Kelda consists of a core team with unique and complementary expertise on drilling technology,
hydraulics modelling, and advanced control system design.

Glenn-Ole Kaasa, Chief Executive Officer

Glenn-Ole Kaasa

Chief Executive Officer

Comes from position as leader of dept. of Intelligent Drilling in Statoil R&D, and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor on adaptive control systems at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Has been responsible for Statoil’s research on managed pressure drilling (MPD) technology, and Hydro’s research on production optimisation. He has also been central in establishing NTNU’s research on pressure control for drilling. Background from Kongsberg Automotive as research manager and leading specialist control systems. M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering, and nonlinear control systems, respectively. Partner and full-time employee.

Martin Culen, Chief Commercial Officer

Martin Culen

Chief Commercial Officer

Martin has over 24 years of energy industry experience specializing in Underbalanced and Managed Pressure Drilling.  Prior to joining Kelda as Chief Commercial Officer, he was a Principal with Blade Energy Partners, Director of Blade Energy’s offices in Dubai.  In addition to his involvement with MPD and UBD projects, Martin developed training material and was an instructor for Blade’s MPD and UBD courses. Martin is actively involved with the IADC UBO-MPD Committee, having served as the Chairman for the UBD and Training sub-committees, most recently committee Chairman, and head of the API 16RCD task group. He has also served as chair and co-chair for numerous SPE workshops and conferences. Martin is the author of 13 technical papers and holds a patent related to MPD. He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Geir Arne Evjen, Chief Technology Officer and Partner

Geir Arne Evjen

Chief Technology Officer and Partner

Comes from a position as principal researcher in Statoil R&D. Background from process modelling, multiphase flow, fluids and flow-assurance. Has been system architect in several R&D projects on advanced software for estimation and data reconciliation. M.Sc. in chemical engineering; about to finish PhD in thermodynamics. Expert in thermodynamics, optimization, data communication, and programming. Partner and full-time employee.

Pål Jacob Nessjøen, Chief Operating Officer and Partner

Pål Jacob Nessjøen

Chief Operating Officer and Partner

Main focus on system integration, deployment, and operation. He joined Kelda in 2014 after working as a senior development advisor in Corporate R&D at National Oilwell Varco (NOV).  Expert on drilling control systems, instrumentation, data acquisition, configuration, and interface to rig equipment and HMI. M.Sc. degree in engineering cybernetics from NTNU.

Robert Graham, Chief Advisor and Partner

Robert Graham

Chief Advisor and Partner

Senior Drilling Advisor MPD/UBD at Shell UK and acting MPD Subject Matter Expert for Shell Global Technology. Specialist with unique competence and operational experience from state of the art MPD and UBD projects worldwide. Background from leading technical positions in several oil companies and service companies in the drilling industry, latest from Statoil Drilling Technology as Leading Engineer MPD. Partner and consultant.

Kevin Wise, Chief Advisor and Partner

Kevin Wise

Chief Advisor and Partner

Senior Technical Fellow at Boeing Phantom Works (Boeing Defense, Space & Security), and Adjunct Professor at Washington University, St. Louis. Authority on the design and development of autonomous aircraft flight control systems. Lead and chief architect on some of Boeing’s most prestigeous projects on advanced flight controls, with an unprecedented track record of successful projects. Partner and consultant.

Linn Helgedagsrud, Administration Manager

Linn Helgedagsrud

Administration Manager

Comes from a position as Property Consultant in Porsgrunn Utvikling. Before that she has a background as Controller and Accounting Manager in Bilfinger, Controller Purchase in Kongsberg Automotive and Financial Consultant in Larvik kommune. Full-time employee.

Christian Berg, Advisor Hydraulics Modelling

Christian Berg

Advisor Hydraulics Modelling

Industrial Ph.D. with Kelda and USN on the topic of modeling for automatic control and estimation of influx and loss during drilling operations. Holds a trade certificate as a laboratory technician and completed his B.Sc degree in gas and energy technology from Telemark University College (HiT) in the spring of 2012. Received his M.Sc. in Process Technology from HiT in the spring of 2014 within modeling and experimental study of viscoelastic flow.

Vinicius de Oliveira, Advisor on Control Theory

Vinicius de Oliveira

Advisor on Control Theory

Received his engineering degree within control and automation from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in the spring of 2011. Background from several R&D projects involving control system design, process optimization, data analysis and software development in both academic and corporate environments. Completed his PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2016, where he has worked with pressure control for multiphase flow stabilization in oil and gas production, i.e. robust and adaptive anti-slug control.

