Sonitor wins award for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship

Announced at Arrow Norway’s annual customer seminar held recently in Oslo, this prestigious prize for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in the electronics industry sees Sonitor win 250,000NOK. The company will also benefit from business support and incentives worth 100,000NOK from Innovation Norway (Innovasjon Norge), a department of the Norwegian government.

Sonitor was chosen as this year’s winner for a number of reasons, including the innovation required to create the company’s unique ultrasound real time location system technology. The judges were also impressed by Sonitor’s commercialisation of the product for the demanding US market.

The award was presented to Dr Ole B. Hovind, Sonitor founder and chairman, by Jan C. Opsahl, chairman of Tandberg ASA and Tomra ASA. “Receiving this prize now, in 2007 – almost ten years after we started – gives me a distinct feeling that we have been somewhat ‘ahead of our time’,” said Dr Hovind.

Named in honour of the Norwegian electronics entrepreneur, Vebjørn Tandberg – founder of Tandberg Radiofabrikk, the radio company that went on to become a leader in videoconferencing technology - the prize is a joint initiative involving Arrow and other key organisations in the Norwegian electronics industry.

The committee who judged the entries for the prize was made up of leading figures from Norway’s electronics industry, namely: Karl-Christian Agerup, partner, Northzone Venture; Bjørn Ø. Andersen, editor, Elektronikk; Knut Dommersnes, sales directør Arrow Norway; Ole Jørgen Fredriksen, chairman of Q-Free and founder of ASK; Hans-Christian Haugli, CEO, Telenor R&D; Astrid Langeland, senior advisor, Innovasjon Norge; Per Sønsteby, managing director Hadelandprodukter AS (HAPRO); and Einar Aas, professor, Institutt for Electronics and Telecommunications, (NTNU).