Profile

Helle Rootzen is CEO and founder of andhero which she started in the fall of 2020 after she decided to leave DTU to be a knowledge entrepreneur. Her skills lie in exploiting the synergies between diversity, digitalization, leadership and learning.

At the Technical University of Denmark Helle was Professor in Learning Technology and Digitalization and leader and founder of learnT DTU - Center for Digital Learning Technology. As a professor her work was centered on learning technology, learning analytics, evidence in learning, learning objects, e-learning, student based learning, exponential future, leadership, statistics, big data, and diversity. She attracted substantial grants and worked together with many companies and organizations on shaping digital learning technology.

2010-2015 Helle was director of DTU Compute - the Department for Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. During her time as director, she led a value-adding merger between DTU Informatics and DTU Mathematics into the new DTU Compute with 400 employees. She managed the successful move of parts of the department into a new, modern building which has set new standards for innovative learning environments and office spaces. During her time as director, DTU Compute multiplied the number of external research grants, made substantial contributions to innovation, and impacted the political scene.

Helle is educated in mathematical statistics at University of Copenhagen and has a PhD in applied statistics from DTU. She has been part of many collaborative research projects with companies and organizations where the focus has been to use statistical methods for answering important questions. Her mathematical background has - in addition to a deep understanding of how to work with data - given her a systematic and model-based approach to leadership and learning, which makes her think in new ways and directions. By connecting the scientific and technical fields with learning and leadership she has created a holistic approach.

Working with people has always interested and motivated Helle and she is educated as business coach and as life coach.

The focal point of andhero is the exciting connections between digitalization, leadership and learning. I look forward to further developing and sharing it with you in talks, workshops, videos, books, projects, and by sparring, mentoring and coaching. See more at www.andhero.dk (ready by the end of August).

Often we talk about the digital as something we cannot change and that comes to us as a wave that cannot be stopped. But we can influence digitalization by assessing and choosing - both as a society, as companies and as individuals. Digitalization can help us increase quality of life, create successful companies and more democratic and equal societies. To do this requires leadership and learning.

Digitalization is very different from anything we've seen before and we need to rethink what we understand by leadership. Leadership is something we do all the time - from self-management to world leadership - and it should not only be a discipline for the few.

To live in a society that is constantly changing, we need to learn every day. This requires us to change our view of learning - learning is no longer something that only happens when we are in school, follow an education or take a course. If we are to learn every day, leadership is required. We must utilize the digitalization so that knowledge is democratized and learning becomes something we can do whenever we need it.

To balance the digital and the physical is essential for the good life. We must not think "either ... or", but "both ... and" - and make sure that the digital and the physical complement each other and create synergies.

Currently member of ...

• Shape Robotics, board, 2022 - (deputy chair from 2023)
• ATVs (Danish Academy of Technical Sciences) "Digitale Vismænd (Digital wise men)", 2014 -(deputy chair from 2022)
• ….. has also been in the board of DHI a/s, DeiC, Dansk IT, DHI Fund, Birkerød Gymnasium, HF, IB, and boarding school and more …. and of Expert group for the experimental program for technology understanding in primary school, appointed by the Ministry of Education

Experiences

• CEO and founder of andhero - 2020-
• Head of learnT DTU - Centre for Digital Learning Technology, DTU Compute, DTU - 2016-2020
• Professor in Learning Technology and Digitalization, DTU Compute, DTU - 2016-2020
• Director at DTU Informatics/DTU Compute, DTU - 2010-2015
• Professor (in Danish "docent"), DTU Compute, DTU - 2005-2016
• Maternal leave - 1990-1991, 2003
• External Lecturer, Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen - 1998-2004
• Statistician at Danish Breast Cancer Cooperation Group, Rigshospitalet, (Leave of absence DTU) - 1997-1998
• Associate Professor in Multivariate Statistics, DTU - 1993-2005
• Assistant Professor in Statistics and Chemometrics, DTU - 1988-1993

Education

• Cand. Scient. (Statistics), University of Copenhagen, 1985
• PhD (Statistics), DTU, 1989
• Certified Business Coach and certified Life Coach, Manning Inspire, 2008
• Executive Program, Singularity University, 2015
• Education for company board members, Niels Brock, 2016

Selected publications

• Caño de Las Heras, S; Mansouri, S S; Uellendahl, H; Weitze, C L; Gernaey, K; Rootzén H; Krühne, U (2018). A methodology for development of a pedagogical simulation tool used in fermentation applications. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 44, 1621-1626 (Received Best Contributed Paper Award. The PSE conference series is the world's premier triennial event in computer-aided chemical engineering research and development)
• Alstrup, S. and Rootzén, H. (2016). Possibilities and barriers for e-learning in primary schools in Denmark. Proceedings of the 15th European conference on e-learning - ECEL16
• Rootzén, H. (2015). Individualized learning through non-linear use of learning objects - With Examples From Math and Stat. Proceedings of the 14th European conference on e-learning - ECEL15.
• K Rostgaard, M Væth, H Holst, M Madsen, E Lynge (2010) Age-period-cohort modelling of breast cancer incidence in the Nordic countries. Statistics in medicine 20, 47-61.
• M Christophersen, P Kjeldsen, H Holst, J Chanton (2001). Lateral gas transport in soil adjacent to an old landfill: factors governing emissions and methane oxidation Waste Management & Research 19, 595-6