Board Education

Anne has experience from board positions, founding, counselling and mentoring start-up companies at Bs and DTU. She is a Senior Manager with 20 years of experience in leading innovation and commercial development. Anne’s experience with entrepreneurship includes start-ups, scale-ups, and large corporations, with focus on digitalization, innovation and learning.

Prior to joining DTU, Anne worked at Copenhagen Business School as Head of Business Relations and before that within FMCG and in consulting. Anne holds a Master in Learning and Change Management from the University of Aalborg, a DP in IT from Aarhus University, a B.Ed. and executive training from Copenhagen Business School and Henley Business School. Furthermore, she has published a book about E-learning.

Jes Broeng is serial entrepreneur, professor and director of DTU Entrepreneurship. Born in Copenhagen. He has co-founded six companies and spent a total of 12 years in industry – mainly as technical director at executive level. He now serves on the board of several companies, including a venture capital firm (PreSeed Ventures). For the European Commission, he serves as an expert on innovation (EIC Expert Group) and for the Danish government, he is a member of the Danish Research and Innovation Council (DFiR).

Jes has a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and spent longer research stays abroad, including invited professor at UC Berkeley. Jes has co-authored more than 250 scientific publications, one textbook and holds 22 patents. He is a Fellow of SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics) and a member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences. He was awarded the European Optics Prize in 1999 and DTU’s Innovation Award in 2016.

Thomas is an Associate Professor in Engineering Design, with research specialization in Design for Quality and Robustness. In 2014 Thomas won the DTU Innovation prize for his approaches and teaching related to Technology Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation. Thomas is now the CTO of spin-out company MASH Biotech ApS and runs a large innovation network and ecosystem around technology entrepreneurship. In 2013 he became the youngest elected member of the Design Society Advisory Board and holds a position as visiting faculty at UC Berkeley and Distinguished chair at CETYS University.

Danny Grydholt-Jantzen is Program Manager at DTU X-Tech, which is an accelerated learning program that combines engineering, business and marketing students with inventions, patents and technological needs from industry partners and DTU research. The result: a prototype, a business plan and an entrepreneurial team ready to explore a new business project. Danny’s great passion is helping startups and enterprising souls along the way. In addition, he is a DTU Board Education alumnus from team 1 and organizes the Digital Tech Summit’s Startup Community across 8 Danish universities and is deeply involved in expanding the ecosystems across silos.

Aviaja has a background in design research and interaction design based on business, as she has made a Business PhD at Bang & Olufsen. She also specializes in co-creation with children in the creation of technologies of the future. She is the inventor of the interactive learning tool Hopspots, designed for children in schools and day care, to connect physical activity with play and learning. Aviaja works strategically with design thinking and has an innovative approach to board work. She has extensive experience in creating projects and fundraises so that it enables the execution of new inventions. Her experience on board work is primarily from NGOs and her own board, as well as through mentoring and sparring with start-ups.

View more on Aviaja Borup Lynggaard’s LinkedIn profile.

VOLA manufactures taps designed by Arne Jacobsen a.o. As Sales and Marketing Director Birthe Tofting has made the long journey with the company from being a SME to become an group of 10 international sales subsidiaries which she manages as Director in the companies. From the very beginning Birthe Tofting has managed the VOLA brand and design and developed it into a prize-winning brand and design that is recognized in architect and design communities worldwide. Birthe Tofting has strategic and hands-on experience in international sales, marketing, organizational development and establishment of international subsidiaries. Since 2006 Birthe Tofting has served as Board member in several companies, currently E V Metalværk A/S and CRECEA A/S. Birthe Tofting graduated from BSS, Aarhus University and has worked as external examiner at Danish universities for more than 10 years.

View more on Birthe Tofting’s LinkedIn profile.

Christel Piron is a VC investor, Co-founder and General Partner of PSV Tech Fund 1. Since 2017, Christel has been the CEO of PreSeed Ventures (PSV) and have headed the transformation and rebranding of PSV, including the launch of the very successful Startup School PreSeed Academy.

