Author and speaker
Hanne Sindbæk
Latest realeases
“A rare successful mix of Danish history, science history, gender history and a story of love.”
Weekendavisen
“There is every reason to read this book about science, love, tragedy and personal courage.”
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Berlingske
Love and Science
August and Marie Krogh
Pioneers of Modern Science
Published in 2022
There are people who, despite their greatness, insight and achievements, insist that it’s not about them. Such people were Marie and August Krogh. She became Denmark’s only fourth female doctor of Medical Science in 1914, the year before Danish women got the right to vote. He won the Nobel Prize in 1920. Together they challenged the established science and solved the riddle of the lungs. And together they brought the formula for insulin to Denmark, where they laid the foundation for Novo Nordisk as well as for Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The couple were to Danish science what Pierre and Marie Curie were to French science, but no statues have been erected in their honor, even though their discovery of the path of oxygen from the lungs into the blood was as important to the understanding of the human body as the discovery of radioactivity was to physics.
The story of August and Marie Krogh is a piece of Danish history that is finally being told. It is the story of two very special people who, with humility and stoic calm, took on life’s events under the motto: Love of people and love of truth are the cornerstones of life.
“New book about Novo Nordisk paints an excellent portrait of Denmark’s largest company by far.”
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Politiken
The pure of hearts
The story of Novo Nordisk
Published in 2019
The title ‘The pure of hearts’ describes the spirit of Novo Nordisk. It’s not just management that is on a mission to do good. Employees from every branch of the company just know that their company is something special and noble and has been from the get go.
‘The pure of hearts’ is an independent story about the people, events and products that created Novo Nordisk and led up to the big Ozempic breakthrough. From the humble beginnings in 1923, when August and Marie Krogh returned from Canada with the formula for the new miracle drug insulin, to the Pedersen brothers’ start of a rival company, Novo, and the two companies’ 64-year rivalry until the merger in 1989.
It is an account of how Mads Øvlisen bridged the gap from family-owned to publicly traded company while keeping the humanistic values intact, and how Lars Rebien globalised the company, multiplied its value and was named the world’s best CEO by the esteemed Harvard Business Review. And it’s a story about the pursuit of purity that runs like an indelible trace in the company’s DNA.
The book is based on extensive research and interviews with all of the book’s living protagonists and a large number of key people in and around the company.
Previous releases
Seier – a road trip
Published in 2020
Lars Seier has become restless. Since leaving his life’s work, Saxo Bank, in 2015, he has been looking for a new direction in life. He hasn’t been able to find one and has so far settled for finding many. So now, like other billionaires before him, he is the owner of a football club and two Michelin-starred restaurants. He has a house in London, a castle in Switzerland, a permanent suite at D’Angleterre, and most recently he bought a piece of his youth, the legendary Café Dan Turèll. At the same time, he has poured a lot of money and energy into a new high-tech financial project, Concordium, which he hopes will be the best business of his life.
“Prejudices are peeled away in this highly interesting book about Denmark’s most extroverted billionaire.”
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Berlingske
Honestly!
Published 2016
Collection of 42 columns commenting on a range of societal events such as business, taxes, stock market crisis, politics and media. The columns was published in the Business paper Børsen throughout 2016.
“HS writes from the heart, personally and with sharpness. The style is sprinkled with humor and irony with HS’ own preferences and opinions, and she succeeds quite well.”
Public libraries professional review
We can’t sit here until Christmas Eve!
Published in 2015
Herman Salling is the man who founded and developed Salling Group into a giant in the Danish retail industry. He started out as a “fabrics man” in his father’s shop. He did sale fabrics, but from the very beginning he had such a distinct business talent and eye for what customers wanted that he aimed higher.
‘We can’t sit here until Christmas Eve!’ is not only a portrait of an unusual businessman and great personality, but also the description of a unique piece of Danish history. The book covers the opening of the department store Salling in Aarhus, then Føtex, Bilka and Netto across the country. It tells the anecdotes of families who flocked to the department store in droves, and of women who fought fiercely over flowered quilts.
“Hanne Sindbæk writes entertainingly and insightfully about the charismatic businessman Hermann Salling. She is a good storyteller, and we get both the business story and a bit of the private history in the book.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jyllands-Posten
Anders Samuelsen – Comeback kid
Published in 2013
“Dead man walking!” was the saying when Anders Samuelsen walked down the corridors of Christiansborg in 2009. His political career looked like a joke as he had taken over the bankrupt Liberal Alliance from Naser Khader. At the same time, he was getting divorced. His life had reached a zero point.
