Tor joined Arla in 2017 as part of Milk, Members & Trading, the team in charge of calculating the price we pay our farmers for the milk they provide. Since then, Tor has made cross-functional career moves to Global Planning and most recently to Sustainability Development.
Tor lives with his wife and high school sweetheart close to the Arla headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark. Together, they have a 5-year-old son and are expecting a new baby. Tor is a big football fan, and he likes to go for a run and play paddle tennis with his friends.
A push in the right direction
For Tor, moving to Global Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) in 2019 was a great opportunity to gain insights into the operational pulse of Arla and the actions to take when supply or demand issues occur.
“I found it extremely attractive to become part of the global business and collaborate with colleagues from commercial, supply chain and many different markets such as SEA, MENA, Sweden etc. It was super interesting and challenging at the same time,” says Tor and continues:
“Before joining the team, I had an informal talk with the Head of S&OP. He thought I could contribute with a different perspective on planning because of my financial background, but he also saw areas where I needed to develop. In that sense, he knew that I wasn’t perfect for the job but with the right set of exercises and support, he could push me in the right direction. “
Sustainability is crucial to Arla’s Future26 strategy
After three years in S&OP, Tor applied for the Senior Business Development Manager role because he wanted to come out of his comfort zone and learn more about sustainability from a business development angle.
“At the time of Arla’s Future26 launch, I was happy to learn that sustainability plays a big role in our business strategy. I see it as crucial for the future of Arla, Tor explains.
"If we don’t get sustainability right, our license to operate is strongly challenged. So, I wanted to become part of the team that will try to make this happen."
“My new manager and team members showed me support by trusting a new employee who knows a lot about Arla but might not be an expert on the specific topics that I was moving to,” he adds.
Making Arla’s total milk pool more sustainable
In the Sustainability Development team, Tor has a project-based way of working. Running projects includes interviewing people, doing calculations in excel, analyzing data and creating presentations for workshops and the Sustainability Commercialization Board.
“For example, I’m currently looking into our total milk pool in Arla Foods: 13 billion kg of milk – how can we make it more sustainable and commercialize our sustainability journey at the same time?”
“In general, I’m very interested in how we can consume less energy, limit food waste, save electricity and so on. As part of the Sustainability Development team, I can suddenly combine my personal interest with the projects I’m working on, which is super cool.”
