Niels Graugaard, Member of the Board of Directors
The Dane Niels Graugaard was born on 4 February 1947 in Copenhagen. After graduating in 1970 as a chemical engineer at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, in 1973 Niels Graugaard was awarded a masters degree in business economics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. After 1973 he returned to work at the Technical University of Denmark as an assistant professor in the specialist field of chemical process optimization.
Following his academic career, in 1975 Niels Graugaard joined Novo Industri A/S (Novo-Nordisk) holding various positions in the pharmaceutical division. In 1982 he was appointed Managing Director for the first time when he became part of the Board of Carlsberg Biotechnology (biotech venture corporation), followed by a further position as Managing Director of Litex A/S, a subsidiary of FMC Corporation in 1985. With 300 employees in Denmark and in the Far East, the company markets stabilizers for the international food industry around the world. From 1990 to 1995 Niels Graugaard was Managing Director of Dumex A/S. This international pharmaceuticals company has 1000 employees in Europe and in the Far East. In 1995 Dumex merged with its Norwegian parent company, and the corporate headquarters were relocated to Oslo. In the same year, Niels Graugaard was made Managing Director of Tetra Pak Hoyer A/S, Denmark, where he was responsible for Tetra Pak’s Ice Cream Division. With 900 employees and sales of USD 200 million, Tetra Pak was a global leader in the ice cream sector.
He joined the GEA Group in 1999, when he was appointed to the position of President of the GEA Process Engineering Division. The Process Engineering Division offers individual plants and complete processing systems for customers in the milk, food, brewery, beverages and pharmaceuticals industries as well as in the Chemical industry. The Division is made up of a broad variety of companies, all of which are leaders in their respective specialist fields. With around 4,500 employees, it is currently GEA Group’s largest division.
Niels Graugaard has been a member of the Executive Board of the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft since 01 August 2007.
