At its meeting on March 7, 2004, Statoil's board of directors appointed Helge Lund (42) as new chief executive for the Statoil group. Mr Lund is currently chief executive of Aker Kværner ASA. "Helge Lund was the first choice of the board and we are very pleased that he has agreed to lead Statoil in the years ahead," said Statoil chair Jannik Lindbæk. Lund graduated as a business economist at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administrationin Bergen. He also has a master of business administration (MBA) from the Insead business school in France. Before he became chief executive of Aker Kværner, Lund had a number of positions in the Aker RGI system, and before that he had a central role in the top management of Hafslund Nycomed.