Malin Clarke Isaksson

CV

Malin Clarke Isaksson

Business development | Operations | Project management | Digital transformation | Partnerships

Stockholm, Sweden · Swedish – native · English – professional working proficiency · German – basic professional knowledge · Spanish – basic

Profile

Business, operations,
people and technology.

I work at the intersection of business, operations, people and technology.

Today I am CEO and co-owner of Digital Openers AB, where I work with business development, consultative B2B and B2G sales, organisational development, project management, partnerships and company building.

Much of my work is about understanding what an organisation actually needs before we start talking about which technology, skill or vendor should solve the problem. I run customer conversations, needs analyses and commercial processes, and I put together the right competencies for each assignment.

My role is often to move between several perspectives at once: the customer’s operational need, the technical possibility, the people who will carry out the change, and the commercial reality.

I am used to working in contexts that are not yet fully defined. I like creating structure, formulating the next step and moving work from idea and discussion to a decision and actual delivery.

As a leader I put great weight on clarity, trust and relationships. I want people to understand why we are doing something, what is expected of them and what the next step is. At the same time I believe in a high degree of personal responsibility and in creating conditions where people dare to use their competence fully.

My background in journalism and strategic communications has given me a particular strength in asking questions, getting up to speed quickly in complex fields, and translating between specialists, decision-makers and operations.

Core competencies

What I bring into the assignment.

Business development and consultative sales

  • Identifies and develops new business opportunities.
  • Runs customer conversations in both B2B and B2G.
  • Holds needs-oriented conversations to understand operations, goals and problems before a solution is defined.
  • Translates technical possibilities into clear customer value.
  • Develops and packages services and offerings.
  • Works with sales pipeline, pricing and commercial prioritisation.
  • Builds relationships with project managers, business developers, portfolio managers and other decision-makers.
  • Coordinates internal and external specialists to create relevant proposals.
  • Moves deals from idea and first conversation toward quote, contract and delivery.

Operations leadership

  • Strategy and direction.
  • Organisational development.
  • Company building.
  • Prioritisation between initiatives.
  • Board reporting.
  • Budget and finance dialogue.
  • Pricing and packaging.
  • Contract management.
  • Resource planning.
  • Sales work.
  • Marketing and positioning.
  • Partner and subcontractor relationships.
  • Development of internal ways of working and structure.

Project management

  • Leads projects from idea and planning through delivery.
  • Creates structure, goals and clear next steps.
  • Coordinates people with different roles and competencies.
  • Handles customer dialogue and expectations.
  • Drives content, delivery and deadlines.
  • Works on projects where organisational development, change management, digitalisation and competence development meet.
  • Used to leading both formal projects and work where mandate and structure need to be created along the way.

Partnerships and ecosystems

  • Identifies complementary competencies and possible collaborations.
  • Evaluates technical products and specialist competence from the point of view of customer value.
  • Works from a technical possibility to audience, offering, business model and commercial application.
  • Runs relationships with partners, specialists and subcontractors.
  • Coordinates people and organisations around joint offerings.

Digital transformation and organisational development

  • Digitalisation in public and private organisations.
  • Open source.
  • AI and automation.
  • Data and information management.
  • Metadata and open data.
  • Digital sovereignty and vendor independence.
  • Change management.
  • Competence development.
  • Operations-close needs analysis.
  • Technology as support for the organisation’s actual goals.

Strategic communications

  • Communications strategy.
  • Marketing strategy.
  • Content marketing.
  • Editorial work.
  • Campaign leadership.
  • Thought leadership.
  • Whitepapers.
  • Customer cases.
  • Newsletters and nurture flows.
  • Social media.
  • Web.
  • Interviews.
  • Packaging of complex messages.
  • Swedish and English.

Work experience

Roles and assignments.

Digital Openers AB

Chief Executive Officer

August 2026 – present · Stockholm

CEO of an entrepreneur-driven company in digital development, AI, open source, data, digital sovereignty and organisational development.

The role combines business development, sales, leadership, strategy, project management and company building.

I have been part of building the company from an early stage and drive the work of creating a shared direction, developing the offering and turning ideas and specialist competence into a working business.

