WHO IS OSCAR KARLSTEN?

This is the personal website of Oscar Karlsten. I’m a father and a leader, digital business developer, marketing professional & smart creative born in 1980 north of Stockholm, Sweden. For a few years I was studying, working, and living abroad. In late 2009, I finally made my way back to Stockholm again. A few years back, OscarKarlsten.com was a blog named Oscar and Friends that had its roots in Australia, circa 2007, even though I’ve been a frequent blogger on and off since 1998. OscarKarlsten.com in its current form has its roots in Sweden, 2014. That’s a few more countries, jobs, and cars later. Most importantly, it’s two kids and a bunch of learnings later. I’ve always been intrigued and curious about digital possibilities, and especially the web.

One of my first loves was the Internet and every opportunity that comes with it.

After pursuing a short-lived ‘career’ as an ASCII art artist – I quickly realized (maybe not quick enough) that the real opportunity was in sharing ideas, creativity, and working without borders enabled through technology. After a brief career as a webmaster and on different web-projects as well as completing my degrees, I eventually ended up with Google. At Google I worked with building and developing strategic partnerships for AdSense in the Nordic region at first. I worked mainly with the big publishing houses and entrepreneurs (but also various ‘comparison sites’) to maximize revenue, both for them and Google. After about a year I moved on internally and pursued a new challenge as a Product Specialist. My main mission and goal here was to collaborate with engineering and product management to develop and launch AdSense products.

As I mentioned I moved back to Sweden in 2009 to join Avantime Group AB (Avantime), a full-service agency located in Stockholm, Sweden. After running the show at Avantime for a couple of years, I joined Toca Boca in 2015 as a Product Owner. My main mission was to develop and make their cross promotional efforts a great success. The product that I worked on is the one you see in Toca Boca apps today! In January 2016, it was time for a new adventure abroad, hello Malta. The vision on this mediterranean island was to develop great products in my role as Chief Information Officer (joined as Chief Product Officer) with Catena Media. After doing that for a few years it was time to join Raketech as Chief Operating Officer. Excitement!

Anyway, enough on the professional topic. As a person I’m quite calm but overly enthusiastic about most things. I’m a family man living with my girlfriend and two kids in Sliema, Malta. I grew up worshiping football players, and in some sense I still do. According to some, I know way to much about football, and sports in general. I’m the type of guy who would nail most orange questions on trivial pursuit. In my spare time I enjoy hanging out with my family and friends, reading tech news or watching football.

If you wish to read more about what I’ve been up to professionally in the past, please take a look at my profile on LinkedIn, my skill set or download my CV.

Thanks for stopping by!