“I will always be the one who worked at Novo Nordisk”

Do you need a razor-sharp career plan as a young graduate if you want to become CEO of Denmark’s largest Life Science company?

No.

At least not if your name is Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.

In the spring of 1991, Lars had one exam left before completing his MSc in Economics and Business Administration at Aarhus School of Business. At the time, unemployment among newly graduated economists was high, and students were told they would need to send 100 applications to get 10 interviews – and perhaps be lucky enough to land one job.

So even though Lars had not yet finished his degree, he started applying for jobs.

He bought the Sunday edition of Aarhus Stiftstidende and went through the job listings. Four graduate positions matched his profile.

One at Bikuben, one at Baltica, one at Unibank – and the last one at Novo Nordisk.

Lars sent off four applications. Even though competition for the positions was intense, he was invited to interviews at all four companies.

He especially remembers the interview at Novo Nordisk. He took the train from Aarhus to Copenhagen, then boarded the S-train to Bagsværd, walked up Krogshøjsvej and met Inger Jansson for the first interview.

It went well. So did the second and third interviews.

The recruitment processes at Bikuben, Baltica and Unibank moved more slowly, so when Lars was offered the Novo job with a starting salary of 23,297 DKK, he accepted without hesitation.

It turned out to be a very good decision.

The job became the starting point of an extraordinary career in the pharmaceutical company – but it also changed Lars’ personal life completely.

At the same time as Lars started in the graduate programme, a pharmacist joined a parallel graduate programme. Her name was Lotte, and today she is Lars’ wife.

“I got a job, I fell in love, and I got married. It was the full package,” Lars says today.

“I got a job, I fell in love, and I got married. It was the full package."

Do you ever think about what might have happened if you had not got the job at Novo Nordisk, but one of the other three jobs you applied for back in 1991?

“I think I am the kind of person who would probably have settled in well elsewhere too. So if I had started in the financial sector, I think I would also have been happy there,” Lars says before continuing:

“But I started at Novo Nordisk, and I landed in a company with a very clear purpose. Producing medicine for people living with chronic disease is meaningful work, and once that gets under your skin, it is difficult to let go.”

Over the years, Lars has received job offers from other companies, but it has always been easy to say no.

He never felt the urge to leave the Life Science industry or the company where he could make a difference every single day.

“I have also been privileged throughout my career because I was constantly given new challenges. Something new was always happening, so I stayed motivated. Usually, new opportunities came along before I had grown tired of what I was doing,” Lars says.

“It does not happen by itself”

And let us take a closer look at Lars’ long career at Novo Nordisk. You probably already know it ended in the summer of 2025, when he was dismissed as CEO – and now you also know it began with a graduate position in 1991. But what happened in between?

In short: quite a lot.

During the 34 years Lars spent at Novo Nordisk, he held 10 different roles. He was stationed in the Netherlands, the United States and Japan, and along the way he was responsible for thousands of employees.

Even though Lars never followed a rigid career plan, none of it simply fell into his lap.

It required hard work, and although impressive job titles were never his biggest motivation, it would be wrong to say they did not matter to him as he progressed through the ranks.

"You do not have the kind of career I have had if you are not ambitious.”

“It would be easy to say it did not matter, but it did. You do not have the kind of career I have had if you are not ambitious,” he says.

“And that means you have delivered results and, at times, set aside some of your own needs. It does not happen by itself.”

Growing up on the farm in Skals

It has always been important for Lars to challenge himself. New tasks gave him energy, and he often ended up in roles where he was responsible for things he had never done before.

At one point, for example, he moved to the United States to finalise the budget for the company’s new factory in North Carolina. He found himself buried in bills of materials and details he had never worked with before – and with a sharp deadline ahead, there was only one way forward.

“I remember sitting alone at the factory one Saturday trying to make everything fit together,” Lars says.

“At moments like that, your learning curve becomes incredibly steep. But once you get through it and complete the task, you think: ‘That was fantastic. I really learned something there.’”