She has taken PreSeed Ventures through a change of business model going from the venture partner for the Danish Government to a full commercial early-stage fund and has been instrumental for the new and strengthened position, that PreSeed Ventures now has in the ecosystem surrounding Danish startups. The track record of PreSeed Ventures includes successful companies such as Vivino, Glycom, Lunar, Trustpilot and many more – companies that PreSeed Ventures have taken from the earliest most fragile stages to their next crucial rounds of funding.

Innovation, strategic business development, investments and cooperation with entrepreneurs have been key words throughout most of Christels professional career.

She was the CEO of Pharmavie, an innovation and venture capital company for 12 years, focusing on developing new business areas, products, and concepts in the life science industry. During this period, she successfully built, bought and exited a number of companies in Scandinavia.

After Pharmavie, Christel was the director of PwC’s department for Strategic Development, where she has been developing and integrating new strategies and business development tools in +30 companies across different industries – all facing challenges with current business model and/or strategy – i.e. digital challenges.

Christel is a strong believer of the value driving impact of board work. A belief deeply rooted in her own broad experience as a member and chairman of more than 25 boards throughout Scandinavia, where she has contributed with her extensive financial, M&A and business development knowledge. Christel have been a keynote speaker on the topic; value adding board work for many years, a mentor for women seeking a board career and presently serves as a censor on the Board Education from Aarhus University.

Christel holds a MSc in Business administration from CBS and several board educations.

View more on Christel Piron’s LinkedIn profile.

Emilia van Hauen is a cultural sociologist, HD (A), board member (passed CBS Board education with distinction), author of six books, including two bestsellers, TEDx speaker and lecturer and writer on i.a. Børsen and Jyllandsposten, and won Femina’s award for Readers’ Favorite. She has run her own business since 1995, and was before that a leader in the business.

View more on Emilia Van Hauen’s LinkedIn profile.

Francesco is Associate Professor in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation at DTU Entrepreneurship. He conducts research and education on entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable development to understand how entrepreneurship and innovation can contribute to provide solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Francesco’s research has been awarded with the 2020 Tietgen Award, and he is a recipient of a Carlsberg Foundation Young Researcher Fellowship. He teaches courses on strategy, entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability at Master and Executive level. He also serves as advisor for a number of sustainability-oriented start-ups and organizations.

View more on Francesco Rosati’s LinkedIn profile.

Hanne Breddam is a board member, advisor and investor with global experience. She is CCO at IT-Kartellet, founding partner & board member in C2IT Greenhouse investing in advanced digital startups, advisory board member in Vækst and newest position is to be board member in BrainCapture. She was founding partner & CEO in BusinessMinds a Data & Analytics consultancy firm with international footprint, partner in QVARTZ Analytics and Expert Principal in Bain & Co. Hanne holds a MSc in Computer Science & a BSc in Economics. She completed the DTU Board Education at DTU Learn for Life in June 2021 and has since started in three board positions.

View more on Hanne Breddam’s LinkedIn profile.

In 2015, Hanne Jarmer was busy as Head of Department at Technical University of Denmark, balancing a family of four kids and Leo, her young whippet. When another whippet (Louis) joined the family in 2016, Hanne realised how difficult it was to ensure that both dogs got the mental stimulation they needed on a daily basis. Being an experienced engineer, Hanne was sure she could develop a technical solution to this problem. One day, as she was leaving for work, she thought “Why can’t my TV help?“. After a bit of thinking and a lot of testing, Go Dogo was born. Hanne was soon joined by three talented engineers who shared her passion and worked tirelessly to get the first prototypes developed. In 2020, a few more members joined the Go Dogo family and lots of product tests were conducted. With support from leading dog experts, great investors and advisors, the passionate and ambitious Go Dogo team launched its product in Denmark in autumn 2021.

View more on Hanne Jarmer’s LinkedIn profile.

Jakob Mikkel Hansen holds a degree from Copenhagen Business School and an audit degree, he is a venture catalyst across the Nordic technology start-up eco-system with vast experience throughout Europe and internationally. 

Throughout his career he has examined, advised, dissected, funded, and re-engineered many new ventures and has been part of tech growth companies such as Downton, Billetto, Hippocorn and Nova Founders Capital. He is currently serving as CFO of Gorm’s, as an executive partner at Warburg Serres investments, and has multiple board seats with companies such as Green Tech Challenge and Office Guru.

