Network/Chapter Leader Award: Jørgen Waaler

 

Norwegian alumni chapter still going strong

For a modestly sized university in the country’s smallest state, the University of Wyoming has an outsized influence across the globe. Far-flung alumni networks are one aspect of that influence.

Network/Chapter Leader Award winner Jørgen Waaler heads an alumni chapter in Norway, an actively engaged network of more than 100 Norwegian UW graduates.

The award recognizes active members of the UW Alumni Association who have been leaders in their respective networks.

“I’m proud that we have managed to keep our Norwegian UW alumni organization intact and worthwhile,” says Waaler, who organizes reunions—sometimes hosted all the way back in Laramie—and an annual Christmas party attended by prominent members of the UW community.

In receiving this recognition, Jørgen said, “I’m really honored and proud to receive this UWAA Chapter leader award—and I believe this is also an appreciation to all the former Norwegian UW graduates.”

Waaler has always taken an avid interest in cross-country skiing, which is his home country’s national sport. Though he was among the top 15, Waaler faced stiff competition for spots on the world’s best cross-country ski teams, so he jumped at the chance to ski competitively for UW, for which he was actively recruited.

The university—and the state at large—offers unparalleled outdoor recreation opportunities, and the region’s intense winters, a turn-off to some, attract many winter sport enthusiasts.

Waaler earned a business bachelor’s and then an MBA before returning to Oslo in 1983. Once home, he put his new business skills to use, launching the IT firm StrongPoint ASA.

“I was one of the founders, and we were a public company on the Oslo Stock Exchange,” he says. “From 2011 to 2018, we quadrupled the stock price. I retired in fall 2018 after hiring a new younger CEO, but I still have my shares.”

Waaler now works as a farmer and still enjoys skiing and travel. The Norwegian alumni chapter is still going strong, composed mainly of alumni who graduated between 1980 and 1995. Waaler says he was not the only one drawn to UW by the opportunity to ski.

“I do wish that UW would re-install the ski team in order to compete in the NCAA,” he says. “Each ski team member attracted and recruited 8–10 Norwegian friends who paid full-time tuition!”