Lars is convinced that the way you grow up has a major influence on how you handle challenges.

What do you feel when you suddenly become responsible for something you have never tried before? Do you panic? Freeze? Or take a deep breath and find a solution?

Lars is the kind of person who does the latter.

And according to him, that largely comes from his upbringing on the family farm in Skals, just outside Viborg.

Lars grew up there with his twin sister and parents, who ran the farm. His grandfather, who had previously owned the farm, still lived there, and the small family community provided a safe and stable foundation for the twins.

When his father went to work, he simply crossed the courtyard to tend to the animals, and at lunchtime he came inside to eat with the family.

It was a secure environment, and at the same time it was completely natural that everyone in the family helped out on the farm. Responsibilities were part of everyday life, and everyone was expected to contribute.

“When I started upper secondary school, it was right in the middle of harvest season. That meant I did not have time for homework because when I came home from school, I had to help with the harvest,” Lars explains.

“When I started upper secondary school, it was right in the middle of harvest season. That meant I did not have time for homework."

“You cannot escape responsibility.”

Even though the work on the farm was an obligation, Lars enjoyed helping. His parents always showed confidence in his ability to handle the tasks he was given – including the unexpected problems that appeared along the way.

Once, he was spreading manure in the fields when a tyre on the trailer suddenly punctured. He went to his father and said the tyre was flat. His father looked at him and replied: “Why are you telling me?”

Lars understood exactly what that meant. He had to solve the problem himself.

So he removed the wheel, drove it to the blacksmith to have it repaired, came home, put it back on the trailer and continued spreading manure in the field.

“Many times in my life I have stood in situations where I thought: ‘What am I supposed to do? I have never tried this before, so I cannot possibly know how.’ But when you grow up around parents who say: ‘I trust you to figure it out,’ you grow with the task,” Lars says.

“You learn that it is actually okay for things to seem incredibly difficult when you start something unfamiliar. Because if you study the situation carefully and maybe make a plan before you begin, you almost always succeed.”

Today, Lars sometimes reflects on what it means that many parents now overprotect their children.

“I sometimes think the world we live in demands a great deal of resilience. And it is important to develop that resilience while growing up,” he says.

“If parents constantly make decisions for their children or remove the things that build resilience, they probably feel they are helping them. But in reality, it may leave them less resilient once they enter adult life, where their parents are no longer there.”

Lecturer Kå and business school

Although growing up on the farm was safe and Lars enjoyed working outdoors, he never dreamed of following in his father’s or grandfather’s footsteps.

He wanted to learn more and was curious about the world. At first, he considered becoming an engineer or an architect. In many ways, it was an extension of the practical work he already knew from the farm. You could see that what you created became something tangible.

But during upper secondary school, Lars changed direction.

It is the classic story of an extraordinary teacher who leaves a lasting impression and opens a student’s eyes to new perspectives.

In Lars’ case, the teacher was called Lecturer Kå.

An older, distinctive gentleman of the old school, who always taught in the same classroom on the third floor of Viborg Cathedral School. Other teachers moved between classrooms, but Lecturer Kå had his own dedicated room.

There, he taught history, and Lars – who studied mathematics and physics – discovered through economic history and the Lorenz curve that mathematics and data analysis could also be used to understand society.

“I had not chosen social sciences because I was not really the debating, political type. I was more interested in data and models. But in Lecturer Kå’s classes, I realised you could actually use mathematics and data to explain society,” Lars says.

“He spoke directly to my curiosity about how society works, and that is why I chose business school instead of engineering or architecture after upper secondary school.”

“It is important to be yourself”

From there, the story is well known. Lars joined Novo Nordisk, and his career accelerated quickly.

For many years, leadership has been Lars’ core discipline, and he has always been very aware of what his role is – and what it is not.

"If you only say what sounds right but do not truly mean it, then it is not authentic, and you will not bring employees with you."

“As CEO, you can choose to interfere in everything and everyone else’s work, but that is not particularly smart. On the other hand, there are things only a CEO can do. It is about setting direction and making decisions when things are unclear,” he says.

