Niels Gravgaard Laursen, 44, Department Director, Finance Department.
“Our great challenge at the moment is to maintain the efforts we have made in Africa these last years and to attract further interest for investments in Africa among Danish companies. Africa is perceived as a difficult region but looking at the present growth rates in a number of the African economies there is a positive trend”, says Department Director Niels Gravgaard Laursen. “In my view the Funds are an brilliant invention. We help the developing countries through establishment of sustainable companies and at the same time we assist Danish companies entering the new fast growing markets. This is a good way to do things because it is mutually beneficial. At the same time we are self-financing and thus we make the investments at no cost for the tax payers.”
Niels is originally a civil engineer; however his interest in economics was sufficiently strong to induce him to study economic subjects while at DTU (the Technological University of Denmark) and the interest remained. “My tasks in the Funds are varied, but of course the most important is to ensure that our finances are well looked after and to ensure that we always have the necessary cash flow at the right time for our investments. This means that we must keep watch over the expected cash flow for more than 300 projects. In the department we also work on valuating our investments both for the benefit of our own accounts and in connection with sale of shares. We invest in unquoted companies in developing countries and valuating the value is not always easy. These things are exciting and challenging”, says Niels.
Employment in the FundsSince April 1996.
Mini CV:MSc. engineering. After some time with Grundfos Niels was employed as Finance Officer in the Funds in 1996. In the beginning he was employed to develop and adapt the Funds' financial system. Later Niels was Accounts Manager and now he is Department Director of the Finance Department. The present areas of responsibility are finance, accounts and a number of administrative tasks, including especially HRM.