The ambitions are fully present in the Port of Hanstholm – energy cluster with PtX and sector coupling between wind turbines, fishing and district heating must be part of the port's future, as Port Director Nils Skeby already said last autumn. And at the turn of the year, a letter of intent was signed between European Energy and the port.
The new year has also brought more news for the Port of Hanstholm – for Kristian Jensen (V) will take over the chairmanship of the port's board in March after Kirsten Hede. She did not even get a year in the position, which she took over after Martin Vestergaard's seven-year chairmanship in late summer 2021.
Under Vestergaard's chairmanship, the port has undergone an expansion to 600 million. DKK – and the previous director of the port, Niels Clemensen, held the position for four years. However, this does not change the fact that there has been a frequent change of directors at Hanstholm Port. "There have been six port directors in eight years". This was the statement from one of the business owners at the port, who demanded that director Nils Skeby be retained, with Kirsten Hede becoming chairman.
But it was not a change of director, but a significant change of chairman to a Liberal. This follows the fact that former Minister of Defense and current MEP Søren Gade (V) has become chairman of Esbjerg Port.
The first month of spring, March, will soon arrive, and Kristian Jensen (V) will take over his third board position, which he will hold together with his diplomatic job as special envoy to secure Denmark a temporary seat on the UN Security Council.
No one doubts that the former top politician signals stability. 23 years as a member of parliament and positions as Minister of Taxation, Finance and Foreign Affairs - also testify to his hard work. I have barely entered Kristian Jensen's home in Herning before it is clear that diligence is part of the formula he uses to achieve his goals.
It is board Sunday at Kristian Jensen's home, and a little after eleven o'clock, he has already been in motion for a while. There is no such thing as a cozy Sunday in sweatpants, but instead he is wearing a well-ironed white shirt and the coffee pot is full. It is cozy at home with the man who a few years ago was next in line with the Liberal Party to become Denmark's next prime minister.
It has been forgotten - but the energy, the breath and the ability to stand the distance, it still burns brightly in Kristian Jensen. It is the one that Hanstholm Port will now benefit from - when the high ambitions for the energy cluster of the future are to be realized.
- I use my Sundays for board work. I have already been in contact with Nils Skeby and other board members, says Kristian Jensen and nods in the direction of the laptop and papers on the table next to him.
Recovering and taking a complete break from the daily work with many foreign trips as a diplomat is not something he values highly.
- My father always said: Vacation is doing something else. I can't lie on a beach and do nothing, says Kristian Jensen, who looks very happy and satisfied with that attitude to life.
Social Democrat wanted the Liberal man
Speculation that the Liberal Party should be in the process of taking on presidencies in Danish ports, or that the Liberal Party mayors in Esbjerg and Thisted have handpicked Liberal Party members Søren Gade and Kristian Jensen, Kristian Jensen dismisses with an indulgent smile.
- I was contacted through Board Governance by Mayor Ulla Vestergaard (S). It was actually long before the municipal elections last year. Since I am employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the chairmanship had to be approved, and it dragged on before the board position was approved, says Kristian Jensen.
Board Governance is a company that trains and places board members. Kristian Jensen himself is trained in board work at Board Governance.
So it was not Thisted's newly appointed Liberal mayor Niels Jørgen Pedersen who had brought in another Liberal man for the chairmanship of the port. On the other hand, it is the outgoing Social Democratic mayor Ulla Vestergaard who has succeeded in bringing the profile to Hanstholm Port.
Kristian Jensen also did not know that Søren Gade was on his way to becoming chairman of the Port of Esbjerg.
- I was actually surprised when I heard that Søren Gade was going to be chairman of the Port of Esbjerg, he says.
The two Liberal men of course know each other, but they are not close friends, even though Kristian Jensen lives in Herning and Søren Gade lives almost 40 km away in Holstebro.
Nils Skeby is the right one
Kristian Jensen flatly rejects concerns about another change of director at Hanstholm Port.
- Nils Skeby has already created some really good results with the plans for the energy cluster and has started a dialogue with the citizens and established a port council. He is the right one, and continuity is important, states Kristian Jensen.
It already sounds like the beginning of a long-term and stable partnership between the port's future chairman and the director.
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