“You need to be able to make difficult decisions – and just as importantly, communicate them.”

Communication is the key to being a good leader, Lars believes. You need to explain why the company does what it does and what the strategy is. But it is also about showing who you are as a person, he emphasises.

“It is important to be yourself. To be authentic. If you only say what sounds right but do not truly mean it, then it is not authentic, and you will not bring employees with you,” Lars says.

People quickly see through you if you are what Lars calls “a bandit in a suit” – and if you are a bandit, becoming CEO is probably a bad idea.

The fact that Novo Nordisk’s values overlapped with Lars’ own values made it easy for him to be himself in the role.

“It is about decency, for example, and about actually doing what we say we will do. Those are both my values and Novo Nordisk’s values. So every time I was promoted, I felt I could become even more myself. In many ways, being CEO was the easiest role because I could be 100% myself.”

During his time as CEO, Lars spent a great deal of time holding employee meetings where he shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics. It was important to him to be clear and communicate openly.

Employees always knew where they stood with you?

“Yes, I hope so.”

Interested in other people

The clear communication and straightforward leadership clearly resonated with many Novo Nordisk employees. That became evident in May 2025, when it was announced that Lars would no longer continue as CEO of the company.

Employees gathered and applauded as he walked down the stairs at headquarters, and when he said his final goodbye in August, he received a standing ovation after his farewell speech.

“I do not think I fully realised how much I had meant to so many people until my departure was announced,” Lars says.

“I do not think I fully realised how much I had meant to so many people until my departure was announced."

Over the past year, he has received countless messages from people he has met throughout his career and left a strong impression on. Lars always approached new people with genuine curiosity – regardless of whether the person in front of him was a receptionist or a president.

“I am interested in other people,” he says before continuing:

“So on the day people applauded, it felt as though everything I had tried to give to others came back to me. It made all those years of going to work feel meaningful – even though I was stepping away. It was very emotional.”

”Lars is Lars”

Even though Lars reached the very top of the Novo hierarchy during his years at the company, he made a conscious effort to stay grounded.

It was – and still is – important to him that he remains “just” Lars.

“I genuinely feel I have been myself the entire way through. And I hope people who have known me for many years would say: Lars is Lars.”

Empathetic, present, honest, polite and decent are some of the words people repeatedly use to describe the former CEO.

He recognises himself in those descriptions, but to him they are not extraordinary qualities. They are simply ordinary human values, as he puts it.

So, what can push the calm man from Jutland over the edge? What makes him angry?

“I tend to be honest and show vulnerability, and one thing that can really upset me is when people take advantage of that,” Lars says.

“I tend to be honest and show vulnerability, and one thing that can really upset me is when people take advantage of that."

He can also become impatient and irritated if he gives others space, listens carefully, and the other person does not know when to stop talking.

“Then I can go from having a very long fuse to a very short one quite quickly. And people are sometimes surprised that I can become very tough.”

For example, once the former CEO has made a decision, he rarely changes his mind. Continuing to argue for something else is usually a bad idea.

“There is nothing to gain from it – apart from seeing me get angry, and that is not enjoyable for anyone.”

Not for yourself either, I imagine?

“No, because I lose a bit of control – and then you say things you should not have said, and things become too black and white. It is not pleasant.”

Slowly letting go of Novo Nordisk

Even though it has almost been a year since Lars left Novo Nordisk, he still says “we” when talking about the company. He wore the Novo cap for so long that it became part of his identity.

“The company has gradually become more distant, but I will always be the one who worked at Novo Nordisk,” he says.

He is grateful that he did not leave overnight when his dismissal was announced in May. He continued working until August – and although it was a slightly strange period because people knew he was about to leave, it was comforting to finish properly and say goodbye at his own pace.

“I think it would have been traumatic if that day in May had been my final working day. If I had simply handed over my key and left. But by August, I felt ready to stop,” he says.

Was it a relief to let go of the responsibility?

