Speaker Bio
Sunna Bjorg Helgadottir (39) is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at HS Orka which is a privately owned power generator in Iceland, owning and operating over 170 MW of geothermal power production capacity, in addition to a 10 MW hydro plant commissioned in 2020.
Sunna’s role at HS Orka is leading the technical team which involves large Capital Investments, as well as other smaller scale Engineering/Technical project. Sunna’s primary focus since joining has been on expansion projects, increasing the power production in a very demanding, green energy market. In addition, Sunna does also lead the Health and Safety within HS Orka and with the team, they have focused on improving the Safety Culture within the company.
Prior to joining HS Orka, Sunna was the VP of Technical Operations as Alvotech, which is a state-of-the-art Biopharmaceutical company in Iceland. Sunna was responsible for all Technical Operations, i.e. Engineering group, Facilities, Supply Chain and all EHS within the company. Sunna’s main role was to lead those teams and lead the Site Readiness program, which was to prepare the site for the first GMP audit.
Prior to joining Alvotech, Sunna spent 14 years at an Aluminum plan in Iceland, owned by RioTinto –called ISAL. Sunna started there 18 years old in the canteen and worked her way up to the Executive team at the age of 29 and was the youngest women within Rio Tinto to reach Executive team at a plant level. At the Aluminum plants Sunna was responsible for all production and had 80 employees within her team. Under Sunna’s leadership ISAL broke a record in annual production, which was remarkable given that the plant was producing 2.5x the designed capacity.
Sunna has a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Engineering Management and Optimization from University of Iceland. Along with the university degree’s Sunna has taken a few courses in leadership management, production optimization and has been working with the continuous improvements and Lean management philosophy from 2007.
Sunna’s personal interest lies in spending time with her family and kids, as well she loves trail running in the mountains of Iceland and Europe and she just completed the Tour Du Mont Blanc circle this summer.
