John Markus Lervik (born 17 August 1969) is a Norwegian tech

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He is the founder and previous CEO of

Cognite AS Cognite AS is a Norwegian software as a service company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and offices in Tokyo, Houston and Austin, Texas, Austin. The company provides software and industrial internet of things (IIoT) services to industrial co ...

. He previously served as the CEO of

Fast Search & Transfer Microsoft Development Center Norway (known as FAST (Fast Search & Transfer ASA) before 2010) is a Norway, Norwegian company, founded in 1997 and based in Oslo, with offices located in Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, ...

, which was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 2008. In 2010 Lervik founded

Cxense Cxense ASA (pronounced si:sɛns was a technology company, founded by John Markus Lervik in Oslo, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Eur ...

, a company in the ad-platform, search and online analytics space, which was acquired by Piano Media in 2019. Lervik has a Ph.D from the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

, where he was awarded the

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

academic award for his PhD work in 1996. Lervik was the first to be hired to work at

. In 2005 Lervik was mentioned as one of the key innovators in the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''E-gang: Masters of Information''. In 2014 Lervik was, in his capacity as CEO of FAST, found guilty of accounting irregularities and

market manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation occurs when someone intentionally alters the supply or demand of a security to influence its price. This can involve spreading misleading information, executing misleading trades, or manipulating ...

. Lervik pleaded innocent to all charges. In March 2016, the

Supreme Court of Norway The Supreme Court of Norway ( Norwegian Bokmål: ; Norwegian Nynorsk: ; lit. 'Highest Court') is the highest court in the Norwegian judiciary. It was established in 1815 on the basis of section 88 in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway, ...

upheld the rulings of both the

District court (Norway) In Norway, the district court (, literally " thing court") is the first court instance, and handles both criminal and civil cases. The chief judge of a district court is the chief district judge (). The ruling of the district court may be appeale ...

and

Court of appeal (Norway) The court of appeal (, lit. ‘lawman's court’) is the second level of courts of justice in Norway, reviewing criminal and civil cases appealed from the district courts. There are six courts of appeal, each covering a jurisdiction and based in ...

that Lervik had made no personal gains in connection the charges brought against him. Lervik is a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (, NTVA) is a learned society based in Trondheim, Norway. Founded in 1955, the academy has about 500 members. It is a member of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technologica ...

References

1969 births Living people Norwegian businesspeople Members of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences {{norway-business-bio-stub