Moving to Norway eight years ago has been a life changer for Dublin-born accountant David Norton. His health has improved, he enjoys better work-life balance and it is where he has met his wife, Nora, a cross-country Norwegian triathlon champion.
Norton had enjoyed a successful career in Dublin, combining finance and technology, including a senior role at Fleetmatics, a start-up that became the first Irish company in a decade to float on the New York Stock Exchange.
But the demanding work schedule took its toll, with constant travel across the globe, no exercise, a poor diet and a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
As he considered his next move, Norton received a call from a former business associate asking if he would be interested in leading a financial restructuring at a Norwegian telematics company called ABAX. Norton had a good match of transferable skills from his previous roles and jumped at the challenge of moving, making a strong impact in his five years at the business.
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In 2023, he was approached to help establish EcoMobility, a company founded through the merger of Danish and Luxembourg companies and is now its chief executive. The company is a software as a solution telematics company that helps its customers operate vehicles and other assets in a more profitable and sustainable way.
EcoMobility is an 80-strong business with operations in Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and France, as well as Norway. It has built a base of about 72,000 subscribers for its software in less than three years.
“One of our key targets is SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], which are not serviced as well as large companies. Our goal is to have the man in the van home early so he can put his kids to bed, have more money in his pocket and an easier life, and our technology enables that.”
Moving to Norway was something of a shock to the system initially for an Irish person but he has grown to love it.
“I arrived in what I was told was the riviera of the north. It doesn’t look like a riviera when you land in February. There’s an 18-foot bank of snow and the weather is -20 degrees,” he says.
“It can be bitterly cold. You are often not able to see your car in the morning, and you have to locate it by clicking your key fob before digging it out. I remember rushing one morning putting out the waste on my way to an early work meeting. I forgot to dry my hands and they ended up getting stuck solid to the lid of a metal bin.”
[ ‘It’s strange to say to Irish people that you miss the bad weather’Opens in new window ]
Norton has got used to the weather and has warmed to Norway over the years. Meeting Nora, whom he married in 2024, cemented his relationship with the country. The couple have an apartment in the small coastal city of Larvik, about 130km south of Oslo.
Excellent healthcare is one of the key advantages of living in Norway, Norton says.
“It’s second to none. When you arrive in the country and register for tax, you automatically get a doctor assigned to you. You can look at their ratings and change if you want, subject to their availability. I can book a medical appointment on an app and get seen as soon as I want to.”
Tax rates are high to pay for the excellent social services, and while the cost of living is also high, there is almost no unemployment. “It’s generally accepted that anyone who wants a job can get one here,” he says.
Norton admits that it took a while to make friends and to crack the social scene in a small city but music bingo on a Friday evening proved a game changer for him. “Norwegians can appear to be a bit standoffish at first but once they get to know you, they are the best craic.”
They also take work-life balance seriously. “It’s an eight to four workday typically. During the summer, you could get killed in the stampede for the door in the afternoon because they love the sun.”
The Norwegian government provides good incentives to learn their language and Norton admits that he has begun to get a better handle on it in recent years, though he has been disincentivised by working in a multinational office environment where English is often the default option.
“I’m improving and I can understand it, but the challenge is speaking it. As an Irish person, if you use words with an ‘r’ in them, you can sound like a very sick dog. I want to get better so I’ve a rule in the office now that there are two days when people can only speak to me in Norwegian.”
