Doelgroep Testimonials | Risk

Praveen Sridharan - Global Risk Trainee, entrepreneur and environmentaliste

'A couple of years ago, I was drinking tea with my best friend in my home country of India. We were philosophising about how we could give something back to the world. This ultimately led to a solar energy start-up. I deliberately chose to set up a company in India because I can really make a difference there. The Netherlands is way ahead when it comes to solar energy. In India, there’s still not much awareness of climate change and how we can combat it. We developed a business model to make solar energy financially more accessible.'

Jolanda Roos - Manager Risk Management Team and a mountain climber

My drive to achieve goals and the responsibility I feel for the team and NN mean that basically I’m always working. I do try to switch off every now and then. For example, in January this year I climbed mount Kilimanjaro. I did it on my own, but did have a team of porters and a guide. Their mission was to get me to the summit and they did it. It was an amazing experience. Life there was so simple: rucksack on, shoes on, and off you go . I can find the same feeling of peace closer to home, on the small island on the Vinkeveense lakes that I bought with my sister.

Samy Saleh - Compliance Officer, proud son and a football player

‘Football has been my big passion since I was a child. It’s taught me to collaborate, communicate, win, but also lose and handle setbacks. I’m the connector in a team. As a mid-fielder, I maintain an overview and am able to persuade. My football skills also come in handy at work. As a Compliance Officer, I bring different parties and interests together, give advice and help people get on the right track. It starts with observing from the side-lines and ends with a good outcome for all stakeholders. Playing sports with a varied group of people has taught me to get on with lots of different characters. By communicating and listening carefully, I try and ensure that we are aiming for the same goal.’

Thomas de Boer - Actuary

‘NN offers a wide range of work for risk managers or actuaries. You can quickly move to another business unit and that’s exactly what I did. I now work as an actuary at Movir, NN’s occupational disability insurer. It’s a job with real hands-on experience. Some of it involves calculations, but there’s also a lot of discussion with all stakeholders to manage risks and to arrive at the correct premium. Reaal Schadeverzekeringen and NN recently joined forces. We’re now working hard on a joint occupational disability proposition for new customers that combines the best of both worlds. We’re considering the new product conditions, the risks and the impact on pricing.'

Mark van der Zwaag - Market Risk Analist

‘So far, the impact of coronavirus on savings and mortgages has been fairly limited. Although, the capital markets have behaved differently. Of course, this has an impact on our risks. Working from home full time is going really well though, partly because NN was able to scale up its working from home capacity effectively within a short space of time. We have an online stand-up meeting twice a week, so we can continue to work well together. The great thing about an online meeting is that you get to see one another, even if it’s just virtually.’

Monique Abbink - Operational Risk Manager

‘I’m currently spending a lot of my time on the phenomenon of data breaches. In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), personal data may not be leaked to third parties. We sometimes find – particularly in the private market, that addresses are incorrect, and information is sent to the wrong address. In that case, our staff have to fill in a form to register the breach. I and the Data Protection Officer (DPO) then assess whether the data breach is serious – and if it is, we are required to report it to the regulator – or whether the breach is not fraud-sensitive.'

Shalabh Mathur - Head of Financial Risk Department

‘Part of my role in the Financial Risk Department is to look at what the impact is going to be for NN. Climate change would lead to more catastrophic events – we already see a rise in windstorms, hailstorms, and flooding events. Rising sea levels pose another systemic risk. For Non-life, for example, an increase in the severity and frequency of windstorms would lead to an increase claim severity for the property book we have insured. If we do not project these types of risks correctly then we do not price the policy correctly.'

Tom van Beek - Financial Risk Manager

‘In the past few months I’ve been working on the implementation of the so-called partial internal model, which we use to measure risks. NN was already working with its own model that had been approved by De Nederlandsche Bank. I and my colleagues, including some from other disciplines, introduced aspects of this model at Delta Lloyd Life. It’s a large and enjoyable project, because I was able to draw on many individual elements of what I had learnt during my studies and build a bridge between theory and practice.'

Alex Siem - Credit Risk Specialist

‘We want to be a stable bank and that’s why we hold capital. This capital buffer has to comply with the requirements of De Nederlandsche Bank. Because our bank has grown rapidly in a short space of time, partly because of the merger of Delta Lloyd and Nationale-Nederlanden, the requirements for managing our risks are becoming more and more rigorous. It’s a huge challenge to keep pace with this as a risk department.'

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