New Head of Department at new business economics department

By Marlene Jørgensen, marl@sam.sdu.dk, 9/28/2023

When SDU merges the business, environmental and resource economics activities in Esbjerg, Kolding and Sønderborg into one department in January 2024, it will be Christian Elmelund-Præstekær who builds up and leads the new department.

Christian Elmelund-Præstekær is an experienced leader and already a familiar face at SDU. He comes from a position as head of centre at Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality’s Centre for Growth & Learning, where he has been employed since 2019. Before that, he had a career at SDU – most recently as head of department, but also as head of studies and researcher specialising in political reforms and change processes and political, strategic communication at the Department of Political Science and Public Management, where he worked from 2005 until 2019.

In his new position, Christian Elmelund-Præstekær will head a department with approximately 70 employees and research and educational activities at SDU’s three campuses in Jutland.

Experienced leader with extensive knowledge of SDU

One of his first tasks will be to help establish and develop the new department, which will be a merger of the current Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management and large parts of the Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics at SDU.

Dean of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Peter Møllgaard, says of the choice of the new head of department:

- I am very pleased that in Christian we have found an experienced leader who can take on the exciting task of creating a new business economics centre of excellence in Jutland. He combines a deep knowledge of SDU with leadership experience from SDU and the public sector. He can bring this experience into play in the tasks of integrating the new department – culturally, financially and organisationally.

Synergy and collaboration

As a head of department, Christian Elmelund-Præstekær will also have an important function as deputy head of the University of Southern Denmark Business School, where, in collaboration with Director of the Business School Kristin B. Munksgaard and the other deputy head, Head of Department Dannie Kjeldgaard, he will further develop the University’s business economics programmes and strengthen interaction with the surrounding society.

Of his new position and return to SDU, Christian Elmelund-Præstekær says:

- I’m looking forward to returning to SDU – to a familiar setting where I can use my management experience from both SDU and Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality in a new context. I am particularly interested in the management task of bringing the two departments together and generating the most synergy from the people and strengths we have – both in terms of research and education, but also by further developing the collaboration with the society of which we are part, and adds:

- Another initiative I want to focus on is the area of further and continuing education. As a society, we need upskilling and new knowledge, and there is particular potential in creating new opportunities for continuing education in collaboration with employers in business and the public sector. I’m very much looking forward to being a part of that work.

Christian Elmelund-Præstekær will take up the position as head of department on 1 November 2023.

Outside of work, he lives in Faaborg, is married, and has two children and in his spare time he cycles, runs and listens to music when time permits.