Head of the Department of Clinical Medicine, Kristjar Skajaa, is stepping down as department head when his six-year employment contract expires next summer. This means the faculty will have to find a new head for Denmark's largest health science department during 2018.

2017.11.02 | Nanna Jespersgård

"The timing is appropriate for at least two reasons: I am approaching the age of 65 and have other things in life to achieve apart from 'just' work. And I find it reasonable to give our new dean, Lars Bo Nielsen, the best opportunity to shape a new team that can work six to nine years into the future."

These are Kristjar Skajaa’s grounds for leaving the position to a new man or woman – who has the courage to lead Denmark’s largest health science department – after six years as head of the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University.

"I have enjoyed my work as department head and I also think that when I step down I will leave behind a well-functioning department with committed researchers and lecturers and with a financial situation that is on the way to balancing," says Kristjar Skajaa, who informed the department's approximately 800 tenured employees of his decision yesterday.

"The reason why I am informing everyone about my decision so early is to ensure that there is time for a good and thorough process in relation to finding my successor," says Kristjar Skajaa. 

Close ties with all the region's hospitals

Dean Lars Bo Nielsen notes Kristjar Skajaa’s decision and observes that the faculty is losing a manager who has achieved a long list of impressive results. First as chief medical officer and centre director at Aarhus University Hospital, AUH, which has repeatedly been named Denmark's best hospital, and then as head of the department where the very connection to the hospital has made Aarhus a role model for many other university and hospital collaborations in Scandinavia.

"Kristjar Skajaa has played a big role in carrying forward and developing a tradition for an unusually close collaboration between basic research, clinical research and clinical development that means the university today has an exemplary collaboration with all of the hospitals in the Central Denmark Region," says Dean Lars Bo Nielsen.

"In addition, Kristjar has implemented and developed a clinical medical degree programme that we can only be proud of, so all in all we are saying goodbye to an experienced and competent head of department," says Lars Bo Nielsen.

Finds solutions that work for everybody

Chief Medical Officer at Aarhus University Hospital, Claus Thomsen, also highlights Kristjar Skajaa’s in-depth knowledge of the university hospital, its role and the patient perspective.

"Knowing both the hospital and the department so well has made Kristjar Skajaa a strong strategic head of the clinical research, which also makes him fantastic to work with because he finds solutions that work for everybody," says Chief Medical Officer Claus Thomsen, Aarhus University Hospital.

Claus Thomsen had the pleasure of sharing the chairmanship of the Management Forum for Collaboration between the University and Region with Kristjar Skajaa during the first year in which Kristjar headed the work of gathering together clinical research in the region.

"It is also appropriate to highlight Kristjar Skajaa’s ability to reorganise and adapt the Department of Clinical Medicine, so that the organisations have matched each other. This has strengthened the partnership on all levels," says Claus Thomsen.

What is required of Kristjar’s successor?

Kristjar Skajaa took up the position of department head on 1 July 2012, replacing at that time Professor Jens Christian Djurhuus. What will be required of the next department head and the core tasks that they will have is not a topic that Dean Lars Bo Nielsen will get into offhand.

"Kristjar Skajaa has only just made his decision, so I therefore now look forward to a thorough dialogue with the department's employees, AUH and the other regional hospitals in which we can define the requirements for Kristjar’s successor. We have plenty of time and I am pleased about that," says Lars Bo Nielsen and adds:

"Kristjar has made a huge effort to develop the department and has created a framework and direction for a clinical education and research environment of exceptional international class. He leaves behind a well-functioning department that has enormous potential together with the rest of AU, AUH and the other regional hospitals, to consolidate and expand its leading international position within academic medicine in the years ahead."

When he stops, the most important thing for Kristjar Skajaa will be to spend more time with his family, which in addition to his wife, Consultant, MD Inge Dørup, comprises three adult sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. 

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Contact

Department Head Kristjar Skajaa
Email: kristjar.skajaa@clin.au.dk
Telefon:  78 45 90 00