Anders Lian

Anders Lian is a long-time commercialization and venture executive at SINTEF TTO, SINTEF’s technology transfer and venture investment arm in Trondheim. SINTEF’s employee profile lists him in SINTEF TTO AS, department SINTEF TTO, with office in Trondheim and title “CEO”; SINTEF’s current TTO team page lists him as “Director,” following a leadership transition announced in December 2025.

Lian led SINTEF’s Technology Transfer Office for 24 years. SINTEF announced on 18 December 2025 that Fredrik Winther had been hired as the new CEO of SINTEF TTO, starting 1 April 2026, and that Lian would step back from the head-of-TTO role. A Norwegian company-data source recorded the formal role change in April 2026, with Fredrik Winther becoming general manager and Anders Lian stepping down from that role.

His work has centered on turning research results from SINTEF into commercial companies through licensing, spin-offs, IPR management, and venture funds. SINTEF TTO says it is responsible for SINTEF’s commercialization, manages SINTEF’s venture portfolio and seed-capital activity, and has commercialized about 80 technologies through spin-offs or licensing over the last decade. A 2025 SINTEF article says the TTO had invested NOK 500 million of SINTEF funds into 42 companies, attracted NOK 3 billion of external investor capital, and managed three funds totaling NOK 1.3 billion.

Public sources reviewed did not provide a verified education history for Lian.

• SINTEF TTO invests through seed and early-stage venture funds in start-up companies originating from SINTEF research; SINTEF Venture V also stated a mandate to invest in SMEs based on technology from SINTEF and NTNU.
• The firm’s focus is research commercialization rather than general angel investing. SINTEF TTO looks for technologies that can become companies, can be professionally managed, and can raise outside capital alongside SINTEF’s own funds.
• SINTEF described the 2018 SINTEF Venture V fund as a NOK 500 million early-stage fund focused on “life sciences, clean energy and ICT,” with investment areas tied to Horizon 2020 societal challenges.
• SINTEF Venture VI is listed by SINTEF as an early-stage fund with MNOK 517 in investment capital, established in 2022, and designed to promote environmental and social characteristics under SFDR Article 8.
• SINTEF TTO’s practical screen for new ideas, described in a 2025 SINTEF article, is that “the technology must solve a major problem,” be “innovative and unique, and preferably patentable,” and have a market “at least as big as the problem.”
• Lian’s own framing of the investor base in 2018 was: “All the investors have a joint commitment to building a strong value chain for the commersialisation of new technologies, and creating value for society.”