project to map the regulation of crowdfunding in Denmark. The project ultimately produced the report -” Crowdfunding in Denmark”, along with a number of recommendations and initiatives to promote crowdfunding in Denmark. After working with start-ups and policy in the public sector for 7 years, Kristine took the jump from intrapreneur to entrepreneur in 2015 and is alongside NinjaConsult also external lecturer in crowdfunding at Copenhagen Business School.

Tore Vamraak State Secretary, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance

Tore Vamraak holds a MSc degree in business (siviløkonom) from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH), from where he graduated at the age of 19. He has held a variety of positions: Scientist in defence economics at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Portfolio manager at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) in and New York, managing a large portion of the Government Pension Fund Global. Thereafter he turned to politics, working for the Conservative Party Parliamentary Group and as the Conservative Party came into Government he was appointed State Secretary, first at the Prime Minister’s Office and then at the Ministry of Finance.

Jorge B. Jensen Head of Section Finance at the Norwegian Consumer Council (Forbrukerrådet)

Jorge B. Jensen holds a master degree combining Economics and Sociology from the Norwegian University of technology and Science (NTNU). He started his professional career as a scientific researcher at the department for Political Sciences and Sociology at the NTNU, before went to work for the financial industry, both as an employee and as a consultant in various research consultant firms. In 2008 he joined the Norwegian Consumer Council heading its section finance at the consumer advocacy department. Jensen is a long-lasting national representative at the European Organization for Consumer (BEUC), attending deputy member at the Norwegian Bank law commission, board member for the financial marked fund. He regularly gives lectures at the BI Norwegian Business School and is a much used as a commentator in national media.

Organizing Committee:

Ellen Katrine Nyhus, Handelshøyskolen UiA - [email protected] Jorge Jensen, Forbrukerrådet - [email protected] Liv Bente H. Friestad, Handelshøyskolen UiA - [email protected] Rotem Shneor, Handelshøyskolen UiA - [email protected]

Web:

Unni Henriksen, Handelshøyskolen, UiA