In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen - HIGHLIGHTS: Ester Baiget - CEO of Novonesis

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

We've curated a special 10-minute version of the podcast for those in a hurry.   Here you can listen to the full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/novonesis-ceo-biosolutions-at-scale-replacing-chemicals/id1614211565?i=1000736366962&l=nbWhat actually happens inside a fermentation tank? Nicolai Tangen sits down with Ester Baiget, CEO of Novonesis, to explore the science and business behind enzymes. The company uses fermentation to create natural alternatives to chemicals found in the food we eat and products we use. From yogurt to bread to laundry detergent, Novonesis solutions are already in things you use every day. They discuss why European regulations slow down innovation, how the company finds the right microbes and enzymes for each customer need, and what makes employees so passionate about the mission. Ester also shares her leadership philosophy and what drives her as a leader. Tune in for an insightful conversation!In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday.  The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by Isabelle Karlsson. Watch the episode on YouTube: Norges Bank Investment Management - YouTubeWant to learn more about the fund? The fund | Norges Bank Investment Management (nbim.no)Follow Nicolai Tangen on LinkedIn: Nicolai Tangen | LinkedInFollow NBIM on LinkedIn: Norges Bank Investment Management: Administrator for bedriftsside | LinkedInFollow NBIM on Instagram: Explore Norges Bank Investment Management on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, everybody. Tune in to this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday for the long version. Tune in on Wednesdays. Hi, everyone. I'm Nicola Tangan, the CEO of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. And today I'm here in really good company with Esther Baygett, president and CEO of Novo Nessis, which is one of my absolute favorite companies. Esther is leading the transformation to biosolutions and which basically replaces chemicals with nature-based alternatives. you'll have it in everything you eat bread to the stuff you use to clean your clothes and basically Novenesis is part of very many things in your life we own 2.5% of Novenesis which is more than 700 million dollars and we are just

super excited to have you here Esther thank you very much I'm delighted to be here Nikolai so let's just start with the basics what you do what do we do in Nobonesis No one I mean you actually made a beautiful description of whom we are Nikolai we are the leading biosolutions company we silently touch with our enzymes with our microbes more than two billion people every day enabling a healthier life and enabling a healthier planet and enabling solutions that drive value for our customers transforming the way that they produce and the foods that we eat but but i mean biosolution what is it exactly and what is an enzyme an enzyme an enzyme is a protein that acts as a catalyst and makes things happen in life. You make enzymes,

I make enzymes, exist in nature. They're developed by nature. What we do in Nobonesis is we bring them up to scale in a professional way. We help nature to be better. Through bioengineering, through very high advanced analytics, strain more than 100,000 microbes in our libraries and scale up capabilities, we take solutions inspired by nature and we bring that to scale and maybe then value added for our customers. And how do you produce these things? Through fermentation. You've got big tanks and you just ferment them?

We have big tanks. We have really big tanks, but we also have tiny tanks. What it's important is not only the fermentation, it's the finishing and bringing the right level of formatting for our customers. So anyone can ferment. And you let bread in the bag and eventually it would mold. That's a fermentation. We ferment at a professional level.

Now, Novinesis is the merger of two companies, Christian Hansen and Novazim. And I think it's kind of fun because those were two companies, which I followed when I was an equity analyst. And I loved both companies. And now you are one. Now, why is Denmark so strong in this industry, you think? There is a culture and probably a heritage of fermentation, embedded on the culture. I mean, actually, we just established a partnership with Noma, the restaurant grew through bringing fermentation and the art of fermentation and functionalization of fruit.

And we have just created a partnership in that direction, showing the beauty of fermentation and how we can transform the wall. So there is a driver of heritage on culture and fermentation. Then there is strong foundations that continue to bring the reinvest and give back to the society. We're part of also. I mean, our main shareholder is also a foundation, the Novo Nordic Foundation. And we, and then there is an extraordinary network between universities, small enterprises, big pharma, biopharma companies that one fits the other and creates a hub of excellence

of biotechnology and also competitiveness that continues to track the very best talent in the world. So you and I, we met in Brussels at the EU Commission. How do you, how would you characterize the EU Commission work here? We're speaking the same language. I hear the language and I feel the understanding, that we have an unnecessary level of regulation or that grow blocks, I'm missing speed, I'm missing speed on the change and on the effectiveness. But this is just, but what you do is just, isn't it just like good, good, good?

I mean, it's healthy, it's, I mean, it's healthy, it's environmentally good, it's... Unprofitable? Yeah, for you, of course, and for us, but why would they not just want to stuff your things into everything? And that not only speaks for Europe, it's for everywhere. It's not only good, good, good, good. It's good for the environment. If you would move to its full potential, only the solutions exist today. We would reduce the CO2 emissions of the planet 8%.

No new solutions, only the ones that exist today. If we would contend, untapped the potential of biosolutions as it is today, that will unleash 800 billion economic profit by 2025, 35. This is homegrown solutions. You don't need chips. You don't need import NAFTA. It's based on biomass. So it's local jobs, homegrown solutions

that drive and bring value for your customers and fulfill the consumer needs. Why is not happening faster? It's exactly what we're bringing as loudly and hopefully constructively. Also, we see the pool. Some countries moving faster. As you said, U.S. is moving.

China is moving boldly, India is moving, Europe is making the right noises, we need speed. And when you look at the map for your R&D development going forward, what are the type of solutions that you can see which we are not having now? We have, so we're very pleased on where we are and then we have solutions ready to bring carbon capture. We have solutions ready for make plastic recycling. We are very excited. We are very excited about the untapped potential of high value specialized proteins that will bring different answers for the nutritional needs. High muscle weight recovery, proteins that will boost the muscle weight, proteins that will be for special patient needs that they have

some troubles of digesting one proteins and providing another ones. We have, we see really tremendous potential on helping biopharma on how to boost productivity by making the right enzymes that we're not pharma, we're not pharma, but we can help pharma. Why is your employee engagement strong? I can tell you why I'm engaged and also maybe what I'm what I'm feeling about the organization. It is a seamless continuity between your personal values and what we do. We are enabling a healthier lives and a healthy planet and we're growing. It's also a joy on grow on being successful.

And you do feel you're changing the wall. You do feel you on an inflection point. But how do you... So that all sounds great, right? But now I'm working in your factory. I'm cleaning your tank between each batch, right? That's my job. I put on my suit.

I'm cleaning the walls of the tank. You know, why do I think is great? I would like to think that because you understand that what you do, It's important. And how do you make me understand that? We explain it. And we say a lot of thank you.

Because if you're not cleaning the tank right, that performance of that good, it's not going to be there. And we won't be able to supply our customer with the right time, with the right delivery, and we're going to miss a big opportunity in the market. Do you think you say more thank you than other companies? I know I like saying thank you. Because I just, he just struck me that perhaps we are not thanking our people enough. I enjoy. I like it. It's fulfilling saying thank you.

How would people characterize your leadership style? You have to ask them. Definitely you have to ask them. I hope they would say, I'm good making questions. I hope they would say it's, I hope they would say it's, fair and courageous. It's hard to the couple, what is your leadership tap and also what is you as a person. They go a little bit together. I thrive in an environment where I surround myself for people who is better than me. I love being challenged constructively.

But are you tough? Define tough. Well, if people don't perform to your standards, what do you do? I am demanding. Yes. Because I think we deserve high standards. I think you deserve high standards. I think our customers deserve high standards. But also we embrace failure. We are an R&D company. We are a science company. Of course we fail. That's R&D. Otherwise it would not be innovation. It would be physics. We know that we're going to fail. But we just have to fail fast. We have to learn from those failures and we have to move on. Thank you.