Delivering Excellence: Snøhetta's CEO Isabella Alveberg on a Strong Sense of Belonging, New Ways of Expression, and Building a Broad Knowledge Base

By Julia Gamolina

Isabella Alveberg is the Group CEO of Snøhetta AS, a global architecture and design practice. She has held this position since 2018.

Before joining Snøhetta, Isabella was the VIce President for Business Operations at Avast Software, the world’s leading cybersecurity software company. She has held various management and leadership positions during her fifteen year tenure at both AVG Software and Microsoft Norway. In 2017, she founded Women@Avast to offer mentoring and learning opportunities for women at Avast. She has also been a mentor at the SHE Leads program since 2020. In her conversation with Julia Gamolina, Isabella talks about the core skills required in leading a company forward and collectively looking at how humans will live in the future. She advises those just starting their careers to build a broad knowledge base, and to have fun along the way.

JG: Tell me about your background prior to coming to architecture, and to Snøhetta.

IA: I worked at Microsoft for almost fifteen years at the beginning of my career, learning a broad range of skills within product, sales, marketing, and international leadership. I specialized within IT security after I left Microsoft and worked in the Czech Republic for five years as VP of Operations for the world’s largest IT security company before joining Snøhetta.

Isabella with her colleagues at Snøhetta.

How did you eventually come to Snøhetta?

I was no doubt an untraditional choice to lead a world-renowned architecture and design practice. But then again, Snøhetta is not known for being traditional in anything it does. The board and founder were looking for a CEO who could build a robust and sustainable company. I on the other hand, was looking for a company that made a noticeable impact on people’s lives and a company whose values aligned with mine with regards to building ethical profitability.

What experiences from your prior positions in these seemingly different fields are most relevant for your work in architecture?

I am curious by nature, which may reflect the various jobs I’ve had. I love learning and I always want to learn more about what makes people and businesses tick. Snøhetta is a unique company, where the success of our client’s vision and their projects are our sole focus. That means we want to spend most of our time on design, and my job is to ensure that can happen. All the skills I have ever learned during my career are relevant, but if I were to mention three that are key for me, they would be to have the ability to seek out different opinions and truly listen to others, to be able to make decisions during times of unpredictability, and to ensure that the entire company understands our values, and that I lead by example every day.

“I’m always focused on moving the company forward and never becoming complacent...We need to collectively solve how we as humans will live in the future, how we can live in pact with nature and each other, how we can be inclusive and design with the intent to foster greater understanding.”

— Isabella Alveberg

What are you focused on these days? And, what have you also learned in the last six months?

I’m always focused on moving the company forward and never becoming complacent. The world needs more architects and designers who can help solve our societal and environmental problems through great design and creative thinking. We need to collectively solve how we as humans will live in the future, how we can live in pact with nature and each other, how we can be inclusive and design with the intent to foster greater understanding and collectiveness and how we can build and use materials in new and more sustainable ways.

More than ever before do I understand the need for us to learn, research, test, try and use our collective creativity to make a positive impact. It seems like the longer I’m at Snøhetta, the greater the need I feel for us to do more, do better and impact change faster.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?

The two years during the pandemic were the biggest challenge for me personally but also as a company. How do you build culture when you can’t meet, how can you collaboratively design when you can’t meet in person and how can you create a sense of belonging when you can’t be with your colleagues?

Snøhetta consists of amazingly talented and smart people across the globe, and every one made that extra effort to reach out to each other, work in new ways, focus on what we could control and make the best of what we couldn’t control. We have a biannual gathering for the entire company at the foot of the Snøhetta mountain in Norway called Dovre conversations, and there were lots of tears of joy, laughter and hugging when we finally could all see each other again last year.

After the pandemic we ramped up programs to foster more knowledge sharing, such as studio study trips, our global exchange program and cross studio networks focused on solving specific challenges or across disciplines to name a few. We are the sum of our employees and encouraging new ways to build relationships and learn from other each other across studio and country borders, has been our best investment and has brought the company closer.

Biannual gathering for the entire company at the foot of the Snøhetta mountain in Norway.

Snøhetta has offices in Norway, the US, France, Hong Kong, Austria, China and Australia -- all very unique places with unique cultures, but also different approach to business, labor practices, policies, etc. How does Snohetta synthesize these differences to ensure that office policies, culture, and the spirit of the company is aligned across the world?

Snøhetta is the sum of all the people who work here. We bring our best selves to the office every day, wanting to make a positive impact on the world through our designs. We do this with a fundamental belief that a multidisciplinary, dialogue driven practice where collective thinking, respect and lots of laughter make our projects better. We have formalized how we work through a common code of conduct, and we manifest our collaborative philosophy throughout all our studios with a myriad of initiatives.

These include our non-hierarchical office layouts which allow all our employees to sit together in an open studio, our quarterly all company summits focused on core initiatives, our biannual all hands meetup focused on the exchange of ideas in the rugged Norwegian foothills and our exchange program allowing employees to travel and stay at other studios to exchange ideas and build relationships. These are just a few of the initiatives we have to ensure that we collaborate, share ideas, push boundaries, and keep the same set of core values and ways of doing business in all our studios wherever they are located.

What are you most excited about right now?

We have lots of exciting projects to be launched as well as exhibitions and books coming soon, and of course the planning of next year’s company gathering at the foot Snøhetta is always fun.

“...my advice has always been to build a broad knowledge base...Work in marketing, business development, finance, product. Work in another country, work as an individual contributor and as a manager, and take time to understand the difference. ”

— Isabella Alveberg

Who are you admiring now and why?

I admire many smart business leaders, but I am in awe of everyone who works here at Snøhetta. I cannot believe the amazing creativity we bring to life every single day and continue to do so year after year after year. We continuously strive to make an impact on the world with our designs, from smaller projects such as tiles made from recycled waste to advanced sustainable projects such as our powerhouse concept, to making impactful societal changes with our cultural projects. Our broad range of expertise within all aspects of design and scale, our ability to be transdisciplinary in all our thinking and the continuous drive to deliver excellence is what I admire.

What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?

I want Snøhetta to continue to be successful. I want our employees to have a strong sense of belonging and I want our very strong collaborative design philosophy to flourish and find new ways of expression in the future so that we can continue to make a positive impact on the world around us. If I can be instrumental in that, then I’m happy.

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

My advice is based on my own experiences and may not be relevant to anyone else. But my advice has always been to build a broad knowledge base. If your goal is to become a CEO, then take the time to learn about all aspects of the business. Work in marketing, business development, finance, product. Work in another country, work as an individual contributor and as a manager, and take time to understand the difference. Your career should be a long-term project so take advantage of the opportunities you find and have fun along the way.