Søren Smed Østergaard

Strategy & Execution, Business Transformation with AI & Digital.

I am at my best when a decision has been made and someone has to make it work. Almost 21 years at Novo Nordisk, VP from 2018, with digital, strategy and AI as my field. I have worked across the whole enterprise, from development and research to commercial and corporate strategy. Today I am Senior Advisor at Smed Advisory and a mentor to a health AI startup through DTU Skylab.

Download CV (PDF) Write to me LinkedIn

20052010201520202025

Product, portfolio and launch

Executive Office

Digital Health

ITS

Digital, Strategy & AI

Smed Advisory · DTU Skylab

Board, our owners' association

HEI Therapeutics

Vant

External examiner, Censorsekretariatet: project management, marketing and business economics

B1903

Daman

School board, Dyssegårdsskolen

Coach, HIK Handball

Boards, advisory boards and examiningPrivate and volunteering

Career

Development, research, commercial and corporate strategy. The numbers match my CV, and each one has a story behind it.

YearsRoleWhat I didScale

2023-26VP, Digital, Strategy & Bioethicsstrategy, execution and AIDrove the restructuring of the SVP's area after a merger, from design to landing. Moved investment to the highest-value projects.40 people
DKK 40M/yr

2022-23VP, Integrated Treatment SolutionsCorporate StrategyGot six SVP areas to agree on one treatment model. The work became a new prevention unit.DKK 100M+/yr

2018-22Global VP, Head of Digital HealthCommercial Strategy & Corporate AffairsBuilt big pharma's first Software as a Medical Device franchise, with CE marked and FDA cleared products.200 in total, 40 direct
100,000 users
1bn data points

2018Senior Director, Digital Health Commercial StrategyTook over one of the areas with the lowest employee satisfaction in the company. Kept every person.2.8 → 5.0 of 5

2015-18Director, Executive Officechief of staff to 2 EVPsStarted the commercial hub in Bangalore with the first five. Today it is over 300.8 people
hub: 5 → 300+

2005-15Product, portfolio and launchfive rolesGrew a needle business twice as fast as its market.USD 200M, +20 %

Now: Senior Advisor, Smed Advisory · mentor, DTU Skylab · advisory board, VantRole by role · Download CV (PDF)

Quoted

Søren Smed Østergaard giving a keynote — Digital Agenda, 2019

"The revolution will start when we get reliable, high quality data streams from individual patients, not from people like the patient."

Pharmaceutical Executive, May 2018, after my talk at Digital Health World Congress, London

"Digital solutions shouldn't add another layer of complexity to people's daily lives."

Forbes, February 2021

"I'm a tech realist rather than a tech optimist."

Progress, Potential, and Possibilities with Ira Pastor, 2022

Keynotes at Digital Agenda in London and Copenhagen and at Digital Health World Congress. Quoted in European Biotechnology and Business Wire. All writing and press

How I lead

My people are the experts. I am the coach and reviewer. They present, I stand behind them, and anything critical we handle afterwards, in private.
Decide and adjust. Making the call usually matters more than waiting for the perfect one. I am never the bottleneck. The few one-way doors get the time they deserve.
We win as a team. Everyone on my teams has an annual goal to help a colleague succeed with a task the colleague owns. It has to be documented, and it counts when the annual bonus is assessed. Everyone should also be able to point to a time they asked for help themselves.
Feedback the same day. Both "that went well, and here is why" and "here is what we do better next time". Not in a review six months later.

I measure myself by where my people go next. Including when that is away from me.

Stories: Six stories about leading, including the one that went wrong.
LinkedIn, 2021: My proudest moment as a people manager, about a team member who called on a Sunday to ask me to be her reference.
LinkedIn, 2022: Snitches & Flowers, the award where colleagues nominate each other for role-model behaviour.

Who I am

The tests say roughly what people who have worked with me say. I get energy from people, I see patterns before others do, and I want progress. Hogan puts me in the top 1% for sociability and the top 5% for ambition, and I stay calm under pressure.

What drives me is helping others and society and being part of a community. I would rather decide on data than on gut feeling, and I start with the numbers, at home and on myself too (data first).

The tests and how I read them

StrengthsFinder, top 5: Strategic, Individualization, Learner, Self-Assurance, Achiever; About the test
Insights Discovery: Motivating Director; About the test
DISC: Di; About the test

Writing

On AI, data and leadership.

Latest on QuickWinExec, Substack

Stop Sending the Surgeon to Take Blood PressureAug 2026 The LLM doctor who always agrees with you, will see you nowMay 2026 What we got right in digital health before AI got big: it was always about the dataMay 2026 The 5 to 10 percentApr 2026

Workshop

Small AI systems for family lifeWhat they taught me about AI in large organisations. Write-ups are in Danish.

Outside work

Julie and I live in Hellerup with Solvej, Alice and our Havanese, Sir Cliff Richard. Just Cliff, most days. I coach girls' handball at HIK, sit on the school board at Dyssegårdsskolen, and walk my daughter's horse to and from the paddock more often than I expected when we got her.

The rest of the time it is CrossFit and Hyrox with a group of friends who travel to the races together.

Søren and a friend at the Hyrox finish in Stuttgart — Hyrox, Stuttgart 2025

HIK Håndbold: Coach and team manager for four teams, from U9 mixed to U11 girls.
School board: Elected parent member at Dyssegårdsskolen since 2022, re-elected 2026.
Training: Hyrox in Stuttgart and Copenhagen. Marathon in 3:59:42, the goal was under four hours.
More: Handball, school and training

Contact

About work or about handball. I reply myself.