Børge Diderichsen retires: Professor, PhD, Vice President, Novo Nordisk – and a co-founder of ScanBalt

Børge Diderichsen has chosen to retire by December 31 2017, after 37 years at Novo Nordisk.

He was from the very beginning a strong supporter for strenghtened collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region and played an important role in the founding and development of ScanBalt® fmba. For a period he served as vice chairman of the association with energy and creativity and played a pivotal role in shaping the efforts of ScanBalt.

He was also one of the founders of Medicon Valley Alliance (www.mva.org) of which he was a board member until 2007.

During his career Børge has represented Novo Nordisk in numerous external fora, most notably as member of Akademiet for de Tekniske Videnskaber, president of the European Federation of Biotechnology (2002-05), member of the Danish Natural Sciences Research Council (1994-99), as well as member of various committees and high-level expert groups at the European Commission.

Career at Novo Nordisk

Børge Diderichsen was appointed director of “Gene-Technology” in 1991 and Vice President of “Strategic Research Management” in 1993, a new unit coordinating research and patent strategies, the first of its kind in Europe.

In 1996, he was appointed Vice President of another new unit, “Corporate Research Affairs”, the primary tasks of which were to formulate Novo Nordisk’s views on research policy, to interact with ministries, the European Commission, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other organisations in China, to build and maintain strategic partnerships with universities, ministries, organisations etc., to act as contact point for the media concerning general research issues and to manage Novo Nordisk R&D Science, Talent, Attraction and Recruitment (STAR) Program for PhD students and PostDocs.

In 2012, Børge was appointed Vice President of R&D Outreach, a new unit that focus on building research based relations with universities, research institutes and other public institutions in China and emerging markets, leveraging Novo Nordisk R&D legacy to establish and support collaborations with and between academic partners in research, education, and innovation.

We wish Børge Diderichsen a happy retirement.

Jaanus Pikani, Chairman; Tero Piispanen, Vice Chairman; Wolfgang Blank, Former Chairman and Vice Chairman; Bo Samuelsson, Former Chairman; Peter Frank, General Secretary