About Our CEO

Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is CEO of the Group, Vestergaard Frandsen, a leading innovator of emergency response and disease-control textiles.

Working in tandem with the world’s leading non-governmental and faith-based organizations, UN agencies, government ministries and academia, Vestergaard Frandsen has grown from a small family owned business founded in 1957 to a global social enterprise based in Switzerland with 14 offices in 11 countries.

In 1997 Mikkel became majority shareholder and under his leadership, the company’s profile has evolved to become one synonymous with social responsibility which we define as reinvesting profits into innovative technologies that save lives and help curb the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria as well as generating employment in local economies.

Mikkel’s personal interest in developing nations began at 19 years of age when he moved to Africa and started a truck importing business in Lagos, Nigeria until he was forced to leave following a military coup.  He has also lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India. Mikkel returned to Denmark in 1993 and joined his family’s business, then a traditional textile production company.  Witness to the devastating effects of poor public health in Africa and India, Mikkel recognized the urgent need for disease-control methods in developing countries and in 1997 the company’s clothing business was sold off so attention could focus solely on the humanitarian disease control textiles business.

Mikkel’s personal interest in developing nations began at 19 years of age when he moved to Africa and started a truck importing business in Lagos, Nigeria until he was forced to leave following a military coup.  He has also lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India. Mikkel returned to Denmark in 1993 and joined his family’s business, then a traditional textile production company.  Witness to the devastating effects of poor public health in Africa and India, Mikkel recognized the urgent need for disease-control methods in developing countries and in 1997 the company’s clothing business was sold off so attention could focus solely on the humanitarian disease control textiles business.

Vestergaard Frandsen’s products include PermaNet® and LifeStraw®, which have been honored for their revolutionary design and displayed at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and at the Cooper-Hewitt museums in New York. LifeStraw® was voted one of the best inventions by Time magazine and one of the best innovations by Esquire magazine. LifeStraw® won the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas. Mikkel was honored with the 2009 Social and Economic Innovation Award from The Economist magazine, and the company accepted the 2010 Financial Times-Just Means Social Innovation Award for Most Innovative Small For-Profit Company

Mikkel and the company have been profiled in major media outlets including Forbes, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Die Welt, BBC and MSNBC, Portfolio Magazine, CNN, BBC, and MSNBC.

Mikkel is on the board of the Roll Back Malaria partnership. He is regularly invited to speak at major public health, entrepreneurial and corporate social responsibility conferences around the world, and has addressed the several European Parliaments.

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In 2009 Mikkel was crowned as a Luhya Tribe elder, an honor bestowed only to foreigners who have touched the lives of the Kenyan community in an extraordinary manner.  In 2009 Mikkel was also appointed an economic advisor to the Danish prime minister, and was selected by the World Economic Forum as a 2010 Young Global Leader.

In September 2008 Mikkel conceptualized and funded the CarePack® campaign to prevent the spread of malaria, diarrheal disease and HIV in western Kenya. The CarePack® campaign benefitted nearly 50,000 people in just seven days.

Mikkel holds an MBA from Henley Management College in England.

Mikkel lives in Lausanne, Switzerland.

September 2010