Board Education

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.

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). 

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.

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.

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.

Thomas Overholt Hansen is Director of Business Development at Clio. Apart from serving various boards as Commercial Director Thomas has also himself been the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Danish Edtech association, Edtech Denmark, since 2018. For the past six years, Thomas has held various commercial leadership roles connected to technology and education. Alongside this, Thomas has invested his time and efforts in various start-up companies.

Being a part of the international growth success at Clio Thomas has experienced from the inside a company transforming from a Danish start-up company to an international market leader. A journey that led to a multimillion acquisition and investment.

Thomas holds a degree in marketing communications from Aalborg University and has previously worked at VELUX and in the public transportation sector.

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.

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.

Stephane Guerraz started his career as a financial engineer, then spent more than ten years as a management consultant, helping corporations with digital transformation, transition to agile, organizational reviews and change, and M&A integration. He co-founded a cryptocurrency startup, taught entrepreneurship and investment management at the Langara School of Management in Vancouver, coached teams in business competitions, and on the side, runs personal development workshops. Stephane joined DTU in early 2019, and has been appointed Program Director for the Executive MBA at the end of 2019. Stephane holds an MBA from UC Berkeley in California, a Master in Artificial Intelligence, is a CFA Charterholder and an actuary.

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.

Patricia Ayoub holds a Msc. in Strategic Market Creation from Copenhagen Business School and is trained in business model innovation from St Gallen University’s BMI Lab. Patricia’s experience ranges from business development positions in start-ups to corporate innovation and she has a strong understanding of corporate start-up partnerships. Patricia has previously held a board position at Mash Energy where she represented the corporate investor.