Marcela Martins Cicilio, Lead R&D Engineer

Marcela Martins Cicilio

Lead R&D Engineer

Received her engineering degree within control and automation from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in the spring of 2011. Comes from a position as project engineer at DNV GL (Marine Cybernetics AS until 2014) in which she has worked for five years with HIL-testing of various offshore control systems, as eg. modern drill-floors and power management systems, focusing on functional and safety features. Full-time employee.

Louis Gonda, Research Engineer

Louis Gonda

Research Engineer

Received his M.Sc. in science and executive engineering at Grande école Mines ParisTech (ENSMP) in the summer 2017. Background from several R&D projects involving hydraulics modelling, software development, control and mechanical system design in both academic and corporate environments. Full-time employee.

Ayrton dos Reis Silva, Senior Software Engineer

Ayrton dos Reis Silva

Senior Software Engineer

Received his engineering degree in Mechatronics from the University of São Paulo (USP) in the fall of 2018. Comes from an internship position at Embraer SA, in which he worked on the development and maintenance of the Management Support System, focused on flight test data visualization. Background from several projects involving web development, motion graphics and embedded systems. Full-time employee.

João Pedro Finoto Martins, Senior Software Engineer

João Pedro Finoto Martins

Senior Software Engineer

Received his engineering degree within mechatronics from the University of São Paulo (USP) in the fall of 2017. Comes from a position as a project engineer working with embedded systems design. Background from several projects involving web development in both academic and corporate environments. Full-time employee.

Ole Magnus Brastein, R&D Manager

Ole Magnus Brastein

R&D Manager

Received PhD in parameter estimation and Machine Learning (2020), Master degree in Systems and Control engineering (2016) and Bachelor in electronics (2004). Industrial R&D background since 2004 in a wide range of projects, from hardware/instrumentation, to software engineering and embedded systems. Has a wide range of interests, from software design and development, machine learning, artificial intelligence, estimation algorithms, and the creative R&D process. Full-time employee.

Christian Bratli, Lead R&D Engineer

Christian Bratli

Lead R&D Engineer

Received his M.Sc. degree in engineering cybernetics from NTNU in 2005. Worked with research and development since then. Some examples are control systems in the automotive industry, condition monitoring in the energy industry and system development and integration in the Welfare segment. Have several years as an Implementation Specialist in Statoil’s research on managed pressure drilling (MPD) technology. Full-time employee.

Icaro Ostan, R&D Engineer

Icaro Ostan

R&D Engineer

Received his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of São Paulo (USP) in the summer of 2021 within dynamical systems and mechatronics. Background from several projects, including certification of control system components of aircraft engines; interaction control and haptic interfaces. Currently works on R&D projects involving modelling, simulation, estimation algorithms and software development. Full-time employee.

Safiul Kabir, Software Engineer

Safiul Kabir

Software Engineer

Received his B.Sc in Computer Science and Engineering from Khulna University. He has extensive experience in web development in various domains including fleet management and business automation, vehicle tracking, large-scale OTT software solution, and managing large media interaction. Currently works on R&D projects. Full-time employee.

Nabil Md Shahid, Software Engineer

Nabil Md Shahid

Software Engineer

Received his B.Sc. (Honours) degree in ECE from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh in 2019. Has experience working with JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux, ExpressJs, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL. Full-time employee.

Sajid Hasan, Software Engineer

Sajid Hasan

Software Engineer

Received his B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology in the summer of 2022. Skillful in developing back-end web application development using NodeJS, ExpressJS, ASP.NET Core, etc. Experienced in front-end web application development using frameworks like React, and Angular. Has strong competence in building and consuming RESTful web services.

A S M Khairul Alam, Software Engineer

A S M Khairul Alam

Software Engineer

Received his B.Sc from University of Dhaka in Software Engineering. Prior projects include Blockchain based E-Voting System, Digital Financial System Portal and E-Tender System of an ERP. Now he is employed as a full time web developer proficient in JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux, Java and Spring Boot. Full-time employee.

Fatemeh Vosoughi Kordkandi, R&D engineer

Fatemeh Vosoughi Kordkandi

R&D engineer

Received her M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the university of Politecnico di Torino in the spring of 2023. Comes from several internship positions at SOCAR and Grenergy LLC, in which she worked on 3-D static and dynamic modelling and oil recovery with thermal energy. Background in several projects, including controlling bottom hole pressure in a narrow mud window using a wired drilling pipe and digitalization. Full-time employee.