Following a successful first year, the DenmarkBridge expands.
DenmarkBridge is an innovation network has existed for one year now and the focus has been to build up relations between Danish companies and Silicon Valley. DenmarkBridge spent its infant year setting up and formalizing the current dialogues between Danish executives from LEGO, Maersk, Danske Bank and Novo Nordisk and high-level business leaders from Silicon Valley such as Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn. The members of DenmarkBridge are satisfied with the progress and way ahead for the business-to-business network.
”Danske Bank chose to support DenmarkBridge because the Association makes it possible to create valuable networks between Danish companies and Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial environment. The success of Danish businesses to a significant degree depends on access to knowledge and competencies, but most of all on inspiration from abroad. And that is exactly what DenmarkBridge delivers,” says Thomas F. Borgen, CEO, Danske Bank.
LEGO, Novo Nordisk, A. P. Møller – Maersk, Danske Bank, Confederation of Danish Industry and the Danish Growth Fund are founding members of DenmarkBridge.
During the previous year, DenmarkBridge has created more than 20 arrangements and network activities. All of these contribute to strengthening Danish companies’ access to network, knowledge, and capital in Silicon Valley. The latest example is the CEO-Summit 2017, which took place in June in San Francisco. The CEO-summit attracted guests such as Reid Hoffman, Co-founder LinkedIn, Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State of the United States, and Marc Benioff, Co-founder, chairman and CEO in Salesforce – an international cloud computing company. Among the participants were Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman of the Board in LEGO:
”Children are our role models, who every day inspire us to do things in new and more creative ways. To be prepared for the challenges of the future, it is crucial that we learn from others – especially people with different perspectives on the world. DenmarkBridge is a strong example of a network, that enables some of the most influential people and innovative companies in the world to share their knowledge and inspiration,” says Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman in the LEGO concern.
DenmarkBridge aims at bridging the gap between Danish companies and the ecosystem in Silicon Valley. The goal is to bring Danish companies closer to the knowledge and the network, which is unique for Silicon Valley.
”DenmarkBridge has managed to create value for some of the most successful and powerful companies in Denmark. I am satisfied with what we have achieved so far, but this is only the beginning. In the coming year, we will focus on getting in contact with some of the people and companies, who are radically changing the way we will innovate and run businesses in the future. We do get many inquiries from companies, who want to join the DenmarkBridge-network, and we expect to expand significantly over the next year,” says Christian Motzfeldt, chairman of DenmarkBridge and CEO of the Danish Growth Fund.
Contact information:
Lars Nordal Jensen, Head of Secretariat, The Danish Growth Fund / +45 22 63 03 41 / lnj@vf.dk
Marie Lerche Ratzer, Communication Advisor, The Danish Growth Fund / +45 22 91 30 38 / mlr@vf.dk
FACTS ABOUT DENMARKBRIDGE
Through 2017 DenmarkBridge hosted more than 20 events and network activities with DenmarkBridge CEO-Summit as the key event. The three-day long summit took place in San Francisco in June 2017 and it convened some of the most innovative executives in the world.
Previous network activities and events:
- Marne Levine, COO, Instagram
- Allan Thygesen, VP Global Sales & Operations, Google
- Danny Lange, Head of Machine Learning and AI, Unity (previous Amazon and Uber)
- Nicolas Franchet, Director of Vertical Strategy, Facebook
- Conference and network sessions with Silicon Valley Bank
See the entire list of events and activities online: denmarkbridge.dk/events
DenmarkBridge is founded by private businesses in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs of Denmark, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and Ministry of Higher Education and Science of Denmark.
His Royal Highness The Crown Prince is patron of DenmarkBridge.
The founding members appoint the Board of Directors. The Board consists of:
- Christian Motzfeldt, Director, The Danish Growth Fund, Chairman DenmarkBridge
- Ole Andersen, Chairman, Danske Bank
- Jacob Aqraou, Investor and former Sr. Vice President, eBay
- Scott Bonham, Investor and former Co-Chair of C100
- Thomas Bustrup, Director, Confederation of Danish Industry
- Lars Dalgaard, Entrepreneur, former founder and CEO of SuccessFactors
- Carl Erik Kjærsgaard, Founder and CEO, Blackwood Seven
- Carl Bilbo, Vice President, Novo Nordisk
The Danish Growth Fund is the Secretariat of DenmarkBridge. DenmarkBridge complements the activities at the Innovation Centre Denmark in Silicon Valley. The network has a Director stationed in Silicon Valley.