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Vibeke Svenden has many years of experience in promoting conditions for small businesses.
The Otto Mønsted Foundation welcomes Vibeke Svendsen to the board with effect from 1 January 2022. Vibeke Svendsen is appointed to the board by the Confederation of Danish Industry. The Foundation looks forward to a good collaboration and to drawing on the many experiences Vibeke Svendsen brings with her from her chairmanship of the SME Committee in the Confederation of Danish Industry and other important board assignments in e.g. MUDP (Environmental Technology Development and Demonstration Programme) under the Ministry of the Environment.
“It is a great honour for me to be part of the board of the Otto Mønsted Foundation. The foundation’s main purpose is to contribute to the development of Denmark’s trade and industry, and it has always been my aim with committee and board work to improve conditions for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises in particular,” says Vibeke Svendsen.
The value chain begins with education
For the past 15 years, Vibeke Svenden has worked as CEO and partner in the company Envotherm A/S, which develops technological systems that separate pollution from companies’ wastewater in order to reuse the water in production.
But she doesn’t just have practical experience of running a technology company in the green transition. For the past six years, Vibeke Svendsen has been appointed by the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy to the board of MUDP, which supports the development of new ideas from both small entrepreneurs and multi-year projects with several partners.
“I have been particularly involved in the phase that comes after the skilled engineers and others have been trained. As part of the MUDP board, we have helped them get support, and later in the SME committee at DI, we may have helped the small companies take the next step.
The Otto Mønsted Foundation works specifically with qualifying people who may later apply for support in MUDP and the next steps. “If Denmark wants to stay ahead, I think it’s extremely important that we have opportunities to support new ideas and solutions throughout the value chain. The pace of development is extremely fast, not least in the green transition, digitalisation and optimisation of energy consumption, but we won’t get talented students to develop the solutions if there are no talented teachers. That’s where it all begins, and that’s something the Otto Mønsted Foundation spends a lot of money on ensuring. It can help ensure that Denmark has a leading position in areas such as the green transition.”
The board experience from MUDP has also given Vibeke Svendsen good experience of what types of entrepreneurs and collaborations are successful and how they can be helped. “When applicants are testing an idea, they need to ask the right questions so that the idea can be realised into a product or service,” she explains. Vibeke Svenden’s insight into the different sectors and her economic background has also been an advantage in assessing the originality and financial viability of the applications MUDP has received.
“MUDP is crucial for the development of new products and solutions. Development costs money and it doesn’t always succeed, but the most annoying thing is when projects end up in the drawer because there is no funding for the final part.”