Meet Louise Wåhlin – CFO of Integrum

You stepped into the CFO role during a very eventful period. How would you describe your first year at Integrum?

It's been eventful, to say the least, but above all a lot of fun. When I joined Integrum, the company already had a great deal going for it: outstanding technology, deep expertise, and products that make a real difference. What we needed was to get better at prioritizing. Much of the year has therefore been about building a more stable foundation to grow from. We've worked on our cost base, organization, governance, and transparency, alongside a bidding process, a capital raise, and changes to the board and management. We're not done, I don't think a growing company ever should feel done, but we've turned strategy into concrete priorities and ways of working.

What milestones are you most proud of?

It is easy to start with the big, visible milestones. We have brought down our underlying cost level, completed a heavily oversubscribed rights issue, and reached the highest number of S1 surgeries in the company's history. We've also taken important commercial steps, not least in the US and Ukraine. But I am just as proud of what has happened behind the scenes. We have developed how we work, built a new finance team, and begun to change the way we communicate with our shareholders. Step by step, we're building an Integrum that can grow without cost and complexity growing at the same pace.

What is at the top of your agenda?

The short answer is profitable growth. My part in that is creating the right conditions for it. We have laid a more stable foundation, and now we want it to pay off — investing where we see the greatest impact and making sure the business can scale as volumes grow. There are markets with real potential, and we need to be ready for them without costs and complexity growing at the same pace. 

What are you looking forward to the most?

What I am looking forward to most is showing the market what a remarkable company Integrum is, and the potential we have here. It is hard not to be fascinated by the technology and where it can take us. Developments in bionics and neural interfaces are opening up entirely new possibilities — not only to restore lost function, but perhaps to go further still. The human body may not always define the limits of what is possible.