On March 1, Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted takes up the position as the new Dean of Sustainability at EU’s best technical university - DTU.
Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted joins DTU with extensive leadership and board experience, among other things from the energy sector. Here she has been in a key position in Ørsted and helped drive the company’s transition from 85 per cent black energy to 85 per cent renewable energy. At DTU, she will be responsible for the University’s extensive research and education work to create sustainable change.
“Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted has recorded impressive results with sustainable transition in her previous positions, and she comes to DTU with drive and a clear vision to create impactful results,” says DTU President Anders Bjarklev about the choice of the new dean.
He explains that her competences will contribute to DTU’s overall goal of educating engineers and developing technology that creates sustainable change in the world.
“Sustainability permeates all research and education at DTU, so we must constantly work to ensure that our expertise gets out and does the most good. Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted is the perfect candidate to take on this task,” says Anders Bjarklev.
Ready for next step
Besides playing a key role in research and education, sustainability is also a key concept in DTU’s daily operations. Here, the University focuses on acting responsibly - both in terms of resource consumption and environmental impact - but also when it comes to diversity, inclusion, and talent development.
Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted has worked with diversity, inclusion, and talent development in the tech world in her job as CEO of Digital Hub Denmark. As a board member at the international offshore wind supplier Nordmark, she also has ultimate responsibility for the company’s ESG agenda. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and is a set of criteria that companies and organisations use to measure their sustainability.
She now looks forward to being part of DTU’s work with sustainability, which she believes has the potential to transform entire sectors of society.
“DTU is a leader in this field and has developed tremendously in recent years. Now the next step is to take sustainability even further into society and transform entire industries. For example, there is huge potential in transportation, food, and construction,” she says.
Camilla Rygaard-Hjalsted's first day as Dean of Sustainability, including responsibility for diversity, inclusion and talent development, will be 3 March 2025. She takes over the position from Christine Nellemann,
who is now Provost at DTU.
