What’s your job title and what do you do during a typical day at work?
I’m a public affairs advisor, mainly to the Heating Segment here in Danfoss – so I am very involved in energy-efficient and low-carbon city development when it comes to the heating and cooling of buildings, called district energy, and the energy efficiency of buildings.
My job involves meeting with many different people – stakeholders ranging from ministers and mayors to engineers and representatives from other businesses. Overall, I work with policy frameworks and agenda setting.
The great part of my job is that there is no such thing as a typical day. This is something that makes Danfoss and my position very unique, fun and challenging at the same time. We have a very entrepreneurial culture, so proactivity, creativity and can-do spirit are very valued in the organisation.
Concretely, I could draft a speech for one of the top management for a conference in Berlin, Brussels or New York, write a concept paper on city development or meet with politicians, mayors or city developers in one of the hubs in Europe, China or the US.
Danfoss recently participated in the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Forum in New York and we discussed district energy with civil servants from all over the globe.
What’s the best thing about working at Danfoss?
There is a very entrepreneurial culture and an emphasis on teamwork. My team is great; we have so many different backgrounds. We have French, German, Danish, Canadian and Australian-Danish team members here in Nordborg [in south Jutland].
There are also great development opportunities. I think this partly comes from leaders who really want you to make a difference in your work and in having an impact with what you are doing. The culture makes you do more, since you can be proactive and get many responsibilities at the same time – so for instance, I prepared the speaking material for my boss recently, and I ended up giving the speech myself!
Another good example is that I get immediate feedback after conferences, as the top management is very close to the business, so they never spare an opportunity to thank us.
What’s the best thing about working in Denmark?
Here in Denmark – even though we still have a long way to go for gender equality in the workplace, as we can see from the top leaders at the main Danish companies – I feel that it doesn’t matter whether you are young or female.
What matters is what you can do. People will give you a chance to prove yourself, and once you deliver: voila! You will get the responsibility and development opportunities you deserve.
I also very much admire the Danish quality of thinking critically and questioning solutions or things that have always been done in a certain way.
What makes you proud at work?
It makes me very proud to work for a company that really makes a difference to society – if we would all use, for instance, district energy as a concept or use the excess heat from supermarkets or data centres and reuse energy, we could do so much for the climate and society – and this is what we stand for. I am proud to go out to the world and tell the Danfoss story.
Also, I feel that it is very unique to work at a company that is so Danish while being so global at the same time. The second country Danfoss opened in back in the day was Argentina. I can start the week in Nordborg and finish in Beijing via Brussels – this gives you a feeling of being rooted and therefore achieving more with less.
