ANNUAL REPORT 2016 Management report Poul Due Jensens Fond (Grundfos Fonden) The Poul Due Jensens Fond (the Foundation) was established in 1975 by the founder of Grundfos, Poul Due Jensen, with the aim of ensur ing a financially sound and sustain able development of Grundfos and its affiliated companies. The Foundation owns 88% of the Grundfos Group. As the majority owner of Grundfos, the Foundation is therefore destined and committed to continuing to own, protect and develop Grundfos. Active ownership of Grundfos is the Foundation’s answer to this obligation. Besides its active ownership, the Foundation is also obliged and committed to distributing funds for philanthropic activities for the common good. Foundation governance The Board of Directors of Poul Due Jensens Fond consists of 12 members, of whom the Grundfos Group’s EU-based employees elect four. Of the remaining eight, four are descendants of the founder and four are external members elected by the Board itself. Today, these eight members consist of five men and three women. The women thus constitute 37.5%. The Board is aware that this figure is slightly lower than the 40% mentioned in the Act on Commercial Foundations. The election of new external board members as described below will bring the gender balance up to 50% of each sex among the board members who are externally and descendant elected. Already in 2015, the Foundation Board decided to aim for compliance with the recommendation on board independence as described in the Recommendations on Foundation Governance. Today, four of the board members hold parallel seats in the Board of Directors or the executive management of Grundfos Holding A/S. In 2016, the Board concluded a recruitment process, aiming to replace two of the current external board members with two new independent board members who do not hold parallel seats in the Board of Directors or the executive management of Grundfos Holding A/S. New board members ensure compliance In March 2017, former CEO of ALK Abello, Jens Bager, and Plan International CEO, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, will replace the current board members Jens Maaløe, President and CEO of Terma, and Bo Risberg, former CEO of the Hilti Corporation. Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen brings on board considerable international development experience, previously serving as UN Assistant Secretary General, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director and Ambassador for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Jens Bager has strong and relevant business experience from the foundation-owned company ALK Abello, where he served as CEO for a number of years. He also currently serves as chair of the Board in family-controlled Ambu. Bo Risberg and Jens Maaløe will both continue serving on the Board of Grundfos Holding A/S. The Foundation wishes to thank both of them for their contribution over the years. The swap will bring Poul Due Jensens Fond into compliance with the targeted 14 out of 16 recomendations on Foundation Governance. • The Comply or Explain reports from 2016 and previously are available at www. grundfosfoundation.com/governance // www.poulduejensensfond.dk/governance Philanthropic strategy In 2016, developing a coherent strategy for the philanthropic work has been one of the main objectives of the Foundation Board. Over the year, the Board of Directors has discussed various scenarios in depth and selected three distinct areas where the Foundation should make a difference going forward. Safe water for the world’s poorest Firstly, the Foundation Board has decided that the Foundation will fund sustainable safe water projects for rural communities in developing countries and for the thousands of people in the world’s forgotten refugee camps. The Foundation will not become involved in urban water projects in order to focus on helping the world’s most disadvantaged. Within this area, the Board decided to narrow down the number of partner organisations. We believe that funding fewer and bigger projects in collaboration with experienced partners will have a more noticeable impact on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal #6: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. To ensure technical quality and follow-up within the projects in the Safe Water Programme, the Foundation decided to employ a dedicated Programme Manager, who joined the Secretariat on 1 January 2017. To further strengthen relations with the global water community, the Foundation also decided to become a founding member of the Stockholm Water Prize, an important global platform for policy and development within water. In future, the Foundation also plans to participate more actively in World Water Week in collaboration with selected partners, facilitating knowledge sharing between our partners.
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