Choose Impact Over Ambition: Novonesis CEO Ester Baiget

After 25 years at Dow, Ester Baiget left a business she loved to take on the top job at Novozymes — now Novonesis. It was not a move driven by ego, or a lifelong plan to become CEO. Baiget says she did not need the title. What drew her in was purpose, potential and a belief that she could help the company make a bigger impact through biology.

In this episode of “Executive Decisions,” the Novonesis CEO reflects on the family values that shaped her, the teacher who nudged her toward chemical engineering and the mother who pushed her to attend the interview that began her 25-year career at Dow.

Baiget discusses why curiosity has guided her more than career planning, how she learned not to take setbacks out of proportion and why the CEO role is less lonely than many assume when you build the right team.

She also explains the strategic shift that led Novozymes to see itself not as an enzyme company, but as a biosolutions company — a decision that helped make the merger with Danish biotech company Chr. Hansen possible.

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