Name: Lene Byskov
Date of birth: 27th of September 1963
Title: Director, Head of People Leadership
Company: Ørsted
Degree: Masters in English and French, Aarhus School of Business
What do you find most interesting about your career and your leadership position?
I thought from the onset that it was important to have an end goal for your career, but I have learned along the way that it has been much more important to be guided by a set of values and overall drivers that can really engage you. All aspects of my career have involved orchestrating colleagues, users and leaders who were not directly in my ‘line’ but who were important to reaching significant goals.
What has been crucial to get you to where you are today?
A sincere belief that you cannot sell what people do not want. And a firm commitment to what is important to me and what is not.
Tell us about a female role model and the impact they had on you – either personally or professionally?
Right now, my female role model is my 6-year-old granddaughter. She asks questions and honestly try to understand and make sense of the answers she receives. She never stops questioning what happens around her and is thoroughly convinced that she is a valuable contribution to the world.
What advice would you give to young female students today?
Go with the topics and issues that are truly engaging to you. Be honest to yourself about how you feel in any situation and never, never stop believing that you are at least as valuable to a situation as everybody around you.
Looking into the future, what role do you think STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education will have?
While Science, Technology, Engineering (Which by the way are many things today) and Mathematics are fundamental pillars of necessary knowledge, I see that going forward interactions, the way we bring our knowledge into play, and how we innovate becomes more and more important. Those who find new ways of putting well-established knowledge into use and question what we believe as given truths will be the ones who really change the world.