Danish Group CFO Claus Aagaard has climbed to the top of Mars after three decades abroad
As Group CFO of Mars, Claus Aagaard holds one of the most influential finance roles occupied by a Dane in global business today. Mars – a family-owned company with global brands across snacks, pet care and food products – is among the largest privately held corporations in the United States and generates more than $65 billion in annual revenue. In this interview, Claus Aagaard reflects on more than 30 years of working and living abroad, rising to the top of global finance leadership while navigating changes and crises – and learning from them along the way.
You have spent 25 years at Mars, the last ten as Group CFO. How have you seen the role of the Group CFO evolve during that time?
The CFO role has moved from being backward-looking to future–shaping. When I studied finance, the discipline was largely about accounting, budgeting, planning and a bit of management science. Today the role is much broader. We live in a fast-paced world. To support the business in making the right decisions in this environment, one needs to have a much broader perspective on all aspects of the business and enable the business to make decisions faster and move at more pace. You need to have a growth mindset. I have always enjoyed that part and think this is very important for a CFO to be at their best in a leadership team. I think in the last decade, one of the bigger shifts has been the expectation that finance leaders understand how technology can change the business. That is where someone like me, who has been around for a while, sometimes has to work a bit harder. The whole digital era, including AI, is changing how we operate. I do not think CFOs need to become technology experts or programmers, but they do need to understand what is now possible. The key is to ask the right questions and understand how technology can help answer them.
Over the past decade, companies like Mars have had to navigate a series of major disruptions. How has that shaped the role of the CFO?
Today, transformation has become a permanent state of mind and a way of operating. In my ten years in the role, we have worked continuously on portfolio transformation while also responding to major events such as cyber threats, COVID, the war in Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions. All of this has forced us to adapt and transform faster. In that process, I am not only responsible for the financial side of transformation. As CFO, I also act as a strategic partner to the CEO and the business on direction and priorities. We have also had to become better at navigating business choices based on different scenarios.
What did you change internally to make transformation more effective at Mars?
We have become much more thoughtful and strategic about portfolio transformation and working systematically on this as a management team and with our board. And as you can see, we have made a number of significant moves that position Mars differently and set us up for generational growth.
On the operational transformation, we have also made changes. When I became CFO, we did not really have formal transformation programmes. Transformation initiatives were funded through normal operating budgets, which meant they often moved too slowly or were deprioritised if business performance dipped. Today, we create dedicated programmes with separate funding and governance. That allows us to execute the changes much better, maintain momentum and track the benefits more clearly.
You mentioned COVID as a major learning experience…
In March 2020 we were asking ourselves a very basic question: would we deliver any free cash flow that year? We probably believed we would, but nobody really knew. It was a very difficult situation, but also a huge learning experience in terms of providing clarity and calm across the organisation. One of the most important things was to define the lines we would not cross. For example, we decided we would not borrow money to fund inventory, so we set a minimum free cash flow target that was much lower than what we normally deliver. That clarity was actually liberating for the organisation. We built well-defined scenarios and clear actions for each to ensure we did not cross red lines. In the end we significantly over-delivered and had a record cash year. It was a great learning experience in understanding how central the CFO and the finance function can be in helping steer the company through uncertainty.
You have almost spent your entire professional life abroad. What has that journey outside Denmark meant to you personally and professionally?
I’m Danish, but after all these years I probably feel more like a nomad. I left Denmark in 1993 to work for Arla in the UK, and what was meant to be a temporary move turned into something much longer. I ended up staying in the UK and eventually became CFO of Arla there. At some point, I decided to change company, so I joined Mars. Around 2005 I started working much more closely with our headquarters in McLean, which exposed me to colleagues and perspectives from all over the world. I found that fascinating. Then in 2009, when we introduced the global verticals operating model we still use today, I became CFO of the Global Petcare business. That was really the moment when I discovered the growth opportunities outside Europe, which until then had been my main frame of reference. Professionally, the journey has been incredibly rewarding. I never really had a clear ambition to become CFO of Mars – in fact, until quite late in my time as Petcare CFO, I probably did not think that was even a possibility. On a personal level, living and working internationally has been great. You travel a lot, you meet people from all over the world, experience different cultures, and along the way I also met my wife in Austria, who was working at Mars as well.
What do you believe Danish CFOs and Finance Executives gain by stepping outside their home market?
If you want to hold a top job in a global company, I think it is very difficult to build that perspective by spending your entire career in Denmark and Europe. Living and working in another country forces you to see things differently. You can choose to look at how people do things and initially often think it is inefficient because it is not the Danish way. The reward is to embrace the differences and try to understand how different systems and cultures work. That perspective is valuable in a global company.
?$Responsive$&wid=1440&fmt=webp&fit=stretch,1&dpr=off "Ambu CFO Henrik Bender - Mars CFO Claus Aagaard_InText (2)")
What strikes you as some of the biggest differences between Danish companies and a global company like Mars?
Denmark is a small economy, so many Danish companies naturally grow as strong domestic businesses that export internationally. That model has produced many successful companies. But if the ambition is to become truly large on a global scale and really win in markets such as the US, China or India, the mindset sometimes has to shift towards thinking and operating as a global company. Part of that comes down to scale. Large markets such as the United States offer a very different starting point. Companies in the US operate in a huge domestic market with hundreds of millions of consumers and can build scale quicker. Danish companies do not have that advantage, so they often grow in a more incremental and disciplined way. What I have learned from working internationally is the value of combining those Danish strengths with the willingness to think bigger and move faster. In the US, companies are often comfortable thinking big, failing fast, shutting things down, writing them off and moving on. I think it is valuable for leaders – and for CFOs – to experience those differences firsthand. In Asia and other rapid-growth markets, the pace is just different to that in Europe. Embracing this is key to maximising the potential for growth.
Do you see yourself returning to Denmark at some point?
I do have a bit of an itch to scratch when it comes to doing something for Denmark. Although I spent eleven years at Arla early in my career, only three of those were in Denmark. In that sense, I feel I have barely worked for a Danish company. When the time eventually comes to step down from Mars, our plan is to spend more time in Europe. At that point it would be interesting to see whether I could contribute to something Denmark – perhaps at a board or advisory level. If there is a place where my experience could be useful, I would certainly be open to that. I have been lucky so far to become a board member at Grundfos and since 2025 also the Chair. I am hoping to be able to build on that in the years ahead.
