Sigurd is a junior consultant at We Do Democracy, where he focuses primarily on the Democracy School and processes for democratic development.

Sigurd has a background in the Scout movement, where a love of nature and training in taking responsibility for communities have led him to a number of volunteer and professional roles. Locally, he has led his own Scout troop and helped found the Vejle Youth Council.

From there, things moved quickly. Sigurd has advised the climate minister on the National Youth Climate Council, served as Denmark’s youth delegate to the UN on climate and the environment, and today represents the World Scout Movement on environmental and sustainability issues in various international contexts. He also chairs the committee that allocates the Nordic Council of Ministers’ funds to young people in the Nordic region.

Most recently, he served as country coordinator for the Danish ambassadors to the EU Climate Pact, a voluntary network of people working on climate issues at the local level. The task was to find them, equip them, and give them a common cause to rally around. None of them were required to show up, and this is the kind of organization where you quickly discover what makes people stick around.

Across all his roles, Sigurd has handled the practical aspects: ensuring that agendas, participants, budgets, and meeting minutes all fit together so that a group can focus on the purpose for which it has gathered. He applies that same knack for operations as the office and accounting manager at a small business, where he has built workflows and a website using AI tools.

Sigurd is studying political science at the University of Copenhagen and is interested in the difference between being heard and being taken seriously. He sees two things that must work together. Associations and formal bodies have written rules, making it clear who decides what, and they provide a space where democratic engagement can take root over time. These deliberative spaces, in turn, can ignite a passion in people who hadn’t realized that democracy belonged to them too, and shake up power dynamics that have been allowed to become entrenched.

Competencies

• Organizing Volunteer Communities and Association Democracy
• Facilitating meetings and processes on an equal footing
• Youth involvement and representation in formal decision-making processes
• Nordic and international cooperation
• Operations, coordination, and digital workflows, including the use of AI tools