CEO Hans-Petter Mellerud in Monaco for the final of ’EY World Entrepreneur of The Year 2018 Award’
Saturday, Zalaris’ CEO Hans-Petter Mellerud is fighting for a prestigious, international entrepreneurial award in Monaco, France. He has now committed to participate in the extreme triathlon ‘Norseman’ in Norway, and aims for raising NOK 2 million to AKTIV Against Cancer.
November 28 last year, Zalaris CEO Hans-Petter Mellerud won `EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017’ in Norway. This weekend Mellerud will be competing against entrepreneurs from 50 other countries in the international final.
“Zalaris has gone from being an idea to a now being a pan-European company. #teamZalaris is more than 800 colleagues efficiently providing payroll and HR services to over 1 million employees in all over Europe – among them Angela Merkel – the German Chancellor. I am prepared to tell this amazing story to Monaco, and the rest of the world”, says Mellerud.
From Lødingen to Monaco
Eighteen years ago, Hans-Petter Mellerud left his job as a partner with Accenture to strike out on his own. The former Norwegian Special Forces Officer saw an opportunity in outsourcing payroll services and founded the human resources firm, Zalaris.
“In 2000, I reached a position that many were dreaming of and few thought becoming “head of payroll” was a good career move. I was determined, but it took time convince my first customer. This took me to a small place called Lødingen way North”, he says.
Today the company employs 820 people and has an estimated annual turnover of USD101 million.
Extreme challenge
Before Mellerud won the ‘EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017’ in Norway previous winter, he promised he would participate in one of the world’s most extreme triathlons if he won: ‘Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon‘. Now, Norseman is a reality and Mellerud challenges other tech leaders:
“This is far away from my comfort zone and I need all the motivation I can get. Therefore, I have decided to try to raise NOK 2 million for our partner AKTIV Against Cancer”, he says and continues:
“I want to challenge other tech leaders to join the campaign through any activity. The first three are: Rune Bjerke in DNB, Hans-Henrik Merckoll in IBM and Øystein Moan in Visma”, says Mellerud.
#techforgood
AKTIV Against Cancer will host the campaign through their website www.aktivmotkreft.no hence enabling everyone to support – both by donating money to AKTIV and by sharing on social media. For sharing in social media everyone is encouraged to hashtag #techforgood.
“We know how training helps people focus in their everyday work life, but also how important training is to prevent more serious sicknesses and even cancer”, says Global Managing Director and Chairperson of AKTIV Against Cancer, Helle Aanesen.
Speaking about his ambitions for ’EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Award’ Mellerud says: “The Zalaris story speaks for itself, my job is to present it straight forward and I will do my best. I look forward to meet the jury and all the other inspiring entrepreneurs!”
Zalaris excels in delivering comprehensive cloud- based HR and payroll services. The company is certified as a SAP Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Partner and is a leading
SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) and SuccessFactors consulting partner. Founded in 2000, Zalaris today operates in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, India, Latvia, Lithuania,
Norway, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, the UK and Ireland including local-language service centers with extensive expertise in HR- related laws and regulations. Learn more about Zalaris at www.zalaris.com