“It is a great privilege to participate in the foundation’s various workflows that support our ability to distribute profit to good causes,’’ he says.
Opedal, who was elected chair of the Board of Kavli Trust in June 2021, knows Kavli Trust and the Kavli Group better than most. He has been a Kavli Trust trustee since 2014, and represented Kavli Trust as the owner on the Board of Kavli Holding AS since 2013.
“It feels good to be part of the Kavli team where our goal is to exist for others,’’ says Opedal, with a clear reference to the uniqueness of Kavli: That the entire profit after operation and development is distributed to good causes.
He highlights the role of the employees. “I get energy from the enthusiasm I see in the skilled employees in the various Kavli companies,” he says. Opedal points out that it is the employees who create the profit that Kavli Trust can ultimately distribute to good causes.
CSR taken one step further
The experienced business leader has taken over the baton from the previous chair of the board, Aksel Mjøs. Opedal is former CEO of Orkla, and now has the same role in Treschow Fritzøe. He has extensive board experience from various industries nationally and internationally. In his work for Kavli Trust, he nevertheless believes there is a special dimension, in that the entire profit is distributed to good causes. The better results for the group, the more people can benefit from the work of organisations that Kavli Trust supports.
“We are here for others! Everything we do in Kavli involves social responsibility in practice. This is a privilege, but also a responsibility. Kavli Trust must work strategically to ensure that the profits are distributed where the funds can make the most possible use,” he points out.
Out in the field
Opedal has met several of the organisations and seen the work they do with the support from Kavli Trust. The Board of Kavli Trust regularly makes visits to see how the allocated funds are managed by the recipients.
“It is always rewarding to get out in the field and monitor the use of the allocations, and see for ourselves how they create ripple effects in people’s lives as well as in their communities,” he says.
Meetings with children and young people on visits to Myanmar, South Africa and the North East of England have made a strong impression.
“It was also a joy to attend the Winter Festival in Bergstaden Røros, with which Kavli Trust has had a long-term collaboration,” he says.
“And I’m really looking forward to the opening of Q-Meieriene’s modern, new dairy operation in Jæren in May 2022!”
The golden triangle
In the last two decades, good results in the group have enabled Kavli Trust to increase its allocations significantly. This is a development the chair of the board wishes to further promote.
“Our most important task going forward is to continue to build a strong organisation that can strengthen the foundation for ever larger allocations,’’ says Opedal.
“This means strengthening the ”golden triangle”: leadership, competence and a value-creating corporate culture.”
MEMORABLE MEETING: Kavli Trust on a project visit to LEAP Science and Maths School in South Africa in 2017. The foundation has supported LEAP since 2016, and allocated funds for the free upper secondary schooling also in 2021. Behind from left: former trustee Silvija Seres, Aksel Mjøs, LEAP founder Anthony Galloway, Dag J. Opedal, General Manager Inger Elise Iversen and Allocation Manager Guro Sundsby. In front from left: Trustee Solfrid Lind, student Zanele Mvelase, teacher Zintle Mpayipheli and students Linda Dlamini and Tinyiko Notigo. (Photo: Hanne Eide Andersen / Kavli Trust)
The Board of Kavli Trust
- Kavli Holding AS is the parent company of the Kavli Group. By owning 100 percent of the shares in Kavli Holding, Kavli Trust owns the entire group.
- The Board of Kavli Trust represents the ownership and general assembly of Kavli Holding. The board is responsible for ensuring compliance with the foundation’s statutes that Knut Kavli laid down when he established Kavli Trust in 1962.
- In addition to allocating the profit to good causes, the Board of Kavli Trust exercises ownership and manages the foundation’s other assets.
- In 2021, Dag J. Opedal was elected new chair of the board, while Erik Volden was appointed as a new trustee of Kavli Trust.
- The board also consists of Solfrid Lind, Lise Hammergren and Aksel Mjøs.