The Origination Foundation

Osvald Bjelland

Osvald Bjelland is an entrepreneur, investor, global business executive, and cultural leader with a deep interest in people and planet positive models of growth. He is the founder and Chairman of Origination AS and of the Origination Foundation. His mission is to build a community of originators from business, policy, the arts, and civil society who are able and committed to invest in service of people and the planet with long-term strategic foresight. The Origination team focuses especially on the importance of frontier markets.

He is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Xyntéo, a high-level energy transition and strategic advisory business, among other companies. Bjelland also founded The Performance Theatre, a creative interactive experience for world leaders, Nobel Laureates, scientists, and artists from across the world.

He shares his commitment and interest in the arts and culture with his wife, Thorhild Widvey, who chairs the Bergen International Festival and is a former Norwegian politician who served as Minister of Culture and Minister of Energy. They have two sons, Ole Kristoffer and Johannes.

Born in a small village next to Bjelland, Norway, the site of their family farm, Bjelland is senior fellow for the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) at Columbia University and has been a visiting business fellow at Oxford University and visiting scholar at Stanford University. He holds a PhD from University of Leeds, MBA from Henley Business School and BA from the BI Norwegian Business School. Bjelland completed his military training and service with the Royal Norwegian Airforce.

He is a published author and has appeared on CNN, the BBC, Fortune, Financial Times, MIT Sloane Management Review, Harvard Business Review, among other media outlets. He is the editor and co-author of Hope for Life on our Planet: Inspiration for Seven Generations published by Manhattan Book Group in April 2025.