“For many years, I worked every single day. I think I was fairly good at switching off, but within seconds I could go from being off duty to being back at work if something happened,” Lars says before continuing:

"Within seconds I could go from being off duty to being back at work."

“Every morning when I woke up, I had to check what had happened in the United States. Whether the president had said something overnight. It is a relief not to have to do that anymore – although of course I still follow what is happening.”

When people leave a company with a dismissal letter in hand, they rarely remain closely connected to the business afterwards.

That is also true for Lars.

He does not stop by the office for coffee or a casual chat, but he does not really miss it either.

“I know many other CEOs who have stepped down, and they all say more or less the same thing: once you leave, you close the door. What you did disappears surprisingly quickly – meetings, decisions and daily responsibilities – so when you are no longer part of it, there is not really anything concrete to do if you show up.”

Bye bye, jet lag

Life looks quite different for Lars today. He suddenly has time for practical tasks at home, and he is the one arranging service appointments for the heat pump.

Recently, Lars travelled to Berlin for a meeting, and on the way home he took the train instead of flying. Something he would never have had time for as CEO, but something he is happy to spend a day on now.

He has only experienced jet lag once since leaving Novo Nordisk – something that used to be part of everyday life – and in general he takes far better care of his body than before.

He gets enough sleep and exercises five days a week. Tennis, spinning, yoga and sessions with a personal trainer. It gives him energy, and as he says himself, sport is “great fun”.

Lars has always been introverted, and while working as CEO it was important for him to build small breaks into the day where he could pause, get some fresh air and recharge before returning as a better version of himself.

He tried to protect those breaks, but there is no denying that a top-level role like his takes a toll on the body. Now he finally has time to breathe again.

“I am deeply inspired by my family”

Lars has decided that he does not want to become a CEO again. He wants to do something different.

For now, he has become Chair of Healthcare Denmark, where his role is to help the Danish Life Science industry succeed as a whole.

At the same time, he has started investing in regenerative agriculture.

“I have had a very meaningful working life."

“I have had a very meaningful working life. I no longer have a full-time job, but I still want to do something meaningful.”

You are in a very privileged position, and you could easily choose to disappear from the spotlight and live a comfortable life. Do you feel an obligation to use both your time and money to make a positive difference?

“No, I do not feel obligated at all. I feel inspired by others. It is not something that simply came from inside my own head,” Lars says before continuing:

“I am deeply inspired by my family and how they experience the world. I learn an incredible amount from my wife and children and the way they think.”

One thing is that he can make a difference through the money he has. But he is also aware that his voice carries influence.

“If I say something, many people listen. So hopefully I can help point towards different ways of doing things.”

It is a slightly cliché question, but what would you like to be remembered for?

“That is a good question. I have never really thought about it,” Lars says.

He falls silent, reflects for a moment, looks out of the window and continues:

“It is difficult to say just one thing. But I suppose it would be decency. That I tried to do things as well as possible and in the right way.”

You should contribute with what you can and make an effort – and if you do that, it is enough, he adds.

That does not mean Lars has never doubted himself. There have been many situations where he faced enormous challenges and felt anxious.

For example, when he testified before the United States Senate in September 2024. He could definitely feel the nerves. He shared his concerns with his wife, and she immediately replied: “Listen, afterwards you always think it went brilliantly. This time will be no different.”

And she was right. Once again, Lars was reminded that doubt can be used constructively.

“If you do not have doubt, you also do not have the energy or motivation to prepare. If you think you can do everything and never doubt yourself, I think you will occasionally be caught off guard. But I have always doubted myself enough to sit down and prepare properly, so I was ready,” he says.

“If you do not have doubt, you also do not have the energy or motivation to prepare."

“And I think that approach made it possible for me to live with the responsibility.”

We cannot control everything, but if you have prepared thoroughly and done your best, then the dice have been cast. Sometimes you roll a six, other times a one.

You win some, you lose some. But if you behave with decency along the way, Lars is convinced things will work out in the end.