Responsibilities

  • Drives the company’s strategic development together with the board and the other owners.
  • Responsible for creating structure and a shared direction in a company still being built.
  • Reports quarterly to the board.
  • Works closely with the finance lead on packaging, pricing and financial priorities.
  • Works with the commercial lead on the sales pipeline and new opportunities.
  • Runs customer conversations and needs-oriented discussions.
  • Works with consultative sales where the customer’s operational need is the starting point.
  • Handles most of the company’s contracts.
  • Takes part in resource planning and prioritisation of competence.
  • Drives relationships with potential partners, specialists and subcontractors.
  • Identifies which competence is needed in different customer assignments and puts relevant teams together.
  • Works on developing and packaging new services.
  • Drives the company’s marketing, positioning and communications.
  • Leads ongoing customer projects and deliveries.

Business development

A recurring part of the role is to take a technical product, competence or idea and work it through several steps: understand the technology → identify customer value → understand the audience → define the problem → develop the offering → identify complementary competence → create a business model → take the offering to market.

I often function as the link between technical specialists and the customer’s operations.

That does not mean being a specialist in every technical field, but being able to ask the right questions, understand enough to see the business and operational perspective, and gather the people who together can create a working solution.

Leadership

My leadership is built on clarity and trust. I see a large part of leadership as creating the conditions for other people to do good work.

  • give meetings a clear purpose,
  • formulate what we need to have accomplished by the next step,
  • create a shared view of responsibility and expectations,
  • understand how different people work,
  • give a high degree of personal responsibility,
  • create safety for people to use their competence,
  • prioritise among many possible ideas,
  • say no to initiatives that are not the most important right now.

Co-owner & Board Member

January 2026 – present

Co-owner and board member.

Has been part of developing the company from an early phase and works both strategically and operationally with direction, offerings, sales, projects and organisation.

MetaSolutions AB

Digital Marketing Manager – Strategic Communications, Content Strategy & Digital Marketing

October 2023 – August 2026 · Stockholm

Overall responsibility for marketing and strategic communications for MetaSolutions and EntryScape, a platform covering metadata management, data catalogues, information models, linked data and open data.

Reported to the CEO and had a wide mandate to identify needs, prioritise activities and drive the marketing work forward.

When I started, there was limited structure for ongoing marketing. A central part of the role became building ways of working, continuity and content production.

Responsibilities

  • Marketing planning and prioritisation.
  • Communications strategy.
  • Campaign planning and delivery.
  • KPI follow-up.
  • Content strategy.
  • Editorial planning.
  • Newsletters.
  • Nurture flows.
  • Whitepapers and guides.
  • Customer cases.
  • Blogs and knowledge content.
  • Release communications.
  • LinkedIn.
  • Digital advertising.
  • Lead generation.
  • Web publishing.
  • Interviews with customers and specialists.
  • Packaging of technical offerings.
  • Collaboration with sales, developers, Customer Success and external suppliers.
  • Communications in Swedish and English.

Results

  • Developed and established a more structured and continuous marketing function.
  • Built an ongoing editorial presence with regularly published knowledge content.
  • Increased the company’s LinkedIn following from around 600 to about 2,000 followers, mainly through organic work.
  • Newsletters reached around 60 percent open rate.
  • Produced a large number of articles, customer cases and knowledge pieces over nearly three years.
  • Produced whitepapers and other downloadable content that continues to be used for lead generation.

Nordiske Medier Stockholm AB / MotorMagasinet

Reporter & acting editorial lead

March 2020 – November 2023 · Stockholm

Reporter at MotorMagasinet, a Swedish trade paper for the automotive market and aftermarket.

Worked with news journalism, interviews and longer reportage covering workshops, vehicle service, recycling, regulation and market development.

During a transition period I was acting editorial lead for a newsroom of around five people.

Editorial leadership

  • Planned the newsroom’s work.
  • Assigned journalistic work.
  • Led editorial meetings.
  • Took publishing decisions.
  • Followed up and owned deadlines.
  • Coordinated the daily publishing flow.

Project – Årets Bilsäljare

Project-managed parts of MotorMagasinet’s work on the Årets Bilsäljare award.

The work covered research, interviews, project coordination and collaboration between the newsroom, marketing and external parties.

I also sat on the jury that evaluated candidates and selected winners.

Mariestads-Tidningen

Local editor

March 2018 – March 2020 · Mariestad and Töreboda

Sole reporter responsible for a geographic coverage area.

The role meant a wide mandate and responsibility for the whole journalistic process: spotting news, research, source contacts, interviews, photography, writing, publishing and follow-up.

