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Kirk ’95 and Lauren Schulte Kjeldsen ’95 are citizens of the world.
Lauren (L-R), Anfinn, Kirk, and Amalie Kjeldsen in Shanghai.
By Matt Sinclair ’90
In their 10 years together, Kirk ’95 and Lauren Schulte Kjeldsen ’95 have embraced life working around the globe. They currently reside in the former French Concession district in Shanghai. Even so, Kirk, who is a novelist, screenwriter, and professor of cinema, travels regularly to Virginia Commonwealth University School of Arts. And, for her job, Lauren travels to Germany and throughout Asia about 20 weeks a year.
They thrive in this ever-changing dynamic, a reflection of the city itself.
“No other city in the world has reinvented itself more over the past generation, and it keeps reinventing itself as it goes forward,” says Kirk, who changed the setting of his first novel, Tomorrow City, after arriving in Shanghai from Germany.
“I reset it here. It just made sense, being a story about a character trying to reinvent himself.”
More changes are in the works. By September, they will be settled again in Germany where Lauren will take on a new role with her company, Evonik, as director of global strategic growth initiatives.
For the past three years, she has been director of personal care for the German specialty chemicals company with such clients as L’Oreal, P&G, and Unilever, as well as Chinese firms.
The Right Chemistry
She leads and manages a team of about 50 people—Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans. A chemical engineering graduate, Lauren first worked abroad in Germany in 2004.
“The opportunity to live in the Frankfurt area as a global marketing and sales manager for a start-up catalysts business in the life science industry gave me exposure to customer needs, geographies, and concepts new to me,” she says. “This fueled my curiosity in other cultures and the start of my journey in self-awareness that informs my leadership style today.”
In 2011, Lauren was tapped to lead the effort to support the commercial aspects of Evonik’s investment in a new multimillion-euro production facility built on green space in Shanghai. The facility began producing specialty surfactants for the entire Asian region by the end of 2013.
Kirk and Lauren Kjeldsen with their children at The Bund, Shanghai’s landmark riverfront promenade. Behind them across the Huangpu River is The Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower, one of the tallest structures in China.
Lauren has established the infrastructure to help ensure commercial success such as pre-marketing, staffing, and coordination of roles like regulatory, procurement, logistics, research and development, as well as sales and marketing.
Kirk conducts the summer intensive semester at Virginia Commonwealth. He produces about eight short 35mm films with students. He also travels to Los Angeles and New York for film or theater work.