Chief HR Officer (CHRO), Ørsted A/S
Meeting our CHRO and new COO - Henriette Ellekrog & Richard Hunter
Transcript (8 segments)
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Henriette Ellekrog0:23
Hello, I'm Henriette Ellekrog, I'm CHRO here at Ørsted. One of my key focus areas is to ensure that we have the very best diverse talent, and we recently hired such a talent, our new CEO Richard Hunter. Richard will head our newly established EPC and operations organization, which is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, and operations of our global offshore wind farms and our Danish combined heat and power plants. And I'm joined here today by Richard in the UK. Welcome, Richard.
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Richard Hunter0:57
Hello Henriette, it's great to be with you today.
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Henriette Ellekrog1:02
Richard, you're just two days into the job, so I won't ask you to give your perspectives on Ørsted, but I would be curious to understand why you think that you're such a perfect fit for the role.
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Richard Hunter1:14
Okay, thank you for that. Well, firstly, I would like to say how happy I am to be joining, and I'm really looking forward to the onboarding and getting to understand the company and the industry more. I, of course, will be inheriting a very strong EPC and operations organization, and I'll be relying upon them. At the same time, hopefully I can bring some of my experience to bear as we move forward. In terms of my background, I have a strong technical foundation in engineering. I've been a project manager and a project director on large integrated engineering projects, projects that involved complex civil engineering in challenging environments and bringing together mechanical and electrical systems with control systems and software to integrate and deliver and commission into operation large engineering projects. I've also got a background in operations and maintenance, in some cases in decades-long contracts, and what's needed in terms of ensuring performance, to optimize, to ensure that we continue to drive costs without affecting safety and performance of the system. I've run a global business which was supplying projects and products to more than 50 countries, utilizing the full value chain, and a fairly international background: I've spent roughly half my career in Europe and half in Asia Pacific, and I've led organizations with a very diverse global spread of people. In addition to that, I think I have a commercial mindset as an executive leader and a focus on financials to ensure that we deliver the business performance that's required, but at the same time to develop the relationships with customers, suppliers, stakeholders, and of course most importantly with the employees and the teams within our company. So I'm very much looking forward to bringing some of that experience to bear in this new role and getting on with the job.
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Henriette Ellekrog3:14
When you and I interviewed, we obviously discussed what were the strengths of Ørsted and the future focus areas of Ørsted and the EPC and operations organization. It would be interesting to know what made you make the decision to join us.
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Richard Hunter3:32
Well, I think firstly, you know, the opportunity to join the leading global green energy major was a big thing. A company that's undergone a significant transformation already and has a clear ambition and mission within the sector to continue to grow and develop, not just within offshore wind where we're leading already, but into other areas. So that's a key one. Secondarily, together with the EPC and operations team, I can see that the role in the organization has a key part to play in the business in the future, in delivering the projects that we need to do on time and to cost, and ensuring the operations continue to innovate within the space so that we can continue to deliver value. And I think thirdly, it would be the culture of the company. So I researched that a little bit before I entered the process, and through the process for the recruitment, with interactions with our CEO Mads, with yourself, and with a number of the other executive team, I think I've got a clear understanding of the culture that you have and what you're seeking to promote, and it's something I want to be part of. So I'm very much looking forward to joining you as part of the team.
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Henriette Ellekrog4:38
We're happy to have you on the team, and to put your hire into a greater perspective, allow me to elaborate a little on that. Because we are quite clear that if we are to realize this ambitious growth strategy, we need to have world-class experienced teams, and we need to be able to attract, retain, and develop the very best talent across our industry. To do that, we'll leverage three things. One is our Danish heritage. So we will work, even though we are truly global, with our Scandinavian leadership, meaning that we'll have low power distance, will bust the bureaucracy, because that is a key to speed and progress. The second thing is what is also quite important and attractive to our talent is our clear sense of purpose and our vision, which guides everything that we do. And thirdly and finally, the knowledge or the history that we've done this before. We've gone through large transformations through our passion, our perseverance, and our discipline. So it's quite important to know that we've done this before. So we're happy that you're joining the journey also now.
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Richard Hunter5:53
I'm very happy to be part of it. Thank you.