The winners of the 2024 Grundfos People Awards were announced and honoured at an award ceremony hosted in Bjerringbro on 11 September.
Grundfos Community Engagement Award | Grundfos China
The award showcases the best local community and charity initiatives across the Grundfos Group and acknowledged the good will and dedication of the employees. The prize of 20,000 EUR is transferred as a donation to a partner organization (NGO) outside Grundfos
The initiative provides underprivileged students in remote areas with better opportunities for education and exposure to the outside world. By establishing two green IT classrooms, leveraging recycled laptops from Grundfos, the initiative continues to improve the lives of 1,500 students in underdeveloped regions.
The project bridges education and sustainability in recycling used laptops to establish IT classrooms in rural areas in China. Grundfos China, Beyond the City, and Netspring together developed the initiative called “Urban career journey”.
Furthermore, the project sponsored a career-focused, week-long student tour to Shanghai for 40 of these students.
2024 Grundfos Community Engagement Award: Alex Hong represented Grundfos China at the awards ceremony. Photo: Lars Holm
Grundfos Innovation Award
The award is given to an employee or a group of employees in Grundfos who, in the course of the year, have made a particularly creative and innovative contribution within one of the following three categories (each winning team is awarded 10,000 EUR):
Technology | Mystery of blocked circulators solved
Over several years, the team has kept focus on developing a solution to eliminate lime deposits in circulator pumps, a long-known core challenge. Their solution significantly reduces customers’ blocked pump issues, minimizes warranty-related costs and increases customer satisfaction.
2024 Grundfos Innovation Award – Technology. The winning team consists of Preben Jakobsen , Allan Hjarbæk Holm, Bjarne Dindler Rasmussen, Bjørn Vestergaard, Gunnar Gaba, Helge Grann, Holger Thomassen, Morten V. Ørsnæs, and Brian Møller. Photo: Lars Holm.
Sustainability | Lightyear Project
Project Lightyear has sustainability at its core: Rethinking modularization, software, digital and materials, and demonstrating customer value at a total new level. Reducing energy, optimizing materials and 100% circularity. The 38-person big team around Lightyear involves several departments and working across functions.
2024 Grundfos Innovation Award – Sustainability. The winning team consists of no less than 38 people: Arun Krishna, Bent Dalsten Sørensen, Christian Vinther Ernst, Eduardo Garcia Garcia, Esben la Cour Sibbesen, Frederik Valeur, Henrik Juul Nielsen, Hugo Morais, Ibrahim Öztoprak, John Bomholt, Johnny Rasmussen, Jørgen Jensen, Kristian Christoffersen, Kristian Haahr, Kristian Hede, Lasse Jørgensen, Lasse Søgaard Ledet, Lasse Thomsen, Lotte Ansgaard Thomsen, Marjan Shaker, Michael Rasmussen, Miguel Rego Borges, Mikkel Steen Olesen, Patrick Bomholt, Per Adamsen, Pernille Simonsen, Pernille Skjødt, Peter Elvekjær, Peter Mønster, Rakesh Ramachandran, Rasmus Kjær Ursem, Rolf Stougård Broge, Santhosh Chamcham Reddy, Steen Mikkelsen, Thomas Amthip Mansachs, Torben Nielsen, and Troels Jepsen. Photo: Lars Holm
Business Development | Bringing green H2 to Grundfos
This project positions Eurowater/Grundfos as leader in a new market opening within Green Hydrogen. A market which is expected to accelerate, and which can position Eurowater/Grundfos as an innovative sustainability leader for the green transition. Innovation and application understanding is built in close collaboration with key customers and used for potentially patented innovative solutions.
2024 Grundfos Innovation Award – Business Development. The winning team includes Henrik Tækker Madsen, Sebastian Spejlborg, Peter Ørsted, Michael Elkjær Laustsen, Arun Arora, and Bozena Seredynska-Sobecka. Photo: Lars Holm
Health, Safety and Well-being Award | D&CE Inclusive Hybrid Workplace
Through systematically deploying incremental, every-day and time-limited experiments, the Digital & Customer Excellence organization have identified actions to secure a work culture where people thrive, feel included, collaborate efficiently and effectively. The experiments have paid off both in terms of increased overall satisfaction and motivation and a significantly reduced stress level.
It is impressive to see how a people-led program with strong support from the leadership can bring major strides in improving well-being. What has been done in Digital & Customer Excellence serves as an inspiration for all of us in making Grundfos stronger and improving our well-being.
