Chief Financial Officer, Danpo

The Role We are searching for a commercially minded and business-driven Chief Financial Officer to join the Leadership Team and act as a trusted strategic partner and extended arm of the CEO. The CFO will play a key role in driving profitable growth, earnings, customer and product-mix decisions, value-chain optimisation and the organisation’s overall financial performance. The role goes beyond leading Finance and ensuring strong governance and control. The CFO will be an active co-driver of the business agenda, translating financial and commercial insight into clear priorities, sound decisions and consistent execution across the organisation. A central mandate will be to create results through people. The first priority is to succeed through the capabilities already present in the organisation by setting clear direction, empowering leaders and employees, applying situational leadership, following up consistently on execution, and continuously developing individuals and teams. The CFO will also be a visible role model and an active partner to the CEO in building and embedding a strong performance culture. This includes working closely with the other members of the Leadership Team and reinforcing the behaviours, standards, ownership and accountability expected throughout Danpo. The role carries full responsibility for a finance organisation of approximately 19 employees located across Farre, Aars and Skanderborg and includes leadership of the following areas:

• FP&A & Business Partnering
• Accounting & Compliance
• Production Controlling & Master Data

In parallel, the CFO will lead the continued transformation of Finance, strengthening business partnering, improving data quality and transparency, standardising processes and systems, and accelerating digitalisation, automation and the effective use of AI-enabled tools. Key Responsibilities

• Act as the CEO’s extended arm and a trusted strategic and commercial partner to the CEO and Leadership Team.
• Contribute actively to growth, profitability, customer priorities, product-mix decisions and value-chain optimisation.
• Drive financial performance with a strong focus on earnings, margin management, cash flow and operational efficiency.
• Build and embed a strong performance culture across the Leadership Team, Finance and the wider organisation.
• Lead through people by providing clear direction, empowering leaders and employees, and ensuring consistent follow-up on execution.
• Develop leaders, employees and teams, while making full use of the capabilities already present in the organisation.
• Transform Finance into a proactive, commercially oriented and value-creating partner to the business.
• Strengthen collaboration between Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, Commercial and other business functions.
• Translate financial and operational data into actionable commercial insights and strategic recommendations.
• Create transparency through robust financial reporting, high-quality data and a reliable one source of truth.
• Develop and embed meaningful KPIs and disciplined performance-management processes across the organisation.
• Lead the continued transformation and digitalisation of the finance function.
• Drive standardisation and optimisation of ERP and BI systems, reduce manual processes and increase automation and the use of AI-enabled tools.
• Strengthen financial planning, forecasting, management reporting and variance management.
• Build organisational capability and a strong talent pipeline within Finance.

Key Priorities During the First 12 Months

1. Establish transparency and confidence in data and KPIs. Create one trusted fact base so that discussions focus on actions rather than numbers.
2. Elevate the leadership level within Finance. Provide clear direction, strengthen ownership and accountability, and develop leaders and teams to deliver through people.
3. Strengthen business partnering across the organisation. Bring Finance closer to the business as a proactive and commercially relevant partner.
4. Reduce manual processes through automation and AI. Move away from Excel dependency and reporting built from the ground up by standardising, digitalising and automating core processes.
5. Build a strong talent pipeline within Finance. Ensure that the right capabilities are in the right roles for the organisation’s future needs.

Candidate Profile

• The ideal candidate is a commercially oriented finance executive who combines strong business acumen, people leadership, operational finance expertise and experience from a manufacturing environment. Current or former CFO, Finance Director, FP&A Director or equivalent senior finance leader.
• Experience from a manufacturing environment, ideally within food, beverage, FMCG, agriculture or related industries.
• Strong commercial understanding of growth, customers, product mix, value-chain economics, operational performance and margin management.
• Deep expertise within operations finance, supply chain finance and production controlling.
• A proven track record of driving business transformation, performance improvement, profitability initiatives and organisational change.
• Experience transforming finance functions through digitalisation, process standardisation, automation and improved use of data.
• Strong experience with ERP and Business Intelligence platforms.
• The ability to translate complex financial and operational data into clear priorities, actionable insight and strategic recommendations.
• Experience leading and developing larger finance teams and leaders across multiple locations.
• Excellent stakeholder-management, communication and influencing skills, with the credibility to challenge and support senior leaders.

Leadership Profile

• Modern, visible and empowering leader who creates sustainable results through people. The successful candidate will combine strong financial discipline and commercial judgement with a collaborative, people-oriented and execution-focused leadership style.Apply situational leadership and adapt the leadership approach to the needs of individuals, teams and situations.
• Set a clear direction, translate priorities into action and follow up consistently on execution and outcomes.
• Empower leaders and employees by providing ownership, mandate and accountability.
• Develop leaders, individuals and teams through ongoing feedback, coaching and clear expectations.
• Build high-performing teams by leveraging existing strengths while addressing capability gaps.
• Act as a role model for the behaviours and standards that underpin Danpo’s desired performance culture.
• Challenge constructively, make clear decisions and maintain trust across organisational levels.
• Lead effectively through influence as well as formal authority and operate confidently at both strategic and operational levels.

The Opportunity This is a unique opportunity to join a leading manufacturing business in a role with significant commercial, organisational and strategic impact. The CFO will work closely with the CEO to strengthen performance, shape the business agenda and build a culture of clear direction, ownership and consistent execution. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to transform and elevate the finance function, develop leaders and teams, accelerate digitalisation and automation, and position Finance as a proactive and commercially relevant value-creation partner to the business.