| Lars Kolind | |
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Non-executive board member:
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Main shareholder:
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Advisory board:
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Writer:
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Awards:
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| Personal details | |
| Born | May 5, 1947 |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Alma mater | Aarhus University |
| Website | kolindkuren.dk |
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Lars Kolind (born May 5 1947) is a Danish entrepreneur, author, adjunct professor, non-executive board member, and group chairman of Grundfos. Kolind holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics from Aarhus University from 1972 and a B.Comm. from the Copenhagen Business School from 1977. He is adjunct professor of leadership and strategy at Aarhus University Business School (Aarhus School of Business) since 2000. Kolind was executive vice president of Risoe National Laboratory 1981-84 and Chief Operating Officer of Radiometer A/S 1984-88.
For ten years (1988–1998) Kolind served as Group CEO for William Demant Holding A/S, which owns hearing aid manufacturer Oticon. Kolind carried through a financial turnaround of Oticon 1988-90 and in 1991 Kolind transformed the company by designing and implementing the so-called Spaghetti Organization, which has been featured as one of the first knowledge-based, almost paperless organisations in the world. The new organisation led to a 100% increase in sales and profit before tax grew from DKK 2 M in 1991 to DKK 136 M in 1995. Kolind left William Demant Holding in 1998. Kolind’s work in Oticon has been featured in numerous articles and books including Tom Peters “Liberation Management” 1993 and Per Thygesen Poulsen’s “Think the Unthinkable” (in Danish: Tænk det Utænkelige) 1993. Upon Kolinds departure from Oticon professor Mette Morsing from the Copenhagen Business School edited the book “Managing the Unmanagable for a Decade” 1998.
Since 1998 Kolind has served as non-executive board member of K.J.Jacobs AG, Grundfos, Poul Due Jensens Fond, Unimerco Group, Zealand Pharma, LinKS and Wemind. In 2000 he started PreVenture A/S, a venture capital firm, which was managed by BankInvest. PreVenture owned Retail Internet A/S, Yellowtel A/S, Isabella Smith A/S and KeepFocus A/S and was dissolved in 2009. Today Kolind is majority shareholder in KeepFocus A/S and Wemind A/S through his personal holding company Kolind A/S. The Kolind family also owns Løndal Østerskov A/S, which is the owner of the Løndal and Addithus Estates in Denmark. Kolind is chairman of the supervisory board of Kristeligt Dagblad A/S and a member of the advisory board of Danske Bank.
In 2000 Kolind published the book “Vidensamfundet – Dagsorden for Danmark I det 21. århundrede” (The Knowledge Society – Agenda for Denmark in the 21st Century – in Danish). In 2006 Kolind wrote “The Second Cycle – Winning the War against Bureaucracy” published by Wharton School Publishing. The book has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Swedish and Danish.
On May 7, 2007 Kolind announced that he had supported the newly formed party “Ny Alliance” with a donation of DKK 100.000 hoping that he could help establish a new political agenda for Denmark in relation to the increased competition from low-wage countries, the environmental challenge and the future for Danish culture.
At the November 2007 parliamentary election, Kolind ran for Ny Alliance in the Fyn region. In the campaign Kolind illustrated the advantages of a national 40 percent flat tax by thinking the unthinkable that such a tax would only apply for the Fyn region. The party leaders wrongly misinterpreted Kolind’s illustrative example to be a concrete proposal which was not in accordance with the politics of the party. The confusion created doubt among voters. Kolind was not elected, but he openly continued to actively support the party.
Kolind served as associate professor of economics and planning theory at the Copenhagen University 1977–1982. In 1993 he received the national IT-Prize (IT-prisen) and in 1996 the National Management Prize. The same year Kolind was awarded the title “Man of the Year” and in 1998 “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” (Årets Ildsjæl). In 1998 Kolind co-founded The National Competency Council (Kompetencerådet) where he led the establishment of The Danish National Competency Accounts 1999. Together with Minister for Social Affairs Karen Jespersen Kolind founded The National Network for Social Cohesion in 1996 and The Copenhagen Centre for Social Cohesion in 1998. In 2000 Kolind co-founded The National Council for Children and Culture. Since 2007 Kolind has been chairman of the board of the World Scout Foundation and since 2009 member of the World Scout Committee. Kolind has received the highest international award of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, The Bronze Wolf and the Boy Scouts of America Silver World Award and Kolind is a member of the Baden-Powell World Fellowship. Kolind is a knight of the order of the Dannebrog and member of the Danish Academy for the Technical Sciences.