About Killian

Early Childhood

Born on the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian city of Mo i Rana to a Norwegian state conflict mediator mother who worked with terrorists and criminals, and a Swiss-French father in Swiss investment banking. I grew up surrounded by high-stakes thinking and developed an early obsession with the board game Monopoly.The first 5 years were spent in the french part of Switzerland, living between Geneva & Lausanne, before I moved to Northern Norway with my Mother and sister following my parents divorce. From then on I became the de-facto handyman, responsible for fixing thing around the house. My mother used to get annoyed at me as I would deconstruct appliances, tools, electronics and products to understand how they worked, before I would re-construct them.Then at the age of 10 I received my first Mackintosh, which then became my new obsession along with theater.

• https://www.sa.no/kultur/tidsvandring-pa-fortet/g/1-101-3710558

Early Teenage Virtual Hotelier

In the early teenage years in the early 2000s, I started my first online venture selling virtual furniture in one of the world's first massive multiplayer games called Habbo Hotel.This was essentially the first ever virtual currency that could be exchanged for real money. With my younger sister we developed a technique that enabled us to collect money from hundreds of other children that wanted to upgrade their hotel rooms.We ran events with competitions between players internationally with winning prizes and ways to upgrade furniture. This experience was foundational to digital mindset of exploring novel opportunities, and gave me a taste for hotels as a evolution of the fan favorite monopoly game

India: United World College

Selected by the Norwegian National Committee of UWC from amongst a highly competitive pool of applicants, I received a full scholarship sponsored by the Red Cross to attend the Mahindra United World College of India.The UWC movement, established as the birthplace of the International Baccalaureate program after WW2 in a pedagogical aspiration to foster peace and has long been synonymous with excellence in international education.With Nelson Mandela serving as its honorary president and Queen Noor of Jordan among its most prominent advocates, UWC has earned its reputation as "the school for kings and queens," though its true distinction lies in bringing together exceptional young people from vastly different backgrounds to foster international understanding and peace through education over a two year period before university.This deeply immersive and formative 2 year experience shaped my worldview and instilled a deep appreciation for cross-cultural collaboration and immersion that continues to inform my work today.Fun fact: I learned to speak English fluently in India, and therefore naturally had a pretty strong Indian accent.