Abelia and ODA have named Cognite’s Sara Amar one of Norway’s 50 top women in tech for 2022. The honor is given to women who are committed to technological innovation and are paving the way for future generations.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of Norway’s leading women in tech,” said Sara Amar, Cognite’s vice president of Strategic Customer Services. “This achievement is a reflection of the great people I have met throughout my career—mentors and leaders who paved the path, trusted me with challenges and opportunities, and made me who I am today.”
The lack of IT expertise is a global problem, and women are still underrepresented in the industry. To encourage more women in Norway to choose jobs in tech, Abelia and ODA’s award spotlights leading women in the industry to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
“It is extra important and gratifying to see that this year we received a record number of nominations with great breadth in roles and industries, which highlight some of the many career paths in tech,” said Gunn Severinsen, CEO of Squeed and deputy head of ODA. “We hope the fantastic role models on the list will inspire many more girls and women to see the exciting opportunities with technology.”
Unlocking opportunities with data
Amar has master's degrees in engineering and in mathematics, physics, and computer science from the University of Leeds and the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, respectively. She joined Cognite because the company is at the forefront of the energy transition and shares her vision for a greener future.
“Cognite is a company that understands engineering, its applications, and the power of the data generated,” Amar said. “With our flagship product, Cognite Data Fusion, we can solve significant business challenges and have a global effect on making business practices more sustainable.”
Laxmi Akkaraju, Cognite’s senior vice president of Strategic Customer Services, praised Amar’s contributions to Cognite.
“Sara has had an incredible impact on Cognite through her role,” Akkaraju, a former top women in tech honoree, said. “She is not only making her mark by defining our product solutions and services in the subsurface, drilling, and wells vertical, but also influencing and accelerating our customers' digital journey and helping them achieve their digital vision.”
Prioritizing diversity
“Diversity is key to Cognite, and we have a strong focus on increasing our gender diversity and getting more women into tech,” said John Markus Lervik, CEO and co-founder of Cognite. “When we started Cognite, I wanted to be able to look around the table and see people with different backgrounds and experiences who would contribute a different perspective than my own. Often you can find yourself shifting focus in exciting and better directions when you bring more diverse voices into the room.”
Cognite is committed to increasing the share of women in the company to at least 30%, both at a company level and within our Engineering and Product Management & Design divisions.
“We’ve set clear goals so that we’re actively working toward greater gender diversity,” said Anette Holtedahl, Cognite’s senior vice president of Engineering, who was featured on the top women in tech list in 2018. “To all the women reading this: We are always looking for good candidates.”
2022 is the fourth year in a row that a Cognite employee has been named a top woman in tech. Previous winners from Cognite include:
2017: Laxmi Akkaraju (before she joined Cognite in 2021)
2018: Anette Holtedahl (before she joined Cognite in 2020)
2019: Anna Olsson
2020: Juliana Correa
2021: Cathrine Stenstadvold
For the full list and more information, visit https://www.abelia.no/50techkvinner