Martine started working at Nordea Bank’s head office in Oslo right after completing her MSc in Leadership and Organisational Psychology, where she took up the position as Management Partner for the Head of HR.
During this time, she participated in the Nordea Graduate Programme, which gave her a deeper understanding of the banking industry and Nordea’s value chain.
“Throughout the programme, I was given access to Nordea’s Nordic network and also had a mentor. After a while, I became part of a project team, which worked with household strategy and development. Our job was to develop a new customer pro¬gramme for the student segment, including establishing a new service model and new ad¬visory models. When a vacant position as team leader came up, I applied and got it. Despite not having any experience from banking", says Martine.
Today, you head a group of nine who are responsible for advising Nordea’s private clients, aged 18-28. What are you like as a leader?
“My responsibility is to coach and develop my team. I am good at setting clear goals and following up on projects, providing direct feedback. As leader, I have developed skills in building relation¬ships across the organisation.”
Why did you chose banking?
“Banks play an important role in society. By sharing our expertise, we help households, entrepreneurs and companies make well-grounded de¬cisions in order to achieve their plans and ambitions.”
How do you use the BI Alumni network?
“I read newsletters and attend BI Alumni events, to keep in contact with my former classmates and to stay in tune with recent research within strategy, leadership, innovation, creativity and organizational psychology.