Core team
People you can trust
About the core team
Dr. Jan-Olaf Willums
is the Chairman and founder of InSpire Invest. Previously, he held senior management positions in Storebrand, Norway’s largest financial sector company, Saga Petroleum and Volvo Petroleum, and chaired two of the earliest venture capital and investment companies in Norway in the 1980’s. In 1990 he was appointed to head the Energy and Environment Office of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, and Secretary General of the Industry Forum at the Rio Earth Summit, Brazil in 1992, where he was cofounder and became Executive Director of WICE, the World Industry Council for the Environment. WICE later merged to become the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva, where he was a director until 1998.
He is Professor at the Norwegian School of Management, and board member of the Center for Corporate Citizenship. He is on the Advisory Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and of the World Bank Institute, and member of the Private Sector Advisory Board of the World Bank Corporate Governance Forum. Dr. Willums holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Institute of Technology and a Doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Paal Christian Myhre
is the CEO and one of the founders of Inspire Invest. Paal has extensive experience in management and strategy work, marketing and sales, project management, start-ups, business development and operations. He has made his experience both nationally and internationally, and mainly from the hotel- and automotive industry.
Paal Christian holds an MBA in Strategy and Management, and a BSc in Hotel- and restaurant Management.
Ulrik Grape
joined InSpire Invest in 2023 and has close to thirty years experience in the battery industry. He is an experienced global senior executive with a long track record in leading technology start-up companies through to market entry.
Ulrik has achieved commercial breakthrough with design wins for multiple lithium-ion battery start-ups with leading OEMs in portable electronics, automotive and stationary energy storage markets.
Ulrik holds an MBA in Business Administration from Insead in Fontainebleau, France, and a BSFS in International Politics from Georgetown University.
Runar Sudmann
is part of the Business Development team at InSpire Invest, where he works with the identification, evaluation, and development of new business opportunities. Since joining the company in 2023, he has been actively involved in the structuring and advancement of startup concepts, contributing to bringing early-stage ideas to investor readiness, with a particular focus on the Battery energy storage sector.
Runar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Development. He brings an entrepreneurial perspective shaped by his own startup experience, combined with a strong performance-driven background as a former elite motocross athlete and personal trainer.