How Rikke Hougaard Zeberg sees the future of digital leadership in Denmark
Denmark has never been shy about its digital ambitions. But turning vision into real-world impact? That’s where things get tricky. In this episode of Intellis Talks Tech, we sit down with Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Director of DI Digital, for a clear-eyed look at what it really takes to lead in the digital age.
If we want to attract the best tech talent, we need to stop treating digitalisation as a checkbox and start treating it as core infrastructure.
– Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Director of DI Digital
Rikke doesn’t mince words. If Denmark wants to stay ahead, she says, it has to pick up the pace, think on a larger scale, and start working together across sectors with far more intent. From legislation and procurement to talent pipelines, she sees a system that needs sharper coordination—and fast. Global competition isn’t slowing down, and neither are the risks.
Denmark has the potential to lead digitally, but we’re not moving fast enough. We need stronger incentives and a clearer direction.
– Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Director of DI Digital
The conversation ranges from policy bottlenecks to digital resilience, with Rikke offering a rare blend of strategic thinking and on-the-ground realism. One moment stands out: her firm call for policymakers to stop tinkering with scattered projects and start building strong, unified frameworks. Technology doesn’t thrive in confusion. It thrives on direction, structure, and bold action.
About Rikke Hougaard Zeberg
Rikke Hougaard Zeberg leads DI Digital, the digital arm of the Confederation of Danish Industry, where she represents and champions Denmark’s tech sector. Her background spans government, policy, and executive roles, giving her a unique vantage point on the country’s digital journey. She’s a strong voice for modernising public sector IT, bolstering cybersecurity, and ensuring Denmark doesn’t fall behind in a fast-moving digital world. Strategic, straightforward, and future-focused. Rikke brings clarity to conversations that too often get lost in jargon.
At Intellis, we are continuously working on the development and optimization of our solutions, as new opportunities constantly arise with technology and intelligent software. We seek inspiration from a variety of sources to create innovative and groundbreaking solutions. We find inspiration where tech solutions play a crucial role, and this is certainly the case in the world of motorsport.
That’s why our COO, Stig Larsen, was on the sidelines when Kevin Magnussen raced in Formula 1 in Saudi Arabia from March 16-19.
“It was incredible to be on the sidelines, both due to my personal interest and, more importantly, because I gained insight into how team spirit, shared goals, and the drive to push the project forward are truly the keys to success. This is something we embrace at Intellis, both internally within the company and, importantly, in our relationships with our customers, as they are a crucial part of our success,” says Stig Larsen, COO of Intellis.
The trip provided inspiration and professional insights on how we can further develop our solutions and continue to work as a team within the company.
– Stig Larsen, COO at Intellis
Stig continues: “To create groundbreaking solutions that think beyond the norm and drive development, you also need to find inspiration in some alternative places. That’s why Formula 1 and the way they use intelligent software is so interesting. It’s a significant part of the race, the cars, and the way to develop the concept towards a more sustainable sport.”
Stig returned to Denmark with a suitcase full of inspiration, including these key takeaways:
Focus on being solution-oriented when things don’t go as planned.
Work diligently to find the right solution.
Be aware that external factors can play a crucial role, both positively and negatively.
Always maintain a positive attitude towards employees and guests.
About Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen is a Danish Formula 1 driver with the Haas F1 Team. Since his debut with McLaren in 2014, he’s earned a name for bold moves on the track and a no-nonsense attitude off it. Beyond racing, Kevin is a committed father and a strong believer in keeping life balanced. He often speaks about the value of staying rooted in Danish culture, even as his career takes him around the globe. In a world driven by split-second decisions, Kevin brings something rare: a mix of performance, perspective and personality.
Intellis met the artist Maria Sloth and the mayor of Randers on April 24th when we visited to view the beautiful painting of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We bid on and won this painting at the Denmark Collection event on February 4th.
The meeting with Maria and the other Outsider artists at the GAIA Museum was both inspiring and affirming, with discussions primarily focusing on social sustainability.
At the Denmark Collection event, Intellis won several activities, including a painting of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by Maria Sloth Sørensen. Maria, who has Down Syndrome, is described as a reflective, passionate, creative, intense, lively, and proud artist.
Maria’s powerful and expressive art is an inspiration to do things differently and follow one’s instincts. This mirrors how Intellis operates as a company. We are driven by ambition and passion for intelligent software – we are truly passionate about it. Additionally, we often come up with creative – and sometimes unconventional – ideas because we are a growing company striving to develop and improve every day.
Therefore, we wanted to support Maria’s art and GAIA Academy’s mission to make art accessible to everyone, regardless of differences.
We strive to create a company that focuses on being inclusive and diverse because we believe that’s where the exciting, developing, and enjoyable things happen.
– Søren Iversen, CEO Intellis
Intellis is a company that thrives on helping, especially public institutions such as municipalities, with their daily operations. Therefore, it is also important for us to understand the challenges they face. We also draw inspiration and motivation from other sources, as this helps us develop new and crucial solutions that can assist in working more effectively and digitally.
