Management change in Veidekke companies

Hans Gunnar Dokken, Managing Director of Norske Stålbygg, has been appointed Market Manager and Manager for External Business Development at Veidekke Industri with effect from 1 August. The new manager of Norske Stålbygg will be Lars N. Hjertås, who comes from the position of Project Manager at Veidekke Entreprenør Vestfold.

Veidekke Industri's activities include asphalt, gravel and aggregates, road maintenance and recycling, and turnover in 2009 was NOK 3 billion. Hans Gunnar Dokken (42) becomes part of the executive group of Veidekke Industri. His duties will cover market and customer analyses, new business areas and internal business controls. Dokken has a degree in business administration, has been employed at Veidekke since 1999 and Managing Director of Norske Stålbygg since 2003.

Lars N. Hjertås (42) takes over as Managing Director of Norske Stålbygg AS on 1 August 2010. Hjertås was previously Project Manager at Veidekke Entreprenør AS, Vestfold district, where he has worked for 3½ years. Hjertås is a graduate engineer and has previously worked for the municipality of Nøtterøy and the housing cooperative Tønsberg-Nøtterøy Boligbyggelag.

"Under Hans Gunnar Dokken's leadership, Norske Stålbygg has developed into a flexible and efficient total contractor in light industrial building, with a high level of competence and the ability to build all over Norway. This has meant that a growing number of its customers are repeat customers with activities in several parts of the country. Now that Hans Gunnar has chosen to take on fresh challenges at Veidekke Industri, I am very glad that Lars Hjertås is taking over the driving seat at Norske Stålbygg. Lars' wide  experience and excellent personal qualities will equip him to develop Norske Stålbygg even further," says Helge Opedal, Regional Manager of Veidekke Entreprenør and chairman of Norske Stålbygg.

For more information please contact:

Hans Gunnar Dokken, tel 95 76 27 76, hans-gunnar.dokken@norskestalbygg.no

Lars N. Hjertås, tel +47 922 97 192,  lars-nicolas.hjertas@veidekke.no

Helge Opedal, Regional Manager of Veidekke Entreprenør, tel +47 91 83 33 66, helge.opedal@veidekke.no

Communications Manager Helge Dieset, tel. +47 21 05 77 91 / +47 90 55 33 22, helge.dieset@veidekke.no

Veidekke ASA is a leading Scandinavian building contractor and property developer with 6,000 employees and a turnover of NOK 15.6 billion (2009). The group is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and has a dispersed ownership structure with the employees owning 20% of the stock. The business spans a wide spectrum of building and construction projects, developing housing and commercial buildings for private and public sector clients, asphalt plants and road maintenance as well as collecting and recycling waste.

Norske Stålbygg AS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Veidekke Entreprenør AS with 35 employees and an anticipated turnover of around NOK 100 million in 2010. Its main business is the development and construction of small and medium sized commercial buildings as turnkey contracts all over the country. Norske Stålbyg's head office is at Skolmar in the municipality of  Sandefjord.