DENMARK – Chr. Hansen Holding, a global bio science company, has appointed Lise Skaarup Mortensen as new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Lise is an experienced international leader with a strong track-record and a passion for leadership who joins from a position as CFO at Microsoft Germany.

Lise will start at Chr. Hansen on October 1, 2020, after which there will be a short transition period until current CFO Søren Westh Lonning leaves, expected by the end of October. Lise will join the Executive Board after the transition period is completed.

“I am very pleased that we have found in Lise the right CFO for Chr. Hansen. Lise has very relevant international experience, high performance aspirations and a great leadership track record. Coming from the software and digital services industry, Lise will be well-positioned to help Chr. Hansen and our teams further develop our digital, data analytics and productivity agenda,” CEO Mauricio Graber said.

“Lise is ambitious and purpose driven, which makes her a great cultural fit to the organization. Moreover, I feel confident that her vast international experience will enable her to bring even more diversity of thought to our corporate leadership team. I am looking forward to welcoming Lise to Chr. Hansen.”

The 52-year-old Lise has a strong financial background with many years of experience in large international companies and has for the past eight years been with Microsoft in international senior managerial positions in India and Germany.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Lise has held senior level positions within the fields of finance and strategy at IBM, AP Moller-Maersk and BG Bank.

“Chr. Hansen has a great reputation and I feel honored to join such a respected Danish company. Becoming part of a team that enables compelling business opportunities grounded in the relevance of natural ingredients in today’s world – and with strong focus on sustainability – is a privilege. I look forward to getting to know my new colleagues and contribute to the future growth journey of Chr. Hansen,” said Lise.

Lise is a Danish national, currently living in Munich. She will relocate back to Denmark to take up this position. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration & Economics from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Chr. Hansen is a leading, global bioscience company that develops natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

It develops and produces cultures, enzymes, probiotics and natural colors for a rich variety of foods, confectionery, beverages, dietary supplements and even animal feed and plant protection.

Their product innovation is based on around 40,000 microbial strains – they like to refer to them as ‘good bacteria’. Their solutions enable food manufacturers to produce more with less – while also reducing the use of chemicals and other synthetic additives – which make their products highly relevant in today’s world.

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