Runar Nilsen is an experienced business executive known for turning around underperforming international industrial and trade companies. He excels in complex situations, driving change, achieving results, and negotiating better terms with stakeholders, focusing on cash and working capital management.

Nilsen has extensive experience in logistics, IT, and general management roles including CEO, CFO, and CRO, along with varied board experience. He is analytical, results-oriented, and hands-on, able to engage effectively at all organisational levels, from the shop floor to board positions.

Runar has worked as an Executive Interim Manager since 2003 when he left Møller Group (now known as Møller Mobility Group) after eight years. His career started with consulting roles within IT development and advisory, among others, at Tieto Enator and in 1995 he decided that he wanted to take on a line manager role and joined Møller as Logistics Director for new cars and automotive spare parts, and after a while also responsible for all IT. Here he was responsible for large logistics and IT change projects. Møller is one of the largest privately owned companies in Norway and is active within automotive import and sales, real estate, and investments. For the last two years in Møller, he led the Investments Division as Managing Director, working heavily with financial and operational turnarounds. In 2003 he decided to leave Møller and decided to start a new career as an Executive Interim Manager specializing in turnarounds and restructuring.

His first assignment was as CFO for Raufoss, a 50% state-owned stock-listed company that manufactures spare parts for, among others, GM, and with operations in Norway, France, and Canada. The company was threatened by bankruptcy, and together with the interim CEO, he led the operational turnaround, and sale of the operational companies and subsequently put the parent company into solvent liquidation. To reach a successful outcome, key tasks were negotiated with the clients and investors, together with the sale of the subsidiaries, and delisting the company from the stock exchange.

How come you took on a role as CFO?

“I got an offer and I took it, you have to try out new things. Although I didn’t have a background as CFO, I’m quite good at finance, not at least cash and working capital management. It is important to make sure to have a good accounting manager and finance team, so the CFO can focus on strategic and forward-looking matters. My focus was to do the reporting, work on the strategy and implement the changes.”

What did the market for Executive Interim Management look like in Norway at that time?

“There were a lot of individuals working in interim positions, mostly in a way to hold the post until a permanent manager was employed. However, Interim Turnaround and Restructuring Managers did not really exist in the Nordics then, so my colleague and I were very early in this field. Many companies lacked restructuring and implementation skills. It is easy to set a strategy and manage a successful company, but implementing significant changes is not. We established a team from our networks, and we introduced the concept of specialised restructuring managers in Norway. We worked a lot with brand building to establish a leading position. It is not as entering a regular position; it is about the experience and capability to hit the ground running.”

How did you get assignments as the Interim turnaround concept was unknown in Norway at that time?

“We got our assignments through our personal networks. We got a lot of media attention during our time at Kvaerner Group (subsequently TH Global Ltd.) where I was first interim EVP & CFO and later CEO. We led a significant global restructuring and turnaround project involving 250 legal entities around the world. and our reputation spread. Today, about 50% of the assignments come from the investor side, which is concerning as it indicates that owners and Boards are often not able to act quick enough. Today the role as Interim Chief Restructuring Officer has developed, is growing and getting more and more attention. My roles are usually a combination of operational and financial restructuring.”

How do you lead a successful restructuring process?

“Knowing the specific industry is not the most important, 80% of the challenges are usually the same regardless of the industry. You must understand the main drivers of the business and the organisation, and you have to be good at people management and management in general. Excellent skills in cash management are crucial and often not well enough managed by the finance function. Communication is also very important. It is a common big mistake not to communicate clearly with the employees to avoid worrying them. You must be brutally honest with the teams to build trust and you must dare to make decisions. In a crisis, speed is as important as money. Start immediately and correct and adjust along the way. Often, the management has become the bottleneck, so you have to set effective decision processes and be calm in the storm. If actions take too long, it makes everything more complicated, if the company is facing critical challenges, make sure to get help early when the options to find alternative solutions are still there.”

Why should you engage an Executive Interim Restructuring Manager to lead such projects?

“Often both the skills and capacity are lacking internally in a crisis. You can’t do two jobs at the same time, and you can’t afford to lose time learning how to do this if you have not done it before. It is very important that the day-to-day operations keeps running. If you engage an Executive Interim Restructuring Manager, the organisation can keep focusing on the business while the interim focuses fully on the project and changes needed. An interim also doesn’t have a history and legacy in the company, meaning that you don’t have to consider internal politics, previous decisions or personal relations. They also have long experience of similar assignments as they have done it before.”

You have held many board roles, what is the role of the board during a restructuring?

“In a crisis, the board needs to be closer to the organisation, alert and agile. Boards generally need to react earlier when the management reports bad numbers month after month. Denial and hope are way too often to be seen. The potential personal liability of board members is brought up more frequently than before, and my opinion is that many boards must wake up and tackle problems more proactively. They are responsible to owners, investors and other creditors, and they need to take this seriously.”

As an Executive Interim Manager, you work long hours, how do you make sure to keep a good work/life balance?

“I love travelling, and as an example I recently came back from a break in Santorini. I am also very interested in wine, and I love good food. Boating along the west coast of Sweden or the east coast of Norway, and skiing are also two things that I do to recharge the batteries and get energy. And I am getting better and better at avoiding work in the weekends as much as possible.”

What should you not miss when you visit Oslo?

“The area around the opera in Bjørvika is a newly developed part of town and very interesting with lot of nice restaurants and bars. You should definitely not miss the Munch Museum and to go swimming in the fiord if you visit during the summer. Visiting the Holmenkollen ski jump with a fabulous view of the city and the fjord is also recommended.”