View more on Jakob Mikkel Hansen’s LinkedIn profile.

Venture Capital professional, with a background from co-founder of successful scale up GlobalConnect A/S, Business Angel track record, and Corporate Intrapreneurship at eBay Europe.

He received his MBA in Finance & Entrepreneurship from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where he studied on a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship. He is an External Lecturer and Industry Fellow at DTU, Technical University of Denmark.

He has served as Investment Manager at Vækstfonden and Capnova. Prior to this he helped commercialize spinouts from DTU, Technical University of Denmark. He has considerable managerial experience, having held numerous board seats throughout his career.

View more on Jesper Hart Hansen’s LinkedIn profile.

Jesper Lok has held leadership roles with the Maersk-Group for 25 years in Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and Nigeria and as CEO of SVITZER before taking over as CEO of the Danish rail roads, DSB. Prior to this, he was Chairman at J. Lauritzen, bulk and gas shipping company, and ESVAGT, offshore ship solutions to the oil & gas and wind farm sectors. Currently, Jesper is non-Executive Chairman of Dagrofa, as well as Board member of UNICEF and the Global Maritime Forum.

Jesper Is also the initiator behind a newly established network of business people who has come up with 20 recommendations to boards with the aim of making the board work more efficient, more concrete and more resilient in a world of constant change. Read the article about this initiative in yesterday’s Børsen.

View more on Jesper Lok’s LinkedIn profile.

Lars Kolind has 40 years of experience as a chairman, CEO and COO. He has been deeply involved in building world-leading businesses such as Radiometer, Grundfos, Oticon, Unimerco, Zealand Pharma and Cybot in key roles at executive and board levels. As a serial entrepreneur, he has started more than 25 businesses (real estate, management consulting, energy management, finance management, forestry, consumer electronics, advertising, consumer goods and venture capital) and institutions (Corporate social responsibility, children and culture, social inclusion) during the last 25 years. 

Lars Kolind has written five books about leadership: Small Group Leadership (1990 Danish), The Knowledge Society (2000, Danish), The Second Cycle (2006, Nine languages), UNBOSS (2012, Four languages), The Movement (2014, Danish).

View more on Lars Kolind’s LinkedIn profile.

Laura Vilsbæk is a board and advisory board member of ten different companies, and after joining her first board, at an age of 38, she started Nyibestyrelsen.dk to help others find their way to the board room. Laura is deeply committed to professionalising Danish SME boards, and she is a firm believer that we need to broaden the horizon and bring a much more diverse set of competencies, knowledge and experience onboard to ensure maximum value creation for the businesses we serve. Laura has a very pragmatic way of addressing these issues, so feel free to join us for Laura’s tips & tricks on how to find your way to the board room.

View more on Laura Vilsbæk’s LinkedIn profile.

Lisbeth Knudsen has spent more than 40 years in the media industry and has worked with media and journalism within print, radio, television and digital platforms. Lisbeth is a regular commentator on Altinget.dk. In addition to strategy development, leadership and communication, she covers areas such as democracy development, welfare innovation, digital transformation, disruptive innovation, the green transition, sustainability management and SDG goals, as well as the development of new business models and competence development. She also holds the following board positions: Chairman of the board of the architectural firm Rønnow, Leth and Gori. Chairman of the board of the non-profit organization Dansk Selskab for Virksomhedsledelse (VL groups). Chairman of the board of the independent institution Odense Symfoniorkester. Member of the board of the consulting engineering company NIRAS Group, of the board of the communications museum ENIGMA and the Illum Foundation. Finally, she is an adjunct professor at CBS.

View more on Lisbeth Knudsen’s LinkedIn profile.

Mattias Vilhelm Warnøe Nielsen is partner at Moalem Weitemeyer, a Tier 1 Corporate M&A and leading Disputes & Investigations law firm in Denmark and the Nordics. He heads the Firm’s venture capital and start-up efforts and has extensive experience with seed and venture capital investments.

Mattias also engages in private M&A, private equity, public M&A, and capital markets. He advises a broad range of investors, growth companies and well-established companies on commercial issues, board matters, shareholder relations, funding, incentive programs (ESOPs) and exits.

