People

People

Topsoe has made a number of changes to its board. Kim Saaby Hedegaard has been appointed as the company’s new Executive Vice President, Power-to-X. Hedegaard has served as interim Head of Power-to-X since May 2022. Before that, he held the position as Chief Operations Officer (COO). He joined Topsoe in 1999 and has since held various leadership positions within engineering, technology, and sales. Since 2017, he was responsible for Catalyst Production and Technology globally. He holds a MSc in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He is replaced as COO by Andreas Bruun Jørgensen.

The company has also appointed Morten Holm Christiansen as interim CFO as his predecessor Philip Eickhoff is returning to the healthcare industry. Christiansen previously held the position of CIO and will maintain those responsibilities in parallel with his position as interim CFO. He has had a long career in Maersk and the Novo Nordisk Group as CFO.

Topsoe CEO, Roeland Baan, commented: “We are on a fast track to build a strong commercial position based on our decarbonization solutions, and I have no doubt that Morten with his extensive leadership experience and financial background is the right person to support the organization in delivering on our strategy, while we look for a more permanent solution. Philip [Eickhoff] has done a great job in building a strong foundation and team to help drive our transformation, and I want to thank him for his contribution and dedicated efforts for Topsoe the past two years. I truly wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”

Chief Communications & Brand Officer Kristine Ahrensbach is also leaving Topsoe. Ahrensbach joined Topsoe in 2014 and was responsible for Marketing the first six years. In her place, Kasper Westphal Pedersen is joining Topsoe as Vice President of Communications & Brand and will report to Chief Human Resource Officer, Peter Kirkegaard. Pedersen has a track record of working with the sustainability agenda as a Communications executive. For the past seven years, he has worked as Director of Communications & Branding at Rambøll. Prior to that he spent almost ten years as communications agency executive with responsibility for clients within environment, energy and sustainable development, and he has previously worked as Press Secretary to the Danish Minister of Environment.

First Phosphate Corp. has announced the appointment of Bernard Lapointe to the advisory board of the company. Lapointe founded Arianne Phosphate Inc. in 1997 and served as its president until 2013. He holds a PhD in mineral resources from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Before Arianne Phosphate, Bernard was director of the Fonds Minier du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, Quebec. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of several public companies in the resource and fertilizer sectors.

“Bernard Lapointe’s decades spent developing the Arianne Phosphate project gives him immeasurable experience that will be made available to First Phosphate in establishing our best practices for internal operations and for environment stewardship,” said John Passalacqua, CEO of First Phosphate. “I look forward to working closely with Bernard as we roll out First Phosphate’s six-phase integration strategy within the North American and global LFP battery industry.”

“I am excited about First Phosphate’s development plan and its commitment to producing battery-grade phosphate through clean and environmentally responsible processing methods, for a consistent and ethical supply right here in Quebec,” said Mr. Lapointe. “I look forward to bringing my experience in the phosphate industry to First Phosphate and to supporting the development of best practices for the business from the experience that I gained during my years with Arianne Phosphate.”