If you want to lead your people to success, you need to be a good judge of character. Or simply… a judge, just like Tor Kristjan Heiberg, our Country Manager for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Join us for a little tête-à-tête with one of the most colorful characters in the Extreme team!
Tor, do you remember your first contact with the Extreme brand? How did you feel about the purple equipment when you first saw it?
It was in 2012 and I was representing Avaya. I went to this industry conference where I met an interesting guy (who, by the way, is one of our current partners to the present day) and I remember asking him, “alright, would you like to talk some more about networking strategies or our networking equipment?” to which he replied “No, sorry, we work with Extreme”. It didn’t ring any bell at that time so I did some research, jumped on their website and thought: “switches are gray, black or something like that, but… who the heck makes purple boxes?”. 😄
That’s quite a first impression to make! So what happened next? You were the Head of Network Sales for Nordic & Baltic countries at Avaya. How did your journey to Extreme look like?
Have to say, back in the Avaya days we did pretty decently. But then some rumors about Extreme taking over our networking division began to pop up. And I was like “okay, guess it’s time to finally figure out what this Extreme is actually all about”. 😉
I realized pretty quickly that this was a pure networking outfit. Since we were essentially a UC/CC and telephony company, it had been a bit more difficult for us to get the satisfying level of attention towards the networking business. The transition to Extreme, who did only that, felt like coming home.
That was 2017, so it’s been a few years now. How do you find your time at Extreme?
It's been a fantastic journey. In this industry, you don’t often get to say that things went from good to great. For me, as a networking professional, going from a fairly limited offer of equipment and solutions to actually having everything I wanted was a real game-changer. I couldn’t complain anymore – all I needed to do was go out there and sell.
As I’m looking back on the past four years, I see an ever-going progress and a history of exceeded expectations. We’ve grown both in terms of people and territory. So yes, it’s been quite a ride and I’m very excited to see what the future holds for us!
Tor Kristjan Heiberg, Country Manager for Norway, Sweden and Denmark
Speaking of which – on July 1, you took over the position of Country Manager for Sweden and Denmark, in addition to Norway. What challenges and opportunities do you see lying both before you and your sales team in the Scandinavian markets?
There's an enormous potential lying in the Scandinavian region and though we’ve had a lot of nice wins over our main competitors in the recent years, I think we’ve only scratched the surface. Some of the most promising areas are definitely municipalities, state and central government agencies, and healthcare.
My main business goal is rather straightforward: to expand our market share. As for my personal ambition and my biggest aspiration, first and foremost I want my team to succeed and to have fun doing it. I can figure out the nitty gritty stuff so they can focus on being out in the field and enjoying it, because we have exceptional technology and we have a lot of great customers that support us and want us to succeed.
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Why is that?
I’d say that’s because we’re relevant. Our offering combines the best of many worlds, making us a solid player in many different places – whether it's data center, infrastructure, or networking, whether it’s cloud or on-prem. Coming from Avaya, my legacy is fabric and Extreme Fabric Connect, which helped us grow a lot both by winning us new customers and expanding the existing ones on the technology. Fabric customer wants to facilitate network management? Or maybe gain more security on the edge? There is not one thing we cannot do.
Every customer has a set of different needs, there’s no “one size fits all” solution. We are winning basically because our technology is appealing to the customers. In many cases, I’d say we outcompete many of our competitors. And I think the market is starting to realize that.
When it comes to business development, you’re a true expert. What do you consider to be your biggest achievement at Extreme to date?
I wouldn’t consider any particular project or customer as my biggest achievement at Extreme. It’s rather the fact that I’m part of some very impactful, nationwide projects that actually improve the way the largest hospitals in Norway operate. We are talking about doing something that impacts my entire country. This is certainly my biggest achievement.
What’s a fun fact about you that few people know about?
I work as a lay judge – I sit in selected criminal cases and together with two other judges we pass the sentence. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and are not permanent officers. So I guess you could say I’m a good… judge of character. 😉
What’s your holiday destination once the pandemic dust settles?
Though we're not yet allowed to travel, we're still allowed to dream and make plans. Me and my wife are thinking about going back to Ibiza which was actually the very last travel we did together before the pandemic. I was attending an Extreme event and we had this amazing, all-day long catamaran trip. We definitely want to do that again!
How would you describe Extreme in three words?
Challenging. Fun. Forward-thinking.
25 years young and still growing – join Tor Kristjan and the rest of the Team!
Visit our careers page to explore opportunities in sales and systems engineering as well as the many other roles in which you can advance and help Extreme drive effortless networking experiences for enterprises worldwide.