Building Biosolutions Beyond Denmark's Largest Cities
Building a biosolutions company in Northern Jutland has highlighted both the benefits of international talent and the challenge of spouse employment.
When Damien Balkin, CEO of Maripure, chose Denmark as the place to build his business, the decision was not driven by a single factor. Family played a role, with his Danish wife providing a natural connection to the country. But Denmark's focus on sustainability, its strong environmental ambitions and its position as a symbol of the green transition were equally important motivations for establishing the company here.
Today, Maripure operates from Hirtshals, far from Denmark's largest cities and the traditional centres of innovation. Building a company in Northern Jutland comes with challenges, particularly when it comes to attracting talent, but it also offers advantages. According to Damien Balkin, smaller communities often make collaboration easier, strengthen local networks and create closer connections between businesses, institutions and residents. The company has become deeply embedded in the local community while building an international workforce.
As part of DI's Arbejdslyst campaign, which explores what motivates people at work and what makes Danish workplaces attractive, the conversation quickly turned to purpose. For mission-driven companies, meaning is often a significant source of motivation. Maripure's focus on nature-based solutions and positive environmental impact helps create a strong connection between employees and the company's goals. Team members are encouraged to influence the direction of the business and contribute to decisions, creating a sense of ownership and engagement.
At the same time, the Danish approach to working life differs noticeably from what Damien Balkin experienced growing up in Australia. Strong expectations around work-life balance, employee involvement and personal time are deeply embedded in Danish work culture. While that creates opportunities for people to pursue meaningful careers without compromising life outside work, it can also create tensions for founders and leaders of small, fast-growing companies where resources are limited and every employee plays a critical role.
International talent is essential to Maripure's success. Recruiting specialised skills in a location such as Hirtshals often requires attracting employees from outside the local area and from outside Denmark. Different perspectives, experiences and approaches strengthen innovation, while local employees and stakeholders contribute valuable networks and knowledge of the surrounding community. According to Damien Balkin, both are needed for companies to succeed.
However, attracting international talent is only part of the equation. Retaining it may be the bigger challenge. One of the strongest messages from the interview was that relocation does not involve just one person. It involves an entire family. While Denmark's immigration system and services such as SIRI generally work well for many international employees, spouses often face significant barriers when trying to establish themselves professionally, particularly if they do not speak Danish. Finding meaningful employment can be difficult, even for highly educated professionals.
For that reason, spouse employment is not simply a personal matter. It is also a talent retention issue. According to Damien Balkin, an international employee may settle well into a new workplace, build relationships and adapt to a new environment, but if a spouse struggles to find work, the resulting stress can affect the whole family. In Maripure's experience, family circumstances have already played a role when employees decided to leave.
Looking ahead, Damien Balkin believes Denmark has strong fundamentals. The country remains a global leader within climate technologies and biosolutions, and the collaborative culture found across government, industry and research institutions is something many Danes may take for granted. For entrepreneurs working to build companies that support the green transition, those qualities make Denmark an attractive place to grow. Yet if Denmark wants to attract and retain more international talent, especially outside the largest cities, creating better pathways into employment for accompanying spouses may prove just as important as attracting the talent itself
