About Frode Odegard
Frode Odegard is a serial parallel entrepreneur and management consultant in the IT industry. He started his first software company while still attending high school in Norway, developing next-generation tools to improve the speed and quality of software development. He subsequently immigrated to the United States, where he in 1991 founded Odegard Labs, a software R&D lab.
Frode's interests gradually shifted shifted into teaching and consulting on software engineering best practices, and he began to look outside the IT industry for fresh ideas on how organizations could find smarter ways of working. In 2004 he founded the Lean Software Institute (LSI), a management consulting firm dedicated to bringing Toyota’s Lean business methodology to the IT industry. LSI has helped clients achieve as much as a 76% reduction in time to market for software development. Frode has helepd a broad range of technology companies, including Sony Electronics Inc., Lockheed Martin, Honeywell Aerospace, Cardinal Health, AT&T Wireless, and Plantronics.
While still in high school, Frode became the youngest person to join an ISO standards committee for a programming language, representing Norway and later the United States. Over the years he has been an active participant in and contributor to a variety of industry organizations. Frode founded the Norwegian Sun User Group, served on the board of the international Sun User Group in California as a European represenative, and helped start the IEEE Reliability Society Chapter in San Diego. He was a co-founder and program chair for the Managing Innovation conference in San Diego from 2006-2008.
Frode is currently in the process of developing several new ventures, including a lifestyle company helping individuals get more out of their lives, an organizational learning consultancy, and a software company in the knowledge management space.
Frode’s interests outside work include history, languages, philosophy (Objectivism), art, mathematics, psychology, GTD, skydiving, and strength training. He resides in San Diego, California.