A passion and vision for chemistry and biotechnology led Per (born 1958) to Novo A/S, where he started his career as a research chemist. He subsequently held several managerial positions developing products for the detergent industry and rose to Director for Application Technology in the company’s new enzyme development division in 1995. He moved to Raleigh, N.C., to head the company’s U.S. application technology unit in 1997, returning to Denmark three years later as Corporate Vice President of the Enzyme Development and Application division. In April 2000, Per merged the Research and Development division into the newly formed Enzyme Business R&D. Per assumed his current position following Novozymes’ demerger from Novo Nordisk in 2000. As chief science officer, he has helped Novozymes develop a unique industrial biotechnology platform which delivers solutions to meet customer needs and support growth. Per holds a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Committed to promoting education and research within the sciences, he was appointed Honorary Professor at DTU’s Institute for Systems Biology in 2010 and became Chairman of the Board in 2013. He is also Chairman of the Young Scientists association in Denmark. Per’s current external positions also include Chairman, DTU, board member of DHI Group, board member of ARTs Biologics A/S, and member of the Danish Council for Research Policy.