Peter Halling has previously held several international leadership positions in Denmark, the USA, and Germany, with companies such as Novozymes, Ingredion Inc., Döhler Group, and Fertin Pharma. He has now joined ALK as CEO and President.

In addition, Peter holds a recent board position as Chairman of a promising Danish start-up company. Both the executive path and the board path are interesting to him, but his board career is in many ways the “cherry on top” and an area he wishes to further develop and focus on moving forward.

Formalization of competences
It was precisely the desire to expand his horizons and formalize his competences on the board front that Peter Halling recently completed the Executive Board Programme, where the first module takes place in Denmark and the second at INSEAD in France.

“The knowledge I have acquired related to board work has been self-taught throughout. But my desire to focus even more on the board role going forward, combined with the fact that many of the boards I am involved in have an international character, was the reason why I wanted a board education with an international perspective. It was important for me to find “the best of the best”, and the program collaboration with the French business school INSEAD was also particularly attractive in that regard”, says the Fertin director.

According to Peter Halling, the board program lived up to the high expectations.

“The Executive Board Program is really good training with good content. Both in relation to the specifics of board practice, which was the focal point in Denmark, and the larger perspectives and the active learning from skilled and top professional lecturers at INSEAD. I gained something good from both worlds and, in addition, the opportunity to expand my network with talented and good people, with whom I still have contact, and who may be important for me in the future”, he says.

Diversity on the board
If you participate in an intensive executive program, you naturally come home with many new thoughts, ideas and visions. Some, of course, more significant than others – and for Peter Halling, two learnings in particular can be highlighted.

“Getting to know exactly what a board responsibility actually entails was a really good reminder. I knew a lot about it beforehand, but it was good to get it “in black and white”. The other important thing for me was learning about the composition of the board and how important it is to ensure diversity in the boardroom with a view to, among other things, culture, gender and competence. It was illustrated extremely well at INSEAD, and we also had some fruitful dialogues about this in the groups”, he says and concludes:

“The new skills have already had an impact on how I carry out my board work. I have gained a greater understanding of how I put together an optimal board, and that the people who join the board are aware of what they are agreeing to – especially related to the competence part. And in relation to the collaboration internally on the board, I have become even more aware of how we “play each other well” and thus get the best possible out of each other.”