Covered municipal politics, public administration, local business and social issues.

Dagens industri

Journalist

August 2017 – January 2018 · Stockholm

Worked with both daily business journalism and longer material for DI Weekend.

Also collaborated with Dagens industri TV and produced material for the channel’s business coverage.

The role combined fast news production with deeper business journalism.

MittMedia

Journalist

June 2017 – August 2017 · Södertälje

Local reporter responsible for news, reportage and moving image.

Worked among other things with live broadcasts and video production for web and social media.

Undervaka

Founder / Project manager

2016–2017

Initiated and project-managed Undervaka, a journalistic and democratic project on how the principle of public access functions in a digital reality.

The project built on an earlier study by journalism students at Stockholms universitet under the public-access expert Nils Funke.

I saw the chance to take the question further, packaged the project, built the project organisation and sought external funding.

My responsibilities

  • Developed and packaged the project idea.
  • Project-managed a team of four.
  • Wrote funding applications.
  • Was awarded a grant from Internetfonden.
  • Owned relationships with partners and sponsors.
  • Owned financial reporting to Internetfonden.
  • Planned and coordinated the study.
  • Examined how well the principle of public access was followed in Swedish municipalities.
  • Compiled the work in a report.
  • Lectured on the results and the principle of public access.
  • Created dialogue between journalists, lawyers and public administration.
  • Moderated a panel during Almedalsveckan.

Speaker – own practice / Undervaka

Lecturer

June 2016 – August 2017

Lectured and ran workshops on the principle of public access, the Swedish constitution, transparency, the right to public information and how the principle works in practice.

  • Lunds universitet
  • Umeå kommun
  • Scouternas Folkhögskola
  • DokumentINFO

Coop Sverige

Department manager – Fruit & vegetables

June 2014 – December 2016 · Skövde

Responsible for the daily running and development of the fruit and vegetable department, including during a major store renovation.

  • Operational leadership.
  • Team coordination.
  • Ordering.
  • Logistics.
  • Goods flows.
  • Planning.
  • Development of layout and customer experience.
  • Carrying out changes while operations continued.

Gaudeamus

Reporter

March 2016 – September 2016 · Stockholms universitet

Web reporter for the student paper at Stockholms universitet.

Covered campus news and produced digital content for the paper’s web channels.

Au Pair Link

Au pair

June 2012 – December 2012 · Hawera, New Zealand

Worked as an au pair for four children between two and five years old.

The experience developed responsibility, independence, adaptability and communication in a new cultural setting.

Skaraborgs Allehanda

Reporter

August 2009 – June 2012

Began my journalism at the youth desk of Skaraborgs Allehanda.

Researched, wrote and independently published recurring articles and columns.

Selected projects

Projects in brief.

Project management – municipality-wide digital competence and change programme

Project manager and content lead for Digital Openers’ delivery

A project in Swedish municipal operations focused on strengthening digital competence, ways of working and organisational conditions for continued digitalisation.

The project is delivered under a publicly procured contract that Digital Openers won.

  • Project-manages Digital Openers’ part of the delivery.
  • Owns content and coordination.
  • Runs dialogue with the customer’s project management, business developers and management.
  • Handles contract questions tied to the delivery.
  • Coordinates resources and competencies.
  • Ensures progress and structure in the delivery.
  • Works at the intersection of digitalisation, competence development, organisational development and change management.

Framtidens GIS

Initiator and project-leading communicator

Drove the production of the Framtidens GIS whitepaper as part of the company’s work to explore and establish an offering in open-source GIS.

The question had been discussed for a long time, but needed to be made concrete and taken from idea to actual material and a market initiative.

The whitepaper was published on the company’s website and continues to be downloaded by visitors.

The project combined business development, project management, technical understanding, content strategy, external collaboration and event leadership.

  • Took responsibility for driving the work forward.
  • Interviewed and discussed with technical colleagues to understand the market problem and the solution the company wanted to advocate.
  • Translated technical reasoning into a story and structure for a broader audience.
  • Project-managed production of the whitepaper.
  • Coordinated the work with an external graphic designer.
  • Also took part in evaluating and bringing in the designer, including interview dialogue and communication on terms between designer and CEO.
  • Planned and ran an industry after-work on the same theme together with the GIS association GISS.
  • The event gathered around 40 participants from the GIS industry.

