Board & Management

The Board consists of seven persons elected for a period of two years at the Annual General Meeting. To serve on the NCCL Board is an excellent chance to be involved in the Norwegian-Latvian business community and to cooperate with relevant, professional stakeholders in developing the Chamber.

  • Chairman and Vice-Chairman

    • Matiss Kukainis

      Matiss Kukainis

      Chairman of the Board

      Matiss Kukainis is a founding partner of Spīgulis & Kukainis Law Firm in Riga, Latvia. He was born and educated in the US and has been living and working in Latvia full-time since 2006. He is a dual US and Latvian citizen. He is a licensed attorney both in Latvia and the State of Illinois, USA. Matiss specializes in all aspects of real estate law, consulting on the sale, lease, inheritance and management of property. He has served as the NCCL Vice President and on the Board since 2017. He has also served on the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia (2008-2015), during which time he had the honor to serve as both a Vice President and President, and the British Chamber of Commerce in Latvia (2007-2009). Outside of the office Matiss has taught Business and International Law at various institutions in Latvia, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, amassing more than 1,300 direct classroom teaching hours. Matiss holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.) and a Juris Doctor Degree in Law (J.D.) from Michigan State University. He also holds a Master of Law Degree (LL.M.). in International and EU Law from the Riga Graduate School of Law.

    • Frode Grønvold

      Frode Grønvold

      Vice-Chairman of the Board

      Frode is CEO of Linstow Baltic, a Norwegian real estate developer and manager with more than 20 years experience in the Baltics. He has been with the company since 1998 when he joined as its COO, becoming CEO in 2004. He has held several positions at Executive Boards, including the Foreign Investor Council in Latvia and Power Nordic Consumer Electronic Chain (former Expert Nordic). Frode holds a BA in International Marketing from the University of Leeds in the UK and Master of Marketing Science from the Norwegian Business School (BI) in Oslo, Norway.

  • Board members

    • Antra Zālīte

      Antra Zālīte

      Board member

      Antra Zalite is a management executive with more than 20 years of experience from business development, business operations, IT strategy and management consulting. She has been part of the development of Nordic´s leading IT company Visma in Latvia since 2015. Currently holds a position of the Chairman of the Board of "Visma Enterprise" SIA, member of the Board of "Visma Consulting" SIA and "Visma Tampuuri" Oy. Antra has led strategic business units in Accenture Latvia and been Head of SAP Baltic office, among other positions in IT industry. Antra has a Bachelor in Linguistics from the University of Latvia, an MBA from Riga Business School.

    • Didzis Kļaviņš

      Didzis Kļaviņš

      Board member

      Didzis Kļaviņš is a Business Development Manager at Tilde, a leading European language technology innovator and service provider, where he oversees international business development and sales for localization department. Kļaviņš brings over 12 years of solid expertise in international client acquisition and retention – he manages Tilde’s key global accounts with some of the world’s largest corporations and multilingual vendors. Kļaviņš is also well known and respected in the academic community – for the last 10 years he has been a researcher and guest lecturer at the University of Latvia and Riga Graduate School of Law. Prior to Tilde, Didzis worked at Nexum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia. Didzis holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Latvia, as well as a Master’s in European History and Civilization, jointly offered by Leiden University, Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne, and the University of Oxford.

    • Harolds Bulmanis

      Harolds Bulmanis

      Board member

      Harolds Bulmanis is the General Manager of SIA SunCrisp, a Norwegian family owned group of companies. Initially, SunCrisp was a small business turnaround project, developing into a growth company specializing in snack carrots. Harolds began his career in advertising then working for the Coca-Cola system for 17 years. 12 of those years in Canada and 5 years in the Baltics, based out of Tallinn. After leaving Coca-Cola, he joined Carlsberg in Latvia (Aldaris) as the Business Development Director and moved the family to Riga. In 2012, he left the corporate world to join SunCrisp. Harolds does some guest lectures at the University of Latvia and at Riga Business School, and holds a business degree from the University of Toronto.

    • Ilze Grase-Ķibilde

      Ilze Grase-Ķibilde

      Ilze Grase – Ķibilde has automotive experience in retail and wholesale since year 2000 in Baltic leading automotive brands such as VW, Audi, previously BMW and Toyota. Having management positions in sales and marketing, today being a leader of pan-Baltic company with 70 employees. Interested and passionate about business ideas and ongoing development not only in automotive world, but many business processes surrounding it. Fluent in Estonian, Russian, English with good knowledge of German and basic Norwegian. Energy comes from sharing new ideas, networking and bringing valuable input into projects and business opportunities. The potential to learn and give something lies in every new experience.

    • Snorre Karkkonen Svensson

      Snorre Karkkonen Svensson

      Board member

      Snorre Karkkonen Svensson is the founder and co-owner of the House of Languages, an organisation with the mission to create positive change through language. House of Languages organises language courses and testing, offers translation services, is involved in book publishing, houses a linguistic library and mini book store, and organises cultural events connected to language. Snorre has educational background in Baltic and Nordic studies and second language acquisition from universities in Norway, Germany and Latvia. He has taught Norwegian in Latvia since 1997, worked as interpreter and translator between Latvian, Lithuanian and Norwegian, and has experience in language-related business since 2003, giving language services and consultations to governmental organisations and businesses in five different countries.

  • Management

    • Krista Vahtele

      Krista Vahtele

      Management

      Krista Vahtele is the Executive Director of NCCL since September, 2023. With a career spanning over 15 years, Krista has acquired an extensive experience in the Scandinavian market, having held a variety of leadership and project management positions. Krista has pursued her education in Denmark, Canada and Latvia, and holds a Masters degree in Business Administration.

Become a board member

Become a board member

All members have the right to stand for election. Information regarding vacant Board positions will be announced in February, ahead of the Annual General Meeting in later in Spring.

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