Nordic Life Science 1
GITTE PEDERSEN “Invent and invest of Genomic Expr
ession in Massachusetts, USA, Gitte Pedersen also credits her mother and father for inspiring her to explore and invent. “My parents spent ten years in Brazil,” she says. “I have family members in the USA who came over here by boat a very long time ago. I also did my engineering internship in India for Ciba Geigy, now Novartis. I wanted to experience the world and I did not just want to visit. I wanted to understand the people and the cultures.” Gitte’s mother was an entrepreneur and a politician. Her father was the first engineer in the family and he was also an entrepreneur. He took over his father’s business wiring parts of Denmark for electricity when electricity was a new technology. “So it was in my upbringing that I saw and understood what it meant to run a business,” says Gitte. Throughout her career she has also been, and is, inspired by several high-powered executives. “I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Branson at Necker Island when we got into the finals of the Extreme Technology Competition,” she says. “At that point I had already read his books. He is such an amazing supporter of entrepreneurs and he is also a lot of fun. I also admire Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill for how he built Microsoft and Melinda for her pioneering NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 41