Portrait of Markus N. Torgersen
Founder & Principal · Arctic Cognitum

Markus N. Torgersen

Root-cause diagnostician at the intersection of business and data — strongest when owning outcomes end-to-end, from diagnosis to delivery.

Based in Norway
§ 01 — In his words

I'm a business-driven data and AI operator — not "the data person", and not a pure strategy advisor. Someone who built the technical layer because the strategy required it, and who can diagnose, build, and translate between the three.

I like regulated complexity. In banking and capital markets the constraints aren't a tax on the work — they are the work. And I'm interested in AI less as a novelty than as a way to redesign knowledge work: closing the gap between experiments and AI that becomes workflow, governance, and measurable value.

§ 02 — Competency

Three axes, one operator.

Every engagement sits somewhere on three axes. I'm strongest where all three meet — strategy grounded in the data, inside a regulated context. Filter the work below by the axis you care about.

Strategy

Problem framing, executive clarity, stakeholder alignment.

Technical & Data

Hands-on analytics, data engineering, applied AI.

Financial Services

Banking, credit risk, model governance, regulated complexity.

IFRS 9 / ECL pipeline, end-to-end

Built the bank's expected-credit-loss system — six-stage, dual-model, fully reproducible — roughly 75% faster than plan, and passed PwC's independent model assessment.

Executive strategy clarity

Reframed fuzzy, high-stakes executive problems into clear, prioritised initiatives leadership could actually act on.

IFRS 9 strategic insight

Surfaced that an overly conservative IFRS 9 stance was distorting portfolio signals — raised and presented the case to risk leadership.

Data & AI strategy

Set the bank's data & AI roadmap — governance model, opportunity assessment, and a generative-AI business case.

Staffing optimisation model

Built an employment- vs opportunity-cost model that recommended two hires over four — around 2M NOK/year in recurring savings.

Asset-management growth strategy

Advised against launching a new fund on the numbers — protecting focus and capital rather than chasing a tempting line of business.

ESG & climate-risk due diligence

Built ESG and climate-risk tooling used in private-equity due diligence — contributing to a top-three global PE firm's mandate win.

Diversity & inclusion application

Led a team of five to ship a D&I tracking application adopted by several Norwegian companies.

§ 03 — Experience

Where the work was done.

2023 — Present

Analyst · Landkreditt Bank

Built the bank's IFRS 9 / ECL system end-to-end — roughly 75% faster than plan and passed PwC's model assessment. Works in-house across risk analytics, commercial strategy, data & AI, and BI.

2022 — 2023

Management Consultant · Accenture, Strategy & Consulting

Product owner for a Nordic energy company's performance dashboard; advised on a data-function reorganisation — maturity assessment and target operating model — coordinating around 25 consultants.

2020 — 2022

Senior Consultant · EY

Built ESG and climate-risk due-diligence tools for private-equity diligence; led a team of five on a D&I app adopted by several Norwegian firms; ran 100+ SAF-T / ESEF validations. Promoted to Senior Consultant six months early.

2019

Data Science Intern · TV 2 Group

Built a Python recommendation engine from time-based viewing patterns.

2019

Data Science Intern · Crowdbotics, San Francisco

Applied BERT to detect linguistic uncertainty in disclosures for a global investment bank.

Education
  • MSc, Business AnalyticsNorwegian School of Economics (NHH) · 2018–2019Exchange: UC Berkeley
  • BSc, Economics & Business AdministrationUiT — The Arctic University of Norway · 2015–2018Exchange: LMU Munich
Certifications
  • Azure Data FundamentalsMicrosoft Certified
  • Data Analyst Associate (Power BI)Microsoft Certified
  • Alteryx Designer CoreAlteryx
  • Deep Learning SpecializationDeepLearning.AI
Languages
  • NorwegianNative
  • EnglishFluent
  • GermanConversational (B1)