Gard Titlestad works for his company Nordic Insight. He is appointed as an Erasmus+ external expert for Norway. He is the project manager for the Erasmus+ project IDOCOS, Innovative Doctoral Courses for Sustainability. He works as a governing board member for the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education.
Gard is a recognized international expert within the field of higher education, research, innovation and digital transformation. He has comprehensive experience as senior manager. He has been working for the Nordic countries, for the European Union and globally. While serving in his positions, he has also worked as an evaluator of research projects for the European Commission’s Research Framework programme, coordinator of international research and innovation projects and as a facilitator for collaborative innovation initiatives.
He retired in 2018 as secretary general for the International Council for Open and Distance Education, ICDE. In ICDE he worked in close partnership with UNESCO for the new Sustainable Development Goals. Collaboration between institutions, associations, companies and individuals was a key priority for him, on a regional, global and north-south-south basis.
2005 – 2011 Gard led the Department for Knowledge and Welfare in the Nordic Council of Ministers, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He managed the secretariat for the ministers for education and research, health and social affairs, the ministers for labor affairs and for a shorter period the ministers for enterprise and the ministers for finance.
Before joining the NCM, Gard served as the Research Counsellor for Norway in Brussels and as member of the executive team for the Norwegian delegation to the European Union. Prior to this, he was a senior officer in the European Commission, Directorate General Information Society. In Norway he worked in agencies for the Norwegian Government and before that as the President for the Norwegian union of bioengineers and as a board member of the Association for academics in Norway.