In conversation with Kenneth Juhls, ZeroNorth’s new interim CFO

Kenneth has spent the last 23 years working for the Maersk Group where he has assumed leadership roles across multiple industries with a primary focus within finance, risk management and strategy.

For the last five years Kenneth has been Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Maersk Tankers. In this role, Kenneth was responsible for designing strategies, translating them into business plans, tracking strategic and financial performance while driving transformational agendas across the business.

His next move - becoming Interim CFO at ZeroNorth - was obvious because of “how much the purpose of the organisation resonates”, he says. “ZeroNorth’s mission of making global trade green connects to me at my core. It’s great to be able to tell my kids the impact that I’ll be making with ZeroNorth.”

In his new role, Kenneth will bring the expertise in finance and strategy that ZeroNorth needs to continue to scale as an organisation. “I am excited to be able to translate our fantastic strategy into tangible activities, define measures of success and driver our business forward together with the teams in ZeroNorth.”

Laying the foundation for growth

Kenneth’s appointment is timely and critical, as it prepares and positions ZeroNorth for growth over the coming years. By building a robust and scalable financial infrastructure, the company will be better positioned to scale. Key to this, Kenneth argues, is creating high quality and repeatable processes and providing transparency on where ZeroNorth is today, where we want to go and how we get there.

Part of this exciting next phase for ZeroNorth will involve the growth of our team, which is a key focus for the business in 2022. Kenneth adds that he is very motivated by developing high performing teams. 

“Throughout my career I’ve always thrived at in the intersection of a company’s people and purpose. I find it challenging, fun and rewarding to help people develop and impact. It’s a critical aspect of leadership to be able to invest time in people and team development, which is why it is incredible to be joining ZeroNorth as we prepare to rapidly grow our diverse and international team of passionate experts.”

Looking forward

From a corporate perspective, Kenneth’s appointment comes at an exciting and energising time for ZeroNorth. The pace and rate of transformation in shipping is unprecedented, because its biggest challenge – decarbonisation – is not just a shipping issue, but a societal one.

“I think that ZeroNorth really is uniquely positioned to play a part in the megatrends of digitalisation and decarbonisation. If you look at where we are with our data and products today, and where we can go in the future, there is the real opportunity to make meaningful and true impact,” Kenneth says.

“The future of the industry is in platforms. If we can break down the silos and stakeholders and decisions makers across the value chain, we’ll be able to support the industry’s transformation,” he added. “But what’s important is that we must be willing to work fast and collaborate on multiple fronts. These are two principles that I will absolutely bring to my new role.”

Finally, ZeroNorth’s CEO Søren Meyer shared some thoughts on Kenneth’s appointment: “I’ve been lucky to be able to work alongside Kenneth for many years at Maersk Tankers, so I am very excited that he is joining ZeroNorth and our mission to make global trade green. I know that he will enable us to execute our ambitious strategy for growth, bringing in the right structures, systems and processes that we need to ensure we scale across 2022 and beyond.”

Kenneth’s appointment marks the end of an exciting year for ZeroNorth. Make sure you catch up on all our recent announcements via our news page or dive deeper into some of the topics we care about via our Compass blog.