TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAILY HABITS THAT KEEP YOU INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED.
For me, it's less about routines and more about mindset.
I start each day with a simple reminder: I get to have this day. I recently lost a friend of my own age to cancer, and experiences like that have a way of putting everything into perspective. So, I go to work genuinely grateful—for the day ahead and for the job itself.
After that? Coffee. Immediately. Preferably before I make any important decisions.
Then I check in with my colleagues. Those conversations matter. Leadership, to me, starts with one simple question: What do my people need from me today to thrive?
After that, I'm quite disciplined. I look at the numbers. I want to understand what's happening, what's working and where we can improve. But I also make sure I always have something exciting on the horizon —a big premiere, a new marketing idea, a project to improve the cinema, or simply the next opportunity to create a better experience for our audience and our team.
I'm also quite ruthless about how I spend my time. I try to focus on the things that make a difference. How do we get more people into the cinema this week? What do my colleagues need from me? Which decisions move us forward?
I'm much less interested in work that simply creates the illusion of productivity. Not every meeting needs to be a meeting. Not every email needs an answer. And if something is genuinely urgent, people usually pick up the phone.
Finally, I believe in celebrating successes, especially the small wins. They're often the ones that keep people motivated.
And whenever someone has done something well, I try to make sure everyone knows about it. Recognition costs nothing, but it can mean everything.
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR CAREER JOURNEY, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I sometimes joke that I've built my career by saying "yes" before I felt completely ready.
Looking back, though, I'm probably most proud of something else. I've built my leadership career through curiosity, hard work and a willingness to take responsibility long before anyone formally asked me to.
I became a manager at a relatively young age and was thrown into leadership. It was exciting but also intimidating. I certainly didn't have all the answers, so instead of pretending I did, I asked questions. I looked for mentors. I invested in learning. In many ways, I still do.
Over the years, I've realised that my role isn't to have all the answers. It's to create an environment where other people can do their best work.
That's probably the achievement I'm proudest of.
When I joined Lillehammer Cinema, I challenged the way we'd always done things. We moved faster. We experimented more. We weren't afraid to try ideas that sounded slightly crazy at first.
Not everyone enjoyed that change, and that's okay. Change isn't supposed to feel comfortable for everyone. Some people chose to move on, while those who stayed embraced it wholeheartedly. They deserve an enormous amount of credit for everything we've achieved since.
The pandemic became the biggest test of that culture.
Like everyone else, we suddenly found ourselves asking impossible questions. How do you run a cinema when people can't come to the cinema?
Instead of waiting for things to return to normal, we started looking for new possibilities. We launched Norway's first drive-in cinema and became the first cinema in the country to offer private screenings. More importantly, we stayed connected with our audience at a time when people genuinely needed something positive to hold on to.
What I'm most proud of isn't that we came up with those ideas.
It's what happened next.
My team threw themselves into making them happen. Everyone stepped up. They were creative, flexible and endlessly committed, and together we managed to create experiences that meant something to people during a very difficult time.
One morning, flowers arrived at the cinema from grateful customers.
And one woman told us we'd saved her marriage.
I still think that's probably the best review we'll ever receive.
Since then, we've been fortunate enough to receive several national awards, including the Hugo Award for marketing and visibility and Norway's national Innovation Award. We've also been recognised for our work with social media and youth engagement.
Those awards are wonderful, of course.
But they're not what stays with me.
What stays with me is seeing people grow. Watching colleagues discover confidence they didn't know they had. Seeing ideas that once sounded impossible become reality because someone dared to try.
I've also learned that innovation comes with a price: sometimes you fail.
And that's fine.
I'd much rather work in an organisation that occasionally fails because we're ambitious than one that never develops because nobody dares to take a chance.
One thing still surprises me.
We're a relatively small cinema in a relatively small Norwegian town, yet somehow we've become part of conversations happening across Europe. I've had the privilege of speaking at international conferences, joining industry panels and learning from brilliant people across our sector.
Being invited to mentor in the UNIC Women's Cinema Leadership Programme—and being named one of Celluloid Junkie's Top 50 Women in Global Cinema for two consecutive years—has been an enormous honour.
Not because of the recognition itself.
But because it reminds me how far you can go when you keep saying yes to opportunities, keep learning and keep believing that even small organisations can make a meaningful impact.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN YOUR LEADERSHIP JOURNEY? DID YOU HAVE ANY MENTORS ALONG THE WAY?
