Board of Directors

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Board of Directors

Kurt Anker Nielsen, Member of the Board

Kurt Anker Nielsen was initially employed in Novo Industri A/S in 1974 as an economist.

He served as CFO and deputy CEO of Novo Nordisk A/S until 2000 and from 2000 to 2003 he was CEO of Novo A/S. He serves as vice chairman of the Board of Novozymes A/S and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, LifeCycle Pharma A/S, Denmark, and ZymoGenetics, Inc, US. He is chairman of the Board of Reliance A/S, Denmark, and a member of the board of Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark. In Novozymes, LifeCycle Pharma A/S, ZymoGenetics, Inc, and Vestas Wind Systems A/S he is also elected Audit Committee chairman. Mr Nielsen serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of Collstrups Mindelegat, Denmark.

Mr Nielsen has an MSc in Commerce and Business Administration from the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, from 1972.

Mr Nielsen was first elected to the Board of Novo Nordisk A/S in 2000 and has been re-elected several times, most recently in 2009. His term as a board member expires in March 2010.

Mr Nielsen has been chairman of the Audit Committee at Novo Nordisk A/S since 2004 and designated as Audit Committee financial expert (as defined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In January 2009, the Board of Directors of Novo Nordisk A/S assessed that Mr Nielsen qualifies as an independent Audit Committee member as defined by the SEC and that he is not regarded as an independent board member as defined in Section V.4 of Recommendations for corporate governance designated by the NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen (2008) due to his former position as an executive in Novo Nordisk A/S and his membership of the Board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. At the same time, the Board of Directors also assessed that the special competences possessed by Mr Nielsen that are important for the performance of his duties are his in-depth knowledge of Novo Nordisk A/S and its businesses, his working knowledge of the global pharma-ceutical industry and his experience in working with accounting, financial and capital markets issues.

Mr Nielsen is a Danish national, born on 8 August 1945.

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