Nel ASA has appointed Morten Holum as Chief Executive Officer. The Oslo-listed hydrogen technology company announced the appointment on 21 October 2026 and said he will take up the role no later than the first of May 2027.
Holum has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Hexagon Purus since March 2020. He joined its parent, Hexagon Composites, in 2019 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Before that he was Chief Executive Officer and earlier Chief Financial Officer of Saferoad Group, and held roles at Norske Skog, Norsk Hydro and American Airlines. He has worked across the hydrogen value chain for seven years. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance and psychology and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Arvid Moss, Chair of the Board, said the board is confident that Holum is the right person to succeed Hakon Volldal as chief executive of the company.
The handover runs through an interim period. The board agreed that Volldal would be relieved of executive duties at the end of October 2026. Kjell Christian Bjornsen, Chief Financial Officer since 2020, becomes Interim Chief Executive Officer from the first of November 2026, and Torbjorn Berg, Vice President Finance, becomes Interim Chief Financial Officer. Moss said the board has full confidence in Bjornsen to lead the company during the interim period. Holum said the company has a solid foundation, world-class technology and deep industrial expertise, and that he is excited to join the team.
The gap between announcement and arrival is the striking feature of this appointment. A start date no later than the first of May 2027 leaves roughly six months in which the chief financial officer runs the company and the finance function is itself held on an interim basis. That is a long bridge for a company in a sector where order flow and policy support have both been volatile, and it places unusual weight on the interim pair.
The board framed the appointment against recent commercial progress rather than retrenchment. Moss cited orders from Collins Aerospace and from what the company described as a leading United States technology customer, and pointed to defence as a potential growth area, referring to a recent announcement with Rheinmetall. Hiring a chief executive from the hydrogen storage and distribution specialist he leads today, rather than from the electrolyser industry itself, suggests a board looking for industrialisation and delivery experience across the value chain.
The company disclosed the incentive structure attached to the role. It comprises a long-term incentive of 5 million Norwegian kroner, of which 2 million kroner is cash paid in two equal instalments at 12 and 24 months and 3 million kroner is in restricted share units vesting in January 2029 and November 2030, with the value of those units capped at 25 million kroner. A first grant of performance share units is expected in 2028.
Nel is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker NEL.