One of the biggest challenges in leadership is having the confidence to keep moving forward when you genuinely believe you're heading in the right direction—even if not everyone agrees with you.
Change is exciting for some people.
For others, it's uncomfortable.
I've inherited teams as often as I've built them myself, and whenever you introduce new ways of working, you'll get both reactions. That's simply part of leadership.
I've never been afraid of making difficult decisions. What I've learned, though, is that people don't necessarily need to agree with every decision—they need to understand why you've made it.
If you're clear about your values, communicate honestly and treat people with respect, you can stand behind even the difficult conversations.
One experience, in particular, shaped the way I lead.
Before joining the cinema industry, I worked for a large national fitness company. We were performing well, but following a major organisational change, almost all decision-making authority was moved away from local managers and centralised instead.
Almost overnight, we lost something important.
People stopped making decisions because they no longer felt trusted to make them.
Performance suffered—not because people cared less, but because ownership disappeared.
I've never forgotten that lesson.
Trust has to come first.
If you wait until people have proved themselves before giving them responsibility, they'll never surprise you.
Some of the best people I've worked with have grown because someone believed in them before they fully believed in themselves.
That's the kind of leader I try to be.
Ironically, that experience also led me to the cinema industry, so looking back, I'm actually grateful it happened.
I've also been fortunate to have several mentors throughout my career. Each of them taught me something different, but one person in particular changed the way I think about leadership and visibility.
Debbie—one of the true powerhouses of the international cinema industry—showed me that by building your own professional reputation with generosity and authenticity, you also strengthen the organisation you represent.
That lesson has stayed with me ever since.
Today, I'm fortunate to work in an organisation that gives me a high degree of trust and autonomy.
Perhaps that's why trust has become the value I try hardest to pass on to the people I lead.
GIVEN THE DEMANDS OF YOUR ROLE, HOW DO YOU BALANCE YOUR WORK AND PERSONAL LIFE?
I probably have a slightly unconventional answer to this.
I've never been particularly good at separating work from the rest of my life. But after more than 25 years in leadership, I've realised that's because I genuinely enjoy what I do.
I like being at the cinema when my team is there, even if that sometimes means evenings and weekends. I also live just two minutes away, so being available has never felt like a burden.
The funny thing is, they rarely need me.
They're incredibly capable, they make good decisions, and I trust them to do exactly that.
To me, that's good leadership.
Of course, I've also learned that I need time to switch off. You can't bring energy to other people if you've run out of your own.
So perhaps I do have a healthy work-life balance after all.
It just doesn't look quite like the traditional version.
WITH OVER 20 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE—EIGHT OF THEM IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY—WHAT DO YOU THINK IS HOLDING WOMEN BACK, AND WHAT NEEDS TO IMPROVE?
I think there are two parts to the answer.
The first is the responsibility we all share.
I'm concerned that, in some parts of the world, we're seeing women's rights moving backwards rather than forwards. We still need to remove structural barriers, and we need more men to be active allies—not just in the workplace, but at home as well. Gender equality benefits everyone.
The second part is about confidence.
Speaking very generally, I've often seen women wait until they feel 100% ready before putting themselves forward for an opportunity. Men, on the other hand, often seem perfectly comfortable applying when they meet only some of the criteria.
I'd love to see more women back themselves.
Take the opportunity.
Apply for the job.
Speak at the conference.
Say yes before you feel completely ready.
That certainly worked for me.
Finally, I think those of us who are already in leadership have a responsibility to make the path a little easier for the women coming after us.
Support them.
Encourage them.
Celebrate their success.
That's one of the reasons I'm so proud to be part of the UNIC Women's Cinema Leadership Programme.
Because real change happens when we invest in each other.
YOU WERE A MENTOR IN THE PREVIOUS EDITION OF THE UNIC WOMEN’S CINEMA LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME. WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THAT EXPERIENCE?
It was a fantastic experience.
I always find it rewarding to understand someone else's challenges and think about how I can best support them. But one of the biggest things I took away from the programme was something quite simple.
Sometimes, people don't need you to solve their problems. They just need to feel seen, listened to and recognised for the work they're doing.
I think there's often too little of that, and it's something I've tried to carry with me in my own leadership.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF?
Stay curious, keep learning and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.
Most importantly, take responsibility for creating a good working life for yourself, whatever your role. Every job has something to teach you if you're open to learning.
Looking back, I can honestly say that every experience has helped shape the leader I am today—and I wouldn't change a thing.