A CFO’s Perspective: Life & Leadership

007: Friendship is something truly special and there aren’t many people I would genuinely call a close friend. But Line Fandrup is one of them. She’s someone I deeply admire, for her strength, her intellect, her integrity, and for the way she shows up both as a powerful leader and as a deeply present mother.

Line is the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President at NKT, a global leader in power cable solutions supporting the green energy transition. Her journey spans leadership roles at companies like Maersk, Novozymes, COWI, and ROCKWOOL and throughout her career, she’s stood out for her strategic clarity, operational excellence, and quiet resilience.

In this episode, we reconnect not only as professionals, but as friends — and we dive into a very real conversation about what it means to be a woman in leadership today. We talk about:

What it’s like to sit as the only woman in a C-level meeting — and the eye-opening moment when she realized her male colleagues couldn’t see the everyday discrimination women face.

How she found the courage to speak up — and share, vulnerably and honestly, what life looks like for a woman navigating a male-dominated world.

Motherhood and ambition — how she manages to keep her career in focus while being a devoted mom to two amazing daughters.

The unspoken pressure on female leaders to be both empathetic and assertive — and how she balances that tightrope between “understanding” and “bossy.”

Building resilience — what it takes, why it matters, and how she strengthens hers day by day.

Her go-to formula for staying grounded: Sleep. Eat. Exercise. (Simple, powerful, and totally underrated.)

Our shared experience at INSEAD — where we first met, and where we learned that while cultures may differ, we humans aren’t all that differnt.

Plus, Line offers up her best career advice and leaves us with a coaching snack that’s as practical as it is inspiring.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to lead with heart, strength, and authenticity — this conversation is it. Line’s story is not just a CFO’s perspective — it’s a woman’s perspective, a mother’s perspective, and a leader’s perspective, all wrapped into one.

Tune in now — this one’s personal.

Podcast Links:

Book Tips

• Wenn die letzte Frau den Raum verlässt (Vincent-Immanuel Herr, Martin Speer) – GERMAN only!
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey)
• The code of the Extraordinary Mind (Vishen Lakhiani)

More about Astrid:

• https://www.astridsteingrueber.com
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• Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astrid-steingrueber/