Mattias is also an active member and advisor to several Danish entrepreneurial organizations and innovation hubs, e.g. Accelerace, Symbion, Innovation Fund Denmark, TechBBQ, Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), Venture Cup, Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), and Global Startup Award.

View more on Mathias Wilhelm Warnøe Nielsen’s LinkedIn profile.

Michael Stadi worked in the financial and energy sectors before leading SMEs and advising start-up ventures. He has spent 13 years working in banking and financial markets in Copenhagen, Stockholm and London, before managing and establishing greenfield operations within the energy sector in Denmark. In 2007, Michael co-founded and listed the world’s first long only carbon fund: KlimaInvest A/S on the NASDAQ OMX Exchange. In 2008, Michael joined solar company Gaia Solar as CEO. After securing growth capital, Michael was responsible for 25-doubling turnover between 2008 and 2012 and was awarded “Growth Gazelle” by Børsen for four consecutive years. In 2012, Michael was  nominated for the E&Y – Entrepreneur of the Year award. Prior to joining and listing FOM Technologies, Michael was CEO for the Luxury and Apparel brand at Kopenhagen Fur and responsible for strategy and business development. Michael has served as a board member of several start-up companies.

View more on Michael Stadi’s LinkedIn profile.

Natasha has worked with technology, innovation and entrepreneurship for over 20 years. During the past decade, she has been engaged at the Institute for Futures Studies as an Associate Partner & Digital Futurist and has helped numerous organizations with their digital strategies. She has been working with corporate venture since 2015, namely as Head of Future Growth at Atea and as Head of Venture Development at Mærsk.

Natasha is a serial entrepreneur, having founded several SaaS startups on a global scale. Her curriculum also includes authorship of two books on technology, including the acclaimed “Homo Digitalis” (2013).

She has helped scale companies in the U.S. market and has hosted the online TV show “Tech and The City,” produced by Nasdaq, in New York. Natasha is passionate about fostering business development through technology, innovation, and sustainability – all the while focusing on human interactions.

Natasha has been nominated several times as one of the most influential women in the European tech industry and as one of the top 100 most influential women in Denmark.

View more on Natasha Friis Saxbergs’s LinkedIn profile.

Nickie is a Managing Partner in Boardmeter ApS. Her experience comes from roles at executive levels in international companies, from business development, Board of Director- and advisory board roles, management consulting and program management in foundations. Boardmeter is a startup providing Board Evaluation services to Boards of Directors. Nickie has solid business understanding, international experience and is a strong relation builder with a broad network.

View more on Nickie Spile’s LinkedIn profile.

Niels Korsholm is a firm believer in every industry being prone to radical innovation and accelerated transformation. Niels has previously acted as CEO and Group Head of Consulting in Devoteam Group SA, and he has comprehensive experience with developing growth companies from not only notable C-level roles but also Founder, Business Angels and Chairman positions. Currently, Niels is Chairman of the board in DTU Science Park A/S and PreSeed Ventures A/S in addition to serving in board roles in numerous growth companies, scaleup companies, and startup companies, and he dedicates much of his time to actively contributing to the Danish startup ecosystem.

View more on Niels Korsholms’s LinkedIn profile.

Nina Nørgaard Jacobsen is CEO and co-founder of the video marketing platform; Biites.com. Biites is a streaming service for branded entertainment, where companies can showcase their longer video series and programs, and where users can enjoy great video content without interruption. Nina started Biites in 2017 together with her co-founder, Helle Jabiri Falck. Today, Biites is a growth company with a presence in Denmark, UK, US, Germany and a number of other markets.

Nina has previously worked in management and business development in a number of medium-sized companies within IT and professional service firms, before she chose to start her own business.

View more on Nina Nørgaard Jacobsen’s LinkedIn profile.

Has a long track record from working in and leading R&D organizations from Novo Nordisk and Novozymes. Since 2016 I have been starting 5 new companies with the field of Industrial Biotechnology covering Food, Feed and technical markets.

Beside the R&D positions I have been participating in various Boards, Danfoss, Chairman at DHI foundation, Chairman at Curasight and retired Chairman at DTU and holds app. 10 board positions for time being.

View more on Per Falholt’s LinkedIn profile.