2024 Grundfos People Awards. Winners Lisa Ingemann Simonsen and Susanne L. Sørensen with Jesper Gabriel, Head of Business HR, Industry. Photo: Lars Holm
Environmental Impact Award | From Challenge to Solution: How N1 Overcame Outdated Water Treatment Processes and Increased Sustainability
The project is a first-class example of how our constant focus on continuous improvement has led to significant savings and improvement of the working environment in the N1 Factory, resulting in water savings of 1,650 m3 water over the first 5 months of operation, with potential water savings for the entire year of over 4,000 m3. The system is fully digital and allows for precise flow control and optimization of the main pumps.
Last, but not least, the system eliminates the manual handling of 2,600 sacks of salt of 10 kg each, through use of tank truck deliveryand contributes to significant salt reduction, saving over 14 tons of salt annually.
2024 Grundfos Environmental Impact Award winners Peter Rosgaard Uggerholm and Jacob Krogsgaard Nilsson with Inge Delobelle, EVP & Divisional CEO of Industry. Photo: Lars Holm
Culture Ambassador Award | 3 winners
The award is given to up to 3 individual winners, role-modelling Grundfos values and Key Behaviours: Accountability, Collaboration and Customer Centricity, or other culture specific elements.
- Serbia: Darija Kraft | One of the most positive persons in Grundfos Serbia. Always willing to help and assist no matter the department, topics or part of the day and she is always doing
this with the big smile 🙂 Darija is connecting people in Serbia and making a bridge
between group functions and the plant that is more the welcomed. - Colombia: Lorena Gomez | Lorena took on a position fraught with challenges and steered it to success. So much so that clients (from other countries) have requested to meet her personally due to the 180-degree turnaround. It’s simply incredible how far she can go demonstrating a really positive change.
- USA: David McMillan | David is truly an inspirational and transformative leader. He has helped develop an inclusive and dynamic culture while pioneering impressive product solutions to better the planet. His spirit and energy are contagious.
2024 Grundfos Culture Ambassador Award: Winners Darija Kraft, Lorena Gomez, and David McMillan with Group Vice President of Sustainability, Ext. Relations & Communications, Astrid Nørgaard Friis. Photo: Lars Holm
Grundfos Scholarship | Five winners
- Vanessza Balog : Data Analyst Training | Vanessza has a strong desire to understand the drivers behind problems and to provide solid, data-based decision-making inputs. The Data Analyst training she seeks is directly relevant to her role, demonstrating her determination to enhance her expertise and provide significant benefits to Grundfos in vital areas of data analytics and process automation.
- Cindy Briones: Master in Project Management | Cindy Briones demonstrates a strong personal commitment and high motivation to grow and develop within Grundfos. She proactively seeks to enhance her skills through a comprehensive course relevant to her current role at Grundfos Service as well as future career progression. This training will enable her to better support customers, local leaders, and her team.
- Jefferson Andrés Lizarazo Mendieta: Postgraduate specialization in Maintenance Management | Jefferson’s strong motivation is supported by management, and he consistently demonstrates an exceptional service mindset. The postgraduate specialization in maintenance management is particularly relevant to his role as a service technician and will provide him with the necessary knowledge and tools to support customers more effectively.
- Jessica Julia Solano Vega: Specialization in Business Analytics | Jessica’s education will benefit both Jessica and Grundfos by enhancing her ability to optimize processes, resources, and to make informed strategic decisions within the Supply Chain. Jessica’s strong people skills and proven track record at Grundfos, combined with her motivation to apply new knowledge, will create significant value for our company.
- Palanivel Rajamani: BA in Electrical and Electronics Engineering | Palanivel has demonstrated a strong dedication to personal and professional growth at Grundfos India, where. Passionate about engineering, he seeks to upskill further. His willingness to step outside the traditional career path and his comfort zone underscores his drive and dedication. Granting him this scholarship will not only enhance his technical and personal contributions but also inspire other shop floor colleagues to pursue lifelong learning.
“My passion for engineering began from my desire to constantly challenge myself and contribute meaningfully to the work we do in Grundfos India. Pursuing a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering is not just a career aspiration for me; it’s a personal and professional journey of growth and development, says Palanivel Rajamani.
2024 Grundfos Scholarship winners: Jessica Julia Solano Vega, Jefferson Andrés Lizarazo Mendieta, Vanessza Balog, and Palanivel Rajamani with Grundfos CHRO Mirjam Baijens. Photo: Lars Holm
The next application round will open in January 2025. More information here.
11 September 2024: Grundfos People Awards winners. Photo: Lars Holm