In 2003, as a newly educated geologist from Denmark -- a country without rock outcrops and minimal elevation -- my love for mountains and oceans naturally made me relocate my “home” to the Alps, where I divided my life between mountains and oceans. I started sailing the world’s oceans, recording seismic of the seabed and spent my off time riding my horse in the Alps around Salzburg, Austria.

With my ocean experience, I got off the boat in Bergen, in 2005 and started working for Norsk Hydro producing oil and gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The horse came with me and we toured the seven hills around Bergen. With those enriching experiences, we moved south to Arendal and GRID to work on its Continental Shelf Programme, designed to help developing countries define their offshore limits. Since then I have had the privilege to work on capacity building with a focus on the UN Law of the Sea. This has taken me around the globe and introduced me to the colourful and knowledgeable people of coastal states. I have now added Geological Resources to my field of work – looking into the mining industry, especially the possibility of moving away from producing huge tailing dams of waste that damage the environment and sacrifice human health and well-being, as we mine for resources that we use to build our everyday life.