Name: Marie Budtz Pedersen
Title: Senior Director
Company: Energinet
Please introduce yourself
My name is Marie Budtz Pedersen, I’m 39 years old and I hold a MSc in Economics and Finance (Cand oecon). I love old Victorian gardens and see them everywhere I travel.
How did you imagine your career when you were around 20 years old?
When I was 20 years old I was doing nonprofit work in Africa and I always imagined that I would use my skills in a way that really mattered for a lot of people. Solely ensuring returns to shareholders has never really meant anything to me, I am driven by the greater purpose.
What does a day in your life look like in your current role?
I have around 4 till 10 meetings every day. Some meetings are about coaching and giving directions, others are steering group meetings, Management meetings, board meetings, etc. Common for them all are topics about planning, prioritizing and strategic decision making.
In the early mornings, late afternoon and evenings I read all the meeting materials, and I read and answer a lot of emails every day.
I often take a half or a whole day out of the calendar where I take time to reflect and consider where we are and where we are going.
What motivates and excites you the most about your career path and the leadership position you hold?
I am motivated by using my skills and my time on something that can make a difference. Either a difference for the people who work in the organization, it can be helping to develop their potential or ensuring their quality of life. Or a difference for the green transformation of the energy sector. The climate motivates me, and it has been on my agenda for many years. I am passionate about creating solutions and pushing in the right direction, so that we can reverse climate change before it becomes way too late.
Share with us the biggest lessons you learned on your journey to where you are today.
If you are passionate and persistent you can almost do everything you want. Career is a little about luck and a lot about hard work and well preparedness.
Tell us about a role model who inspired you to become the leader you are today.
Signe Horn, Senior Vice President at Tech & Innovation at Energinet, inspired me to be my authentic self. She saw my strength and weakness so clearly and taught me to use my reflected best self. She is an inspiration because she manages to show vulnerability and honesty while at the same time showing authority and a clear path for the organization and everyone around her.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, or to other young female students today, what would it be?
You don’t have to be the best at everything. I have always had an inner critic and this constant self-criticism has been a factor of anxiety and stress. We have internalized the idea that if we make mistakes, we are not worthy. The problem is simply that anxiety is not a sustainable driver and perfectionism inhibits action. My best advice is to continuously overcome the anxious critic in one’s own head.
How do you see STEM education shaping the future?
STEM skills are crucial in the green transition, as they, among other things, can support the dual digital and green transition, which both the business world and the public sector need for the construction of the green infrastructure.
Overall, it is and will be a societal challenge to get enough skilled hands and heads to lift the green transition. Denmark is lagging behind in training a sufficient number of people with STEM skills, which can make it difficult to fulfil the high green Danish ambitions.
Why is it important for you to promote diversity and inclusion within STEM?
It is important because it is a prerequisite for creating change and ensuring continued relevance.
We must ensure greater diversity, both human and professional, in economic research and political development, this applies to more younger economists and female economists. My experience tells me that male economists are largely attracted by the mathematics in the models, whereas female economists are good at observations and empirics and have a greater sense of detail.
Christina Lagarde put it this way at World Economic Forum this year “Today the world needs economic research based on empirical evidence – what happens in the real world – rather than abstract mathematical models”
In other words, we need creative contributions to economic research that are based on fundamental societal questions, such as how do we ensure a sustainable future for our planet? What does people’s dissatisfaction mean for our future economy? Etc. This rather than continuing with simplified doctrinal models.
When it is the same type of people who make decisions, who have gone to the same schools, live in the same neighbourhoods, are the same age, how can you expect new thinking and real debate? If we do not change, but continue this groupthink, it will have incalculable consequences for the world we know today.