The event maestro

“Let’s just run through the documents one more time. Is the music in place? Marianne, anything on the flower arrangements? And how about the logistics?” Niels Grolin is seated at the head of the table, where the 20-strong working group is finalizing the details for DTU Commemoration Day 2016. It is the twenty-first year in succession that Niels Grolin is in charge of the biggest event of the year for DTU, where almost 4,000 students, employees, guests, and members of the Danish royal family are invited. And with his customary calm, he is guiding his colleagues through the meeting.

Everything is under control

Every year, Niels Grolin head takes responsibility for three or four major events, as well as a number of ambassadorial visits. He never allows himself to become so stressed that he thinks: “This will never work.” But he always has butterflies in his stomach in the run-up to the big events. And he often finds himself thinking about the strangest things at the strangest times. As his wife is quick to confirm. That is how it should be.

“Everyone who has experience with handling big assignments knows the feeling. It’s the same feeling you get when you’re hosting a big dinner party. But I like to be on my toes. It’s all about keeping an eye on the big picture; both at the dress rehearsal and on the day itself. I keep asking myself: What can I do something about, and what can’t I do anything about? Even if you’re surrounded by ten people all shouting at the same time, you have to take the most important thing first,” explains Niels Grolin.

He originally arrived at DTH (Danmarks Tekniske Højskole, now DTU) in 1977 as a secretary in the budget department, where he was attached to the study office. Less than two years later, however, he left DTH for a position at the Danish Ministry of Education, where he worked as assistant private secretary to the Danish politician Bertel Haarder.

Return of a familiar face

But he felt his old workplace calling him, and in 1989, Niels Grolin returned to DTH. The move was noted in Sletten—the in-house newspaper at that time—in an article under the header ‘Return of a familiar face’. This time, Niels was employed as head of office for a team of 30 employees in the Secretariat, which handled legal issues, the journal, IT, and information, and served as the porters’ office and the President’s receptionist’s office. For a short period, he served as acting head of administration—the last person to hold the title at DTU before the position was renamed Executive Vice President, University Director.

He then became head of office for the management secretariat, and as the president’s right-hand man, he was involved in implementing the modernization process that DTU underwent in the mid-1990s. The process resulted in the act that allowed DTU’s move to self-ownership, and Niels Grolin considers this to be one of the most important assignments of his career. Three years ago, he moved to the Office for Innovation and Sector Services (OIS) as senior executive officer.

Turned things around

“As soon as you walk through the door of one workplace, you shut off some other opportunities. In my case, I chose to go into the administrative side of the world of education, where I have remained ever since. It’s a fascinating world, because it is full of highly committed people. All the assignments I’m involved in are beyond the scope of a single person. They are project assignments, where we have to bring all sorts of competences into play. I think this is a lot of fun, and the actual core of the work is extremely meaningful,” says Niels Grolin.

Over the course of his career, he has been involved in holding major events centred on, for example, the inauguration of the national test centre for wind turbines in Østerild, the event featuring ESA-astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and the visit by the then-president of South Korea. However, the nature of the events has changed over the years. They have become bigger, there are more of them, and they have become more significant

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Royal presence

Niels will never tire of organizing Commemoration Day events. The red carpet, the presence of the royals, and the thrill that runs through the hall when Her Majesty the Queen steps through the door.

But when do you know that such events have been a success?

“It has to do with the point when you know that it was worth the effort. Andreas Mogensen’s visit is one of the events I’ll look back on with particular satisfaction. As soon as the first students walked into the sport hall and then sprinted up to the front row, we knew we’d hit the bull’s eye. It was a success. And it was magnificent.” 

This is not a ballet school

This is pretty much the approach he also uses when teaching more than 100 students and employees to dance Les Lanciers in the run up to Commemoration Day. It is not a question of holding lessons like at a ballet school. As long as he can get everyone to dance more-or-less in time—and enjoy themselves while doing so—he has achieved his goal. So it isn’t the end of the world if one quadrille does things a little bit differently.

Niels Grolin is planning to spend another three years at DTU. After that, he will close the book on a long career in the world of education. Ahead lies a life peppered with Spanish lessons and a burning desire to visit Latin America:

“There are a lot of us working to make sure people smile when they hear the name ‘DTU’. And as long as people carry on smiling at the fact that I’ll be here until 2019, I’ll keep on going.”