Malou Aamund receives the ‘Women's Board Award 2023’

By Sofia Hjort Lönegård

On Friday 3 February, Malou Aamund received the ‘Women's Board Award 2023’, which was presented by H.K.H. The Crown Princess of Denmark and head of the jury Lars Rasmussen, in front of 200 guests.

‘Women's Board Award' calls for more diversity on boards, and strives to recognise the best female board members who have the potential to hold the board chair position in larger companies. MU is a proud partner of the award together with Nykredit, Deloitte, and Djof.

As a board member, Malou Aamund has experience in digital transformation, sustainability and cyber security in private equity, family-owned and listed companies. Her career includes international management positions within the IT and Tech industry, at Microsoft and IBM, and most recently as Google's Danish director since 2016. Malou Aamund has also been active in politics and is a member of the Danish Parliament. Malou Aamund recently chose a full-time board career and is today a board member of DSV, Kirkbi, WSAudiology and the Lego Foundation.

Malou Aamund

I am very grateful and proud to receive the award. It's been half a year since I left a CEO career to go full-time with board work, and I'm looking forward to spending all my time getting European companies to the forefront of innovation and value creation in a world of increased geopolitical unrest and rising inequality, which challenge the boards.

It is a jury of experienced board leaders who have chosen Malou Aamund as recipient of the Women's Board Award 2023, with jury leader Lars Rasmussen at the helm:

Lars Rasmussen

Malou Aamund especially receives the award because she shows that there are many paths to the boardroom. The important thing about board work is to have experience that is relevant to the company's situation, and Malou has gained her experience precisely by choosing more broadly than most in their career choices. This makes her to a great extent an inspiring role model and a really good representative of the striking diversity we see when we in the jury evaluate the candidates.

Malou Aamund is the ninth recipient of the Women's Board Award in Denmark. She has been selected from an extensive pool of female board members who are ready to take up a position as chairman, and with their skills, ambitions and personal appearance, are role models for future board leaders.

As a search partner for WBA in Denmark MU has been a trusted advisor for the jury in selecting the nominated candidates as well as the winner of the award.

A thorough and inclusive search process was conducted based on specific criteria set by the jury. This led to a long list of 35 relevant candidates whereof the jury selected the top 3 candidates for an in-depth leadership assessment interview as well as reference taking. Based on the outcome of the assessment the jury interviewed the 3 candidates and chose the winner. In addition, a list of 10 highly qualified candidates was selected and contacted in order to be positioned as nominated candidates for the award 2023.

MU is a proud partner of the ‘Women's Board Award’, as we consider it important to contribute to strengthening businesses, and organisations based on a modern and competence-based view of leadership. Through our partnership with the WBA, we want to help identify talent and skills that exceed expectations. Mercuri Urval has been a partner of the WBA in Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden for several years.

The diversity problem in the conventional executive recruitment and development

Extensive and repeated research studies show that conventional methods and ideas in executive recruitment and development very often lead to failure. The problem with achieving results in the conventional model of executive recruitment stems from incorrect predictions about which leaders will succeed when hired.

These problems arise if, for example, searches in an already existing network, or has a predetermined image of a leader and its characteristics, which is exclusionary. In addition, it is common to simply hire someone who you like, or who has attributes that you appreciate. There are thus major challenges in successfully hiring the right person in a leadership position in cases where an inclusive and scientific selection method is not part of the recruitment process.

Mercuri Urval (MU) works with a scientific method to minimize these risks

An inclusive and scientifically proven selection method contributes to Mercuri Urval being able to assess with high validity whether the leader will achieve the organisation's desired results in the short and long term. More than 90% of the managers appointed after our recommendations meet or exceed expectations.

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