Gunnar Sætren (7 September 1843 – 10 November 1928) was a Norwegian engineer, manager and magazine editor.

He was an important figure at Kanalvæsenet for more than forty years, and made several contributions to the exploitation of Norwegian water resources.

Sætren was born in Elverum as the son of farmer Carsten Sæthren and Kari Nordby.

[1] Sætren studied at Lillehammer Latin- og Realskole, at Qvams skole in Christiania and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich from 1862 to 1865.

Sætren was a counsellor for industrialist Sam Eyde, the founder and first manager of Norsk Hydro, who acquired rights for exploiting waterfalls for hydroelectric power.