Undervaka

Founder / Project manager

A journalistic and democratic project on how the principle of public access functions in a digital reality.

The project combined journalism, project management, funding, societal analysis, external collaboration and knowledge sharing.

  • Was awarded a grant from Internetfonden.
  • Project-managed a team of four.
  • Examined how well the principle of public access was followed in Swedish municipalities.
  • Moderated a panel during Almedalsveckan.

Board roles

Boards.

May 2024 – present

Open Knowledge Sweden

Board member. Board work in an organisation that works for open data, transparency and access to information. The engagement connects to a long-standing interest in public information, democracy, digital infrastructure and how power is distributed in a digitalised society.

January 2026 – present

Digital Openers AB

Board member. Co-owner and board member with an active role in the company’s strategic and commercial development.

Education

Studies.

2015–2018

Stockholms universitet

Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, 180 credits

2016–2023

Mittuniversitetet

Business administration, law and management, 63.4 credits

2024

Mälardalens universitet

Marketing and consumer behaviour, 7.5 credits

2014

Linköpings universitet

Psychology and English, 37.5 credits

Selected results

Results in brief.

  • Has been part of building an entrepreneur-driven digitalisation company from an early phase and today drives the work as CEO.
  • Project-manages a larger delivery in municipal digital competence and organisational development.
  • Works with company strategy, offering development, contracts, partnerships, pricing, sales pipeline and board reporting.
  • Increased MetaSolutions’ organic LinkedIn following from about 600 to around 2,000.
  • Reached around 60% open rate in newsletters.
  • Established structure and continuity for marketing in an organisation that previously lacked a clear marketing function.
  • Drove the Framtidens GIS whitepaper from an internal idea to a published lead-generating resource.
  • Project-managed a GIS event with around 40 industry participants.
  • Founded and project-managed Undervaka.
  • Applied for and was awarded funding from Internetfonden.
  • Led a team and external relationships within Undervaka.
  • Moderated a panel in Almedalen.
  • Had editorial leadership responsibility for a newsroom of about five people.
  • Project-led industry initiatives such as Årets Bilsäljare.
  • Had operational people and operations responsibility in retail.

How I work

Clarity where there is none.

I like creating clarity where there is none yet.

It can be a customer who knows something needs to change but not quite what. A company that has several possible business ideas but needs to choose which is most important. A technical offering that has not yet been translated into clear customer value. Or a project where several competencies need to be coordinated to move forward.

I often start with questions.

  • What are we actually trying to achieve?
  • Which problem are we solving?
  • For whom?
  • What needs to happen first?
  • Who needs to be involved?
  • What can wait?

I am good at moving between the whole and delivery. I can discuss strategy and business model in one meeting and in the next make sure someone actually owns the next task and that the work continues.

I also believe ideas are cheap. The hard part is choosing which ideas are worth carrying out — and then actually carrying them out.

Leadership

Leadership profile.

Clarity

I want people to understand goals, responsibility and expectations.

Trust

I give people a high degree of personal responsibility and assume they want to do good work when they have the right conditions.

Progress

I want discussions to lead somewhere. Meetings need a purpose and there should be a clear next step.

Curiosity

I ask many questions. Sometimes I also need to step away, think, and come back with better questions.

Prioritisation

I like ideas, but I do not believe every idea should be carried out. An important part of my work is deciding what needs to be done now and what can wait.

Relationships

Organisations are first of all people. Technology and processes only work in the long run if relationships, responsibility and organisational conditions work.

Direction

Roles and subjects.

Roles I am particularly relevant for:

  • Business Development Manager
  • Affärsutvecklare
  • Head of Business Development
  • Managing Director / CEO
  • Verksamhetsledare
  • Project Manager
  • Senior Project Manager
  • Program Manager
  • Partnerships Manager
  • Partner Development Manager
  • Business Transformation
  • Digital Transformation
  • Verksamhetsutvecklare
  • Consulting / Advisory
  • Strategic Communications Lead

Industry and subject knowledge:

  • Public sector
  • B2B
  • B2G
  • Digitalisation
  • AI
  • Automation
  • Open source
  • Digital sovereignty
  • Data and information management
  • Open data
  • Metadata
  • Linked data
  • GIS
  • Civic tech
  • Principle of public access
  • Digital transformation
  • Change management
  • Communications and marketing
  • Media and journalism