About us
Meet Casper – our M&A number crunching scout
Casper Larsen, Chief Finance Business Partner – Industry, APAC
Who am I
With a degree in Economics and Business Administration in Applied Economics and Finance from Copenhagen Business School, I initially worked as a Mergers & Acquisitions advisor in Denmark before joining Grundfos in Vietnam in 2009. Since then, I’ve had different job roles in Grundfos at the corporate headquarters as well as in Thailand and Singapore, making my career truly global.
During the first few years, I quickly discovered that Grundfos enables you to develop and grow professionally in line with your interests and career perspectives.
Global career and growth
My career in Grundfos has covered several countries. With experience from Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, I can honestly say that I have gained valuable international insight into my profession as well as Grundfos. For me, this is extremely attractive and what made me choose Grundfos in the first place. However, the reason for me staying is different.
The reason why I’ve had different positions, is because I think it’s fundamentally healthy for me to change my situation. Some people might find comfort in staying the same position for 10-15 years, but I get motivated by changing my situation occasionally. This gives me the opportunity to change my perspective, and I see it as a huge advantage that Grundfos has supported me in this. Now, I can use the insights that I have for other parts of the organisation and apply them to the local team. This is both motivating and useful.
How I make a difference
As a Chief Finance Business partner, I act as the main finance point of contact for the Industry APAC management team, supporting their business decisions. While I report into and work closely with the global finance business partner team, on a day-to-day basis I am a fully integrated part of the Industry APAC Team.
Our focus is to deliver the best experience possible for our Industry customers, and with the new structure [editor’s note: Grundfos went through an internal restructure in February 2021], the decision processes are gradually getting simpler. It is interesting to experience the changes and I believe that we can make a bigger difference for our customers with our new structure.
What I really like about my current position is being back close to the customer. The corporate positions I held for the last five years were tremendously interesting and rewarding in all their complexity. But I also really enjoy being back, closer to the customer and the day-to-day decisions on the ground. In corporate functions, we often work on a more strategic level, while being this close to the business you get to see the direct results of the decisions you make – both for your colleagues and the customers.
Work-life balance
Throughout my career, Grundfos has been very supportive as an employer. During my latest relocation, which got somewhat affected by Covid-19 restrictions, Grundfos granted me quite a bit of flexibility to be able to deal with the unusual situation. I was able to prioritise where and how to get things done, which of course also leads to an increased willingness to be flexible the other way around.
I really value that Grundfos is interested in helping me to both have a career but also to have a reasonable work-life balance. I usually say that Grundfos is almost like a big family. The company has a genuine ability and willingness to care for its employees, helping us through ups and downs.