About GAIA Museum Outsider Art
GAIA Museum Outsider Art was founded in Randers in 2022 and offers something truly out of the ordinary. The museum is dedicated to outsider art, also known as Art Brut, a raw and expressive form of creativity that exists outside the boundaries of traditional art institutions. This genre is typically created by individuals with physical, psychological or social disabilities. As British art professor Roger Cardinal once put it, “Outsider art is a product of an authentic creative instinct. It is free from conscious artistic skill and has nothing to do with academic standards, but everything to do with passion and whimsical ideas.”
Right next to the museum you’ll find GAIA Academy, a creative hub that functions as both studio and art school. The academy supports the artists behind the works, offering a space where they can explore their craft, develop their skills and continue to express themselves through bold and unfiltered art. Together, the museum and academy form a rare and inspiring environment where unconventional voices are not only heard but celebrated.
A chat with Kevin Magnussen on racing, innovation and staying grounded
In this episode of Intellis Talks Tech, we catch up with Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen for a conversation that goes far beyond the racetrack. It’s not just about speed and trophies. From the future of hybrid engines to raising a child in Denmark, Kevin reflects on how technology, personal values and purpose come together in his world.
Formula 1 is a lab for innovation. What we develop here makes cars safer, greener and smarter everywhere else.
– Kevin Magnussen, Racing driver & Board member at Intellis
He walks us through the sweeping changes coming to Formula 1, including the shift to power units running on 50 percent electric energy from 2026. But this isn’t just a technical upgrade. It’s a sign of how F1 is becoming a testbed for energy efficiency, road safety, and smarter mobility far beyond the circuit.
Still, this isn’t a tech-heavy talk. Kevin also opens up about the fine line between luck and talent, the pressure of expectations, and the way the sport has evolved since he first joined. He talks frankly about life’s ups and downs in the F1 spotlight and why, even with the lure of higher pay elsewhere, Denmark is where he wants his daughter to grow up.
I’ve raced all over the world, but Denmark is where I want my daughter to grow up. It’s not just about money, it’s about what kind of life we want to live.
– Kevin Magnussen, Racing driver & Board member at Intellis
Some clear themes run through the conversation: balancing drive with values, managing the pull between global fame and local roots, and holding onto a sense of who you are, even when the world around you is moving at 300 kilometres an hour.
About Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen is a Danish Formula 1 driver with the Haas F1 Team. Since his debut with McLaren in 2014, he’s earned a name for bold moves on the track and a no-nonsense attitude off it. Beyond racing, Kevin is a committed father and a strong believer in keeping life balanced. He often speaks about the value of staying rooted in Danish culture, even as his career takes him around the globe. In a world driven by split-second decisions, Kevin brings something rare: a mix of performance, perspective and personality.
A new partnership between Intellis and Konsido makes it easier for companies to access automated analysis, sharper insights and fully integrated spend data.
Intellis A/S and Konsido ApS have entered into a strategic collaboration that brings Konsido’s advanced spend categorisation directly into Intellis’ Tellis solution. The integration marks the start of a broader rollout, where detailed contract and catalogue data will now be fully embedded and easily accessible within Tellis.
With the Konsido1000 category structure, we offer the kind of precise insight UNSPSC can no longer deliver.
– Thomas Schultz, CEO, Konsido
Both companies share a strong ambition to help public and private organisations automate processes, simplify workflows and improve decision-making by offering a clearer view of spending patterns. For data to drive real value, invoice data must be categorised thoroughly and accurately — and that’s now possible through this collaboration.
Konsido CEO Thomas Schultz highlights the demand from customers for a more effective alternative to the ageing UNSPSC standard. He welcomes Intellis as the first provider to integrate the Konsido1000 category structure directly into their platform, securing customers’ future analysis needs.
Openness and dataflow integration are essential for sustainable growth and effective business management.
– Søren Iversen, Partner, Intellis
According to Søren Iversen, Partner at Intellis, the partnership aligns closely with the company’s core values of sustainability, transparency and integration. By enriching customer data and enabling easy sharing across systems, the collaboration strengthens both strategic insight and long-term development potential.
Customers benefit from greater value through seamless dataflow integration, more flexible setup options and a simple, user-friendly configuration for contract data.
Curious to hear more?
In the Intellis Talks Tech podcast, we speak with Konsido’s Thomas Schultz about turning climate goals into practical action. Because sustainability and CO₂ reduction aren’t just buzzwords, they’re becoming a matter of survival and growth for modern businesses.
Intellis is a Danish SaaS company that develops digital solutions for contract management and procurement for public organisations and private companies. We help create an overview of contracts, agreements, deadlines, suppliers and procurement processes, making administrative work simpler and giving teams a better basis for decision-making.
Many organisations spend unnecessary time on manual workflows, scattered systems and a lack of visibility into their agreements. Intellis makes the work easier to manage with user-friendly software that creates transparency, strengthens compliance and makes it easier to follow up on contracts and make better use of existing agreements.
Our goal is to turn contract management and procurement into a strategic strength rather than an administrative burden. With Intellis, companies and organisations gain better control, less complexity and a stronger foundation for creating financial value, working more efficiently and supporting more sustainable development.
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