1. Bio – Svein J Hapnes, FCILT
Svein J was born in 1965, in Levanger Norway. Finishing High School, he
joined the Norwegian Army in 1984 as Cadet Officer in the Army Transport
Corps. Earning a degree in Transport Economics at Molde College and
finishing the Military Academy in 1990, he continued serving for 20 years.
He has held positions as Instructor/Developer at the Army Logistics School,
Chief Operations Officer in the Host Nation Support Battalion for US
Marines in Norway, ending his military career as Movement Control Officer
in the Chief Headquarters of Defense, Norway. He was involved in several
conceptual development projects as the (Norwegian) Air Mobile and the
new Army Tactical Combat Service Support concepts.
His involvement with United Nations stretches from being a student at United Nations Logistics Officer
Course (UNLOC) in 1991, later deploying with the advanced elements of UNPROFOR as a Movement
Control Squad Leader to Sarajevo in Mar. 1992. In 1994, he deployed as UN civilian Transport Operations/
Sector Transport Officer in Sector North-East, Bosnia until mid-1996. He was (senior) instructor on UNLOC
1992-2001, training officers from more than 65 nations, including special NATO PfP and African UNLOCs.
Prior to leaving the Armed Forces in 2004, Svein J completed two Master Degrees, the MSc in Logistics,
Transport and Distribution (Management) at University of Westminster and the MSc in (Industrial)
Logistics at Molde University College, both with Distinction.
Svein J has also been working in the commercial logistics industry, as Advisor/Project Manager at NSB
Gods Headquarters (rail freight), and as Distribution Manager in Nor-Cargo (now Bring Logistics)
responsible for the distribution in the greater Oslo-region.
In 2006 Svein J rejoined the UN, this time as Emergency Logistics Coordinator at the UNHCR Headquarters
in Geneva, and 2009-2011, he was UNICEFs Shipping Manager, overseeing the global delivery operations
of UNICEF with over 10,000 deliveries annually, including emergency operations as 2010 Haiti response.
Appointed UNHCR Senior Business Analyst, Global Supply Chain in 2011, he has been deeply involved in
the strategic shift of the Supply Chain Management function in UNHCR, including developing the change
strategy, the Global Fleet Management and ERP-system Upgrade projects. He has also been extensively
involved in inter-agency cooperation as the Logistics Cluster, and worked with external partners as
INSEAD, Price Waterhouse Coopers, IKEA and the Fritz Institute.
For 5 months in 2012-13, he was temporary deployed as Regional Supply Chain Coordinator for the Syria
crises, based in Jordan, and is since Jan. 2016 assigned he has been the Head of Supply Chain for the
challenging UNHCR Greece operations, supporting 57,000 refugees in 48 mainland and island locations.
Svein J has been guest lecturer at the Norwegian Police Academy, University of Westminster, University of
Lund, Maynooth University, and speaker/panelist on HOCM/POMS (Orlando-2016), IAME (Hamburg-2016)
and HHL (Atlanta-2016) annual conferences. From 2011 he took part in a joint research projects with
University of Lund and the Northeastern University of Boston, producing a optimization model and a
research article; ‘Integrating supply chains for emergencies and on-going operations in UNHCR; an
evidence-based approach to network design’, that was accepted and published in the Journal of
Operations Management, Volume 45, Special Issue on Humanitarian Operations Management.
He is a has been a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport since June 2003, a
Chartered Member since 2006 and a Chartered Fellow since May 2015.