You work in an organization called Civil Rights Defenders. You can almost hear from the name what you do, but would you like to describe a little more about what you actually do?
Sure, Civil Rights Defenders is an international human rights organization that is politically and religiously independent. We conduct advocacy work, legal processes and inform about the situation for human rights globally. In addition, we have an emergency fund that works to provide support and assistance for human rights defenders who are exposed to danger.
We support human rights defenders in over 50 countries and are established locally in just over 10 countries. We cooperate with over 300 human rights organizations worldwide.
The need for support for the issues we work with is enormous and during the just over two years that I have worked here, we have doubled our turnover and almost doubled the number of employees.

Interesting – but as I understand it, you come from a completely different background? What do you feel you have particularly contributed?
That's right, this is the first time I've worked in the NGO world. My background is actually from the business world where I worked for about half of my professional life in large private global companies, and the other half in state-owned companies. When I came into the organization, the Finance function was quite shaky. They had worked hard to change their financial system and when I came in it was not fully implemented. In addition, the few employees who were left in Finance were quite exhausted. This, combined with the fact that the organization had been running at a loss for several years in a row, meant that there was quite a bit to take care of. In this case, much of it initially involved creating stability with the right skills and processes and completing the implementation of the system.
I usually think of the Finance function as part of a company's or organization's infrastructure, if the Finance flows don't work, the rest of the organization also falters. During the change journey, we have had great help from three keywords – simplicity, transparency and communication. These keywords have permeated the entire Finance change work and guided us when we have come to different crossroads before decisions.

What would you say to others who are considering, like you, taking the step from profit-driven to non-profit activities?
What made me take the step from the beginning was that I wanted to make a real difference, it may sound like a worn-out cliché, but in the work I do I feel that I contribute to something meaningful all the time. In addition, I get a unique insight into what is happening around the world via our employees and partners on site. It's both scary and super interesting at the same time.
What has always been my focus is to take the best from the business world and apply it within the NGO world, something that I see colleagues in other organizations with similar backgrounds also do. However, I think there is much more to do in that area so we would need to be more. Taking a role in a non-profit organization doesn't have to be a lifetime assignment and I think more people would be able to think that!