ELPIS – Leading Industrial Science

leads the course progress over the 4 days, and invites the participants to analyze and reflect on what to fall back on when your current personal leadership capabilities fail (or are not applicable in the current societal and business developments heavily influenced by political changes and instability, policy re-orientation (from green to dual use), regional armed conflicts driving demands etc.), and with that your ability to ensure an effective and flexible innovation strategy. She addresses how to be resilient in both your personal and team-related leadership and how to address the organizational culture of your company when doing so. What competences ultimately will and can make a difference for you and your company, when you need to gear up for the investments in science and research, and move ahead with vital changes to business strategies and models through the application of technology.

will lead the discussions on how to address the need for radical innovation with deep tech through a combination of cases from both university research startups and company R&D. He will talk about why it is difficult for established companies to incorporate or create the needed space for innovation through technology, and how to overcome these difficulties. He will bring live startup cases from DTU into the room with specific mention of developments through the application of Quantum Computing and Power-to-X.  With his extensive experience from university research and leadership, and his application of business management to research, he will guide the participants into the field of interdisciplinary approaches to advancement of science and research to commercialization.

will ensure the red thread throughout the 4-day course when it comes to understanding the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to leadership, innovation, and technology. He will take point of departure in understanding the convergence of technologies more broadly (The 10 Critical Technologies of the EU), and more specifically, he will address the role of AI in innovating new business models. He will describe why working across industries and through novel ecosystem partnerships is vital to get on top of current societal and political developments. He draws on the most recent examples from across Europe and the US through his close contacts with leading European and US universities and business schools.

will lead the discussions on the rituals of innovation to underline the links between culture and innovation. Drawing on a case study and on recent examples in large companiess, he will show how rituals can enhance innovation (through socialization of people to common values and through continuous learning). He will then invite participants to reflect together on innovation rituals in their organizations (to shed light on a diversity of rituals and relate this diversity to different types of innovation), and to identify ultimately a (new) ritual they could experiment with their team”.

as the Tech Business Keynote Speaker of the course will talk about the business environment for technology companies in Europe. She will address the challenges of navigating the uncertainties in the fast-moving world faced by regional armed conflicts and draws on her own experience from e-connectivity, satellite, and telecom industries across Europe. Through her role in several boards of international groups, such as Vestas Wind Systems, but also of France’s Ecole Polytechnique (l’X), she will address the need for applying a combination of deep knowledge of the technological developments with leadership and management experience in order to understand and analyze the current challenges in the global markets, and thus for staying competitive as a company.

Prof. Anne Hauch originally trained as a chemical engineer at Aarhus university, but moved to DTU for a PhD, where she went on to have a long career has a long in leading university research as a Professor at DTU Energy. Moving to the private sector in 2021, she now shares her experiences from industrial science and research leadership in her specific strategic technology area Power-to-X, and will especially focus on how to make leadership for industrial science matter for green transition in business. Now Senior Manager at Topsoe, Prof. Hauch will give the Keynote Talk “Leading the Green Transition from lab scale R&D to industrial”.

LinkedIn Profile: Anne Hauch

as the Life Science Research and Incubation Keynote Speaker of the course will present the most widely applied business models for startups and spinouts in life sciences (across health tech and biosolutions) and what makes them profitable. With his background in research and life science industry and startups from both the US and Europe, and currently responsible for the advancement of research spinouts from universities into becoming viable commercial solutions in the incubation environment, he will share live cases that can make the participants more knowledgeable about the existing challenges and opportunities to pursue in an interdisciplinary field of incubation and commercialization of life science products, services and solutions.

For more information about BII: We are here for the changemakers.

Stig Andersen is Program Director for the DTU Executive MBA, leading one of Northern Europe’s most forward-looking programs for executive transformation. With over 20 years of leadership experience across entrepreneurship, corporate transformation, and board governance, he has scaled digital ventures, repositioned established brands, and guided organizations through complex change. Stig has a strong entrepreneurial track record — from co-founding and exiting a successful legaltech platform to driving Klarlund’s strategic transformation into a market leader, later acquired by Rolex SA. His work centers on innovation, technology leadership, and developing executives who can create lasting business and societal value.

Dr. Gersel Pedersen is a former Executive VP and Board member (International Clinical Research / Drug Development) of the Danish medical company specialized in diseases of the brain, Lundbeck A/S (2000-2018) as well as former Medical Director of Lilly Research Laboratories in the US/UK (1990-1999). He was a member of the Programme Committee on Industrial PhDs at the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (2001-2020). He currently serves on multiple boards of renowned Danish life science companies GenMap, Bavarian Nordic and Hansa medical, and served in the boards of ALK-ABELLO and Topo Targets. In the course, participants will meet Dr. Gersel Pedersen in Day 4 of the program, where he will provide feedback to the groups and address the necessity for pushing oneself in order to identify opportunities for creating groundbreaking innovation both in products and services.

Global HR Leader with over 20 years of experience driving transformational people strategies across international organizations. As Human Resources VP at Alfa Laval, I specialize in shaping organizational design, fostering cultural change, and optimizing performance for diverse, transnational teams. My expertise spans organizational transformations and mergers, Lean Six Sigma, and talent development always with a focus on aligning HR initiatives with sustainable business growth. Passionate about building resilient, high-performing organizations through strategic leadership.

Mrs. Sander is an experienced business coach both for groups and individuals guiding his/her personal leadership journey at the infliction point of innovation, technology, and business. Berit Sander is running the personal leadership journey for the students at the DTU executive MBA, and as an independent consultant, she facilitates and coaches personal leadership development and advises on academic work where technology and business are addressed together. She will accompany the group during the 4-day course in order to assess the topics related to personal leadership are addressed both in sessions and in group work and peer reflections.  

LinkedIn Profile: Berit Sander