Chairman of Sagastad Drift AS, Kjell Storeide, informs that there will be a change of CEO in the company. The current CEO, Eli Førde Aarskog, has resigned and will leave after the general meeting on May 26th. After that, she will retire.
The board is confident that they have recruited the best candidate in Synnøve Aabrekk. She is local and has been passionate about the Sagastad project for several decades as a project manager in various phases of the establishment and also as a board member. Few know the history of the ship grave at Myklebust better than her. Synnøve also has extensive experience in tourism both locally, regionally, and nationally through various destination development projects, working with individual actors, in NCE Tourism, and as the managing director of the regional company Visit Sørlandet.
Synnøve has an exciting task ahead. The company is entering an interesting phase of strong growth, and she will be part of a team with competent employees.
Eli has been responsible for the company since the beginning of 2020 and has safely guided the company through the challenging pandemic period. The time was used well to lay operational plans for the future, and the operations in 2023 and 2024 show that the company is on solid ground. The turnaround has placed great demands on her, the employees, and the board. They are proud together that it went well. Today, Sagastad is a beacon in local tourism and is recognized as a Viking center both nationally and internationally.
In 2024, 55,000 people visited the Viking center, and several million people worldwide have seen the launch of the ship via social media. Sagastad is now the attraction in Scandinavian tourism with the most followers on Instagram, only surpassed by Legoland in Denmark. New and exciting collaborations bring optimism to the company. These days, the program for this year’s launch in April is being planned with visits from prominent figures and a lot of national and international press present.
Synnøve will be in place at Sagastad from May.
