Anne Lise Waal

Anne Lise Waal, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Attensi, is one of Europe’s leading women in tech. Joining Attensi in 2013, shortly after its inception, she leverages her computer engineering background to support the technical, operational and delivery aspects of the business.

Under Waal’s leadership, Attensi developed the Helping Hand game to address the urgent need to reach Arabic-speaking adolescent refugees to assess and improve their psycho-social wellbeing, by learning the basics of the cognitive model to understand how their thoughts affect their feelings and build problem-solving skills for emotionally difficult situations. The adolescents who engaged in the Helping Hand program and game reported high marks for their experience. Most importantly, they recorded significant changes in their reported wellbeing after the sessions completed. Based on the World Health Organization’s wellbeing index, participants reported an average 162% increase in wellbeing. Waal lead Attensi’s involvement in the INTROMAT research project, which uses digital tools as intervention in mental health care. Attensi developed a virtual reality scenario with the goal of reducing adolescence public speaking anxiety. The research found a significant decrease in symptoms after just one treatment and maintained that reduction in the three months following. Waal is continuously looking for ways to make training simpler for their clients. By releasing Attensi ENGAGE, a self-serve campaign tool, Attensi clients can now nudge, remind and notify their staff through SMS and email to increase engagement and activity, all at the preferred pace and direction of the employee.