Peter is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Norlase, a medical device company.

With a PhD in high power lasers and a short career as academic researcher, Peter specialises in photonics, especially lasers and their applications. He has a strong track record in fast-paced technology development, proof-of-concept and prototype development.

Throughout his career, Peter has been part of start-ups and tech companies, such Crystal Fiber, NKT Photonics, Micro Managed Photons, Kaleido Technology and Norlase. Peter enjoys building and leading teams, excels in execution and gets a kick out of breaking technological barriers.

View more on Peter Skovgaards’s LinkedIn profile.

Poul Skadhede holds a degree from AAU. He is Founder of Valcon, a leading North European management consultancy, and has served as Group CEO and Chairman for that company for 20 years, today serving as a Senior Partner. He is also co-founder and Chairman of OMT, a global leader in Naval designs and consultancy.

Through his career in management consultancy, Poul has advised more than 250 companies and been responsible for more than 800 projects – including strategy articulation, m&a execution, IPO’s, turn-arounds, organizational design, operational improvements and innovation. He typically works for Boards, Executive Committees or owners, including Private Equity.

Poul has vast experience from Government and Confederation committees and Boards, often chairing these.

Poul today serves as executive and non-executive Board member and Chair on various companies, including start-up and scale-up companies.

View more on Poul Skadhede’s LinkedIn profile.

Ph.D. and award-winning entrepreneur Sahra-Josephine Hjorth has spent the past six years creating analog and digital, social learning experiences with groundbreaking results. She is the co-founder and CEO of the first of its kind, namely the learning experience platform The LAB. In addition, Sahra-Josephine is also co-founder and CEO of the EdTech company CanopyLAB.

View more on Sahra-Josephine Hjort’s LinkedIn profile.

Shomit Ghose is a long-time Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneur and investor.  He has been part of multiple successful exits both as an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist, and has served on many startup boards of directors. Shomit is a Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering, is an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco’s School of Management, and serves as entrepreneurial advisor to the University of California – Riverside.

Shomit’s data-centric vision of the future has helped lead ONSET’s investments in software. Prior to entering venture capital, he was a startup software entrepreneur for 19 years. Shomit’s startup roles included three highly successful IPOs as SVP of Operations at Tumbleweed Communications; VP of Worldwide Services at BroadVision; and software engineer at Sun Microsystems. He was also CEO and board member of ONSET portfolio company, Truviso, for two years leading to its acquisition by Cisco Systems.

Since 2001, Shomit has represented ONSET on the boards of Adara, HyperGrid, Imanis Data, Pancetera (acquired by Quantum), Polymorph, Truviso, Vidder and Vindicia (acquired by Amdocs.)

At the age of 15, Shomit was awarded two academic scholarships to the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a degree in Computer Science. He serves on the advisory boards of UC Berkeley College of Engineering’s Sutardja Center, Innovation Center Denmark’s ScaleIT program, and the Lundbeck Foundation Clinical Research Fellowship Program.

View more on Shomit Ghose’s LinkedIn profile.

Tommy Andersen is Managing Partner at byFounders, an early-stage venture fund investing in the next generation of globally minded technology- and impact startups. byFounders is backed by a large group of accomplished entrepreneurs and strive to be the preferred choice for early-stage VC funding.

Prior to his work at byFounders Tommy was an ambitious serial tech entrepreneur and have successfully co-founded and exited three companies, including Libratone and Embedit, as well as built an extensive portfolio of angel investments individually and as part of the angel collective Nordic Makers.

View more on Tommy Andersen’s LinkedIn profile.

Uwe has a background from the branded consumer business. His experience ranges from marketing and professional function management to roles as CEO and as Chairman/Member of the Board. As responsible for business operations across national borders and business cultures, he has built up a great deal of insight into how to develop and optimize business models, leverage organizations and both sell and buy companies.

In 2016 he founded Birkkjær Advisory. Birkkjær Advisory helps companies to establish the shortcut to achieve their goals. They recruit members for professional Advisory and Experience Board, and they facilitate board meetings. Uwe has a deep insight to recruit the right people with the relevant skills and who fits to the company’s culture.

View more on Uwe Brinkkjær’s LinkedIn profile.

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