Björn was one of the founder of Destination viking Association together with Geir Sör Reime.  the  25.3 2007  AT NOOAMS agm MEETING . 
In November 2008, the Destination Viking Association was formed in Haugesund, Norway. It has formally taken over the results and products of the three Viking projects. In parallel with this, an Interreg IVC Northern Periphery project called THING Project was approved, and upon its completion, the Destination Viking Association took over the results and products of this project too.

Jimmy Moncrieff Chair
Björn M Buttler Jakobsen, vice chair
Paula Wilson, secretery
Gun Bjursberg, Tresure
Rögnvaldur Gudmusson, board member
Geir Sör Reime, board member
Professor Dan Carlsson honourary  member

Björn has been Director of the Foteviken museum from 1995 until 2022 when he retired.

Under his leadership, the museum has been involved in many European partnership projects. Björn’s previous board appointments have also included President of EXARC (European Exchange on Archaeological Research and Communication) and Chairman of NOOAM (Nordic Organization of Open Air Museums). Vice chair of IMTAL (International museum theatre alliance Chair for  SVEG  (Scandinavia viking Explorer group  – Association)   1981- 2023 

He has also been the chairman of the Destination Viking Association

He has worked extensively as a tv and film producer on maritime and living archaeology projects. Today he is retired but still works with culture.

Eu project
It all started with two people Björn & Geir – two projects in the year 1999

IT began during the spring of 1999 with an e-mail from Geir Sör Reime from Stavanger in Norway, working for the Rogaland county municipality.
Nice, I thought, my own background being from Stavanger in Norway, so I responded immediately. At the time Geir was running a newly started EU project for the Rogaland county municipality, North Sea Viking Legacy, and he wished to have a collaboration between our countries.

The North Sea Viking Legacy project was approved by the Interreg IIC North Sea program in January 1999, including 20 partners from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Shetland and Norfolk), with associate partners from the Isle of Man, Iceland and southern Sweden.

At the project meetings Avaldsnes on Karmøy also showed up for the first time. Additional project participants included Marit Synnøve Vea and Rögnvaldur Gudmundsson from Iceland, Jan Lindh from Midgard in Borre/Tönsberg and Bjarne Clements from Ribe Viking Centre in Denmark.

Att this time the Foteviken Viking Museumalso already was  involved in there first EU project 1998-1999, Öresund now and then, in collaboration with the Roskilde Museum in Denmark.

We, Geir and Björn decided to meet up, which was done following an EU conference in Finland.

At the same time, Vellinge municipality and Foteviken Viking Museum partnered in up the EU project Balder, an Interreg IIC Baltic Sea project, which ran from 2000 to 2003.

This project was about the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea and their history from the Viking Age to the present day.  Geir Sör Reime became an observer in this project, like I had become an observer in the North Sea Viking Legacy (NSVL) project. The project concerned informational signs posted in nature as an important way of imparting information about the sites. The project also created hiking trails to visualise the historical cultural landscape.

Dan Carlsson, professor at the University College of Gotland, was running Viking Heritage, which was in charge of managing the Council of Europe’s Viking route, and in the coming time our projects would work together, and we developed their newsletter into the Viking Heritage Magazine.

The main focus of the collaboration between the projects and the university college was to improve public access, both physically and mentally, to the Viking heritage (measure 3.3 in the program – promotion of cultural tourism). The project improved signs at more than 50 sites, produced a number of leaflets and guides, along with a book describing a number of important Viking sites around the North Sea.

All the Destination Viking projects used the Viking Heritage Magazine as their newsletter.

In 2012, the responsibility for managing the Council of Europe’s Viking Route was transferred to the Destination Viking Association, and the association later had a successful re-accreditation by the Council of Europe in 2015.

Edmund Southworth is an honarary member of the Board of the Destination Viking Association and has previously been the Chair. He recently retired as Chief Executive of Manx National Heritage, the heritage agency for the Isle of Man. He is an archaeologist and museum curator by training and a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He currently holds the position of VIce-Chair of the York Archaeological Trust, which manages the Jorvik Viking Centre, and Chair of the Museums Committee of the Heritage Railway Association. Edmund is the new Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Follow the Vikings Cutural Route.

I was on the board as treasurer of Follow the Vikings from the very beginning. I am now retired from my job at the Viking farmstead Gunnes gård in Upplands Väsby Sweden.

I also had the opportunity to play Queen Gunhild for some years at the road show in the project Follow the Viking

Ea Stevns Matzon

• Master in History and European Ethnology; The University of Copenhagen.
• Honorary member of the Destination Viking Associations
• Former head of dissemination, Museum Vestsjælland and CEO; Southwest Zealand’s
• Former Associate Professor; the Danish Institute of Educational Training for Vocational Teachers

Scientific areas of focus

• As Historian; majoring in Icelandic and Gotland women’s legal, religious, social and legal status in the Viking Age and early Mediaeval Ages.
• As Associate Professor, specialized in organizational development, communication and conflict resolution.

Ole Madsen has over years contributor to the Destination Viking Association, serving as a board member from 2018 to 2021 and as chairman of the board from 2021 to 2024. 

With a professional background rooted in archaeology and cultural heritage, Ole has served as Director of the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger from 2014 to 2024.

Ole’s career spans leadership roles in both the cultural and tourism sectors, including positions as CEO of Lysefjorden Utvikling and Reisemål Ryfylke, where he worked to promote sustainable tourism and regional development. His academic foundation includes a Cand. Philol. in Archaeology, complemented by executive education in strategic management and leadership. 

Currently, Mr. Madsen holds the position of Faculty Director at the University of Stavanger, where he continues to contribute to the advancement of higher education and interdisciplinary collaboration.

As an honorary member of Destination Viking, Ole continues to support the association’s mission to preserve and promote Viking heritage through knowledge sharing, cultural exchange, and sustainable development.