Olav has over 30 years of international, national and organizational leadership experience dedicated to sustainable development, across a wide range of topics: climate change, biodiversity, food security, public health, poverty reduction, children's human rights, democratic governance.

Most recently, Olav held several senior leadership positions at EAT, an organization dedicated to transforming the world’s food systems, guided by the best available science. Olav played a leading role in shaping and implementing EAT's strategy, engaging with leaders in governments, industry, civil society, the United Nations and Bretton Woods Institutions, at the annual UN climate negotiations, and through international mass media.

Prior to that, from 2014 to 2017, Olav directed UNICEF’s engagement with governments, the UN system and international financial institutions to advocate for and position the rights and interests of children in global policy debates and mobilize billions of dollars for UNICEF's work around the world.

Earlier in his carerr, Olav served as Director of Environment and Energy at the United Nations Development Programme for two years, and Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy for close to seven years. In the latter position, Olav oversaw an international staff of some 360, programs delivering in the hundreds of millions every year, and policy work ranging from democratic governance to climate change. This culminated in him playing a central role in the complex and highly political process that led to Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, including organizing the largest global consultation ever undertaken by the UN with millions of people engaged.