Novo Holdings to make changes to its Board of Directors

Novo Holdings plans to elect Lars Green, former CFO of Novozymes (now Novonesis), as Chair of its Board of Directors and Britt Meelby Jensen, CEO of Ambu, as Vice Chair. Lars Rebien Sørensen will step down as Chair.

Lars Green has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the healthcare and life science industries.

He joined Novo Nordisk in 1992 and has held various financial leadership positions in the company, including regional CFO roles in Japan and North America, before joining Executive Management in 2017. In 2019, Lars Green joined Novozymes (Novonesis) where he served as CFO until the end of 2023.

He became a member of the Board of Novo Holdings earlier this year and is also a member of the Board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. In addition, he holds several other board positions, including as member of the boards of LEO Pharma and H. Lundbeck.

Lars Green will assume the role as Chair after Lars Rebien Sørensen, who has been Chair of Novo Holdings since 2018. Earlier today, the Novo Nordisk Foundation announced that it proposes the election of Lars Rebien Sørensen as Chair of Novo Nordisk A/S for a limited period of time, with the company today calling for an extraordinary general meeting to elect new members to its Board on November 14. In connection with the election, Lars Rebien Sørensen will step down as Chair of Novo Holdings.

Furthermore, Novo Holdings will elect Britt Meelby Jensen as new Vice Chair of the Board. Britt Meelby Jensen has held several leadership positions throughout her career and is currently CEO of Ambu. In 2024, she was voted ‘Leader of the year’ by Lederne, Denmark’s biggest organisation for leaders. She has been a member of the Novo Holdings Board since 2022.

Britt Meelby Jensen will assume the Vice Chair role after Steen Riisgaard who has been Vice Chair since 2018. Steen Riisgaard will remain on the Novo Holdings Board until the expiry of his term in April 2026, at which point he will retire from the Board.

Finally, Henrik Poulsen has decided to step down from the Novo Holdings Board in connection with him stepping down from the Novo Nordisk Board.

Lars Rebien Sørensen, Chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, says: “Lars and Britt are already members of the Board of Novo Holdings and know the company very well. With them at the helm, Novo Holdings is well-positioned to build on its position as a leading global life science investor. I would like to thank Henrik Poulsen for his great efforts on the boards of both Novo Holdings and Novo Nordisk during which time both companies have achieved great results.”

Lars Green says: “I look forward to taking on the responsibility as Chair of Novo Holdings and to work with the rest of the Board, CEO Kasim Kutay, and the rest of the management team on strengthening and expanding the important work of Novo Holdings. Our purpose is to create attractive returns that enable our owner, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, to continue and increase its grant-giving activities to the benefit of people and the planet.”

The planned changes to the Board will come into effect in November 2025.

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk and Novonesis and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. In addition to managing a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seed, Venture, Growth, Planetary Health Investments and Principal Investments teams, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development. As of year-end 2024, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 142 billion.