Lise Kingo

Lise Kingo, born in 1961, began her career in 1986 in business-to-business advertising at JP Bureau in Copenhagen and joined Novo Nordisk in 1988, where she remained for 26 years. She served as Chief of Staff, Executive Vice President, and member of the Executive Management team since 2002, where she was instrumental in defining Novo Nordisk’s sustainable business strategy. Prior to 2002, she held various positions in NovoZymes, Novo Holding, and Novo Nordisk, including in Internal Audit, Compliance, People & Organization, Branding, and Sustainability.

In 2015, she was appointed CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, uniting businesses to create a better world through universal principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Since June 2020, she has been an Independent Board Director at Sanofi SA in France; Chair of the Advisory Board of the “Blueprint for Denmark” Initiative; member of the Advisory Board for Humanitarian Development at the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Denmark, and Chair of the Leonardo Centre at Imperial College in London, United Kingdom. She is a former visiting professor at the Medical Faculty, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and a longstanding member of HRH Prince of Wales, Cambridge University Advisory Board for Sustainability Leadership, London, United Kingdom. She has received numerous awards, most recently the Thomson Reuters Responsible Business Honoree Award 2020.

Lise Kingo holds a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Ancient Greek Art from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Economics from the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and a master’s degree in Responsibility & Business from the University of Bath, United Kingdom. Furthermore, Lise Kingo is certified as a director by INSEAD in France. Throughout her career, she has held positions in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, and the United States.