Our leadership team

The people who make up Control­ant's leadership team bring a wealth of experience to their roles, helping the company towards achieving its ambitious vision: to unleash the power of people and technology to deliver zero-waste supply chains for our partners and the planet.

Our executive team

Gísli Herjólfsson
Co-Founder, CEO
Gísli Herjólfsson co-founded Controlant and has driven the company's strategy and growth of the company for the last 12 years. He has a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iceland.
Erlingur Brynjulfsson
Co-Founder, CSO
Mr. Brynjulfsson co-founded Controlant and serves as its Chief Strategy Officer since 2023. Erlingur Previously served as Chief Technology Officer since 2007 leading all product R&D, design, and development. From 2022 Erlingur was also Chief Product officer. Mr. Brynjulfsson holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iceland.
Gudmundur Arnason
CFO, Interim COO
Mr. Arnason has served as Controlant’s CFO since 2015, and is also an interim COO. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Reykjavik University.
Anna Karlsdottir
CQO
Ms. Karlsdottir has served as Controlant's Quality Officer since 2015. She holds an M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iceland.
Ella Bjornsdottir
CHRO
Ms. Bjornsdottir has been with Controlant since December 2020, focusing on recruitment and retaining world-class talent. She holds a B.Edu from the University of Iceland and has more than 20 years of executive development experience.
Martin Thaysen
CCO
Martin Thaysen has been with Controlant as Chief Commercial Officer since 2022, focusing on driving growth and digital transformation of the supply chain. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from IMD Business School in Switzerland.
Carsten Lützhøft
CPO
Carsten Lützhøft has extensive experience of Process Digitalization in the global manufacturing and supply chain organization. He also serves as board member and advisory board chairman in scale up companies within the aviation and health tech industries.
Wade Munsie
CTO
Mr. Munsie is Controlant´s Chief Technology Officer since 2023. Wade brings industry experience from both pharma and logistics, having served as Global Chief Data Officer at GSK, and Chief Data Officer at the Royal Mail. Wade was awarded the Global Data and Analytics Leader of the Year for 2021 and 2022.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors (the Board) comprises five non-executive directors at a time and two alternates. Alternate Board members are Magnús Magnússon and Svanhvít Gunnarsdóttir. All members of the Board of Directors were elected at the Annual General Meeting on the 16th of June 2023.

Ásthildur Otharsdóttir
Chair
Ásthildur holds an MBA degree from Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Iceland. Ásthildur is a partner and investment manager at Frumtak Ventures and a Board member in various portfolio companies in the Frumtak portfolio, including the Chairman of the Board of Kaptio, Treble Technologies and Empower, as well as board member of Business Iceland. Ásthildur has been a director of the Board of Controlant since 2021.
Jørgen Rugholm
Board Member with term until 1 January 2024.
Jørgen holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and M.A. degree in Economics from the European University Institute. Jørgen is an independent advisor and investor and a Board member of multiple companies, including 22. November 2021 ApS, The Fiddlery ApS, Bactolife ApS, ADVANTAGE Investment Partners A/S, Cabris ApS, Fyryre Consumer Invest ApS, RUFR INVESR 1 K/S and OLIOLI Holding ApS. Previously, Jørgen was a senior partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, Inc. for over 28 years. Jørgen has been a director of the Board of the Company since 2021.
Kristin Fridgeirsdottir
Board Member
Kristín holds a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland, M.Sc degree in Financial Engineering and PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University. Kristín currently works full time as the CFO of Sýn hf. and was previously a Adjunct professor at London Business School as well as an independent management consultant. Kristín is the former Chairman of the Board of Hagar hf., former vice Chairman of the Board of TM hf. and Kvika banki hf. as well as being a former Board member of Distica hf. and Eik hf. Kristín has been a director of the Board of Controlant since 2020.
Søren Skou
Board Member with term from 1 January 2024
Søren holds an MBA with honors from IMD, Lausanne Switzerland and a graduate diploma in marketing from Copenhagen Business School. He is Vice Chairman of telecomm7nications equipment maker Nokia OY and Chairman of The Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping. Previously he was the CEO of A. P. Moller Maersk, where he had a career in shipping and logistics spanning almost 40 years. Søren is globally recognized leader in Shipping and Logistics.
Steve Van Kuiken
Board Member
Steve recently retired as a Senior Partner from McKinsey & Company. Over his long career at McKinsey, he founded and led the firm’s Healthcare Technology practice and later founded and built their technology transformation practice, McKinsey Technology, a fast-growing $2B global business. He was also a long-time leader in the Life Sciences practice, serving large, global pharmaceutical and medical product organizations. Prior to McKinsey, Steve was Vice-President of IT at Baxter Healthcare and Senior Manager at Andersen Consulting. He has a B.A. in Economics and History from Hope College.
Trausti Þórmundsson
Board Member
Trausti holds a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iceland and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Trausti is a technology leader with 20+ years' progressive experience in R&D in voice processing, audio processing and digital communication, currently working full time as a Hardware Engineer at Google. Trausti is a co-founder of Controlant and has been a director of the board since 2007.

In loving memory of Stefán "Stebbi" Karlsson

The kindness, generosity, and humility of our dear friend, co-founder, and colleague will always remain a cornerstone of our company and culture.