‘Comeback kid’ is Anders Samuelsen’s own account of being at the center of the most hyped political event in recent Danish history, the New Alliance. It is the story of the rise from zero to 15,000 members in a few weeks; of the power struggles in the party’s leadership, of the downturn that for years was heavily laden with zero-point-almost-no percent of the vote to the recovery of the party and its position as the country’s new agenda-setting party. It is a very personal story about the people and events that were the foundation of Anders Samuelsen’s political drive. About a beloved but deeply alcoholic father, about a hated demonic stepfather and about a close-knit family from Horsens.
“Who would have thought that Anders Samuelsen’s biography would be a pure page-turner. But it is. And that it is very touching in places. But it is.”
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Politiken
The Chamberlain’s New Clothes
Fritz Schur – the man and the myths
Published in 2012
Together with Niels Sandøe and Thomas G. Svaneborg
Fritz Schur was part of the inner circle of power for decades. He had worked hard to achieve his position ever since he as a young man came into close contact with the young lion of the Liberal Party, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He became chairman of the board of three of Scandinavia’s largest state-owned companies, DONG Energy, SAS and PostNord, without any education other than two years at business school and with no experience of running a large company. In 2010, his journey to the top of society culminated when he was appointed Queen’s Chamberlain, a title he achieved in record time.
In ‘The Chamberlain’s New Clothes’, the three journalists Niels Sandøe, Hanne Sindbæk and Thomas Svaneborg take a close look at the man and the many myths he has created about himself.
“In the stream of back-slapping portraits of Danish business leaders, it is a pleasure to read this book. It is well told and razor sharp in its points. However, the pleasure is probably reserved for us ordinary readers.”
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jyllands-Posten
The bull, the bear and the bank
Two men and their dream of billions
Published in 2009
In just a few years, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen have created one of the top 25 foreign exchange banks in the world and made a billion-dollar fortune. They have made headlines with their political messages, obvious business talent and sponsorship of Denmark’s best cycling team – and they have been accused of being shady brokers, anti-social capitalists and unfair employers.
‘The Bull, the Bear and the Bank’ is a riveting biography of two men who thrive in the face of adversity. It is an inspiring recipe for a partnership between opposites. And it’s an unflinching tale of a childhood that wasn’t for children and made two men grow up before their time.
“You energize yourself. Hanne Sindbæk’s different way of writing a biography clearly increases the number of stars.”
⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Børsen
Talks
Book lectures through Arte or directly with the author: hanne@sindbaek.com
LOVE AND SCIENCE
– the extraordinary life of August and Marie Krogh
When August and Marie Krogh stepped ashore from the steamship from America on December 12, 1922, they had something in their suitcase that would change the history of Denmark. It was the formula for insulin and the exclusive right to produce it in Scandinavia. It was the start of the country’s most valuable business, and it was the start of a new life, indeed the guarantee of a life at all, for thousands of people with diabetes.
But August and Marie Krogh was much more than that. She became Denmark’s only fourth female doctor of Medical Science in 1914, the year before Danish women got the right to vote. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920. Together they went against established science and solved the riddle of the lungs. The couple were to Danish science what Pierre and Marie Curie were to French science.
THE PURE OF HEARTS
– the story of Novo Nordisk
The Pure of hearts is the story of the people, events and products that created Novo Nordisk. From its humble beginnings in 1922, when August and Maria Krogh returned from Canada with the formula for the new miracle drug insulin, to today, when the Ozempic breakthrough made it one of the world’s most valuable companies.
It is a story about the Pedersen brothers, who started Novo as a rival company to Krogh’s Nordisk Insulin, and about the two companies’ 64-year rivalry until they merged in 1989.
It’s about Mads Øvlisen, who bridged the gap from family-owned to publicly listed company, Erik Sørensen, who conquered the world, and Lars Rebien, who globalized the company, multiplied its value and was named the world’s best CEO by the esteemed Harvard Business Review. Twice.
Beneath that story runs a quest for purity as an indelible trace in the company’s DNA.
THE INSULIN JOURNEY
– when the miracle came to Denmark
In the fall of 1922, 10-year-old Else was admitted to the Municipal Hospital in Copenhagen. For the sixth time. She was skin and bones – just ‘the weight of her bones and a human soul,’ as a diabetes doctor had put it. The strict starvation diet could no longer keep her disease at bay.
At the same time, Nobel Laureate August and his wife Marie Krogh had arrived in America, where he was to give a series of lectures. Marie heard from leading physiologists about the new wonder drug for diabetes that had just been invented in Canada. She persuaded August to try to get the formula. They succeeded, and on December 12, 1922, they landed in Copenhagen with the insulin formula in their suitcase.
While the couple, together with diabetes doctor H.C. Hagedorn tried to make the insulin, Else lay in her hospital bed and became increasingly ill. It was a race against death.
Contact
Contact Hanne Sindbæk
Book Hanne Sindbæk
Talks with Hanne Sindbæk through Arte or directly with the author: hanne@sindbaek.com