Women in Leadership: Ekaterina Nikolaeva

Ekaterina Nikolaeva, what is your job at ERGO?

I head the Audit Center Austria, which provides audit services for ERGO and DAS Austria, and supervises ERGO audit functions in the CEE countries and at DAS. Hungary. Internal Auditing takes a systematic, risk-oriented approach to assessing the effectiveness of internal controls and management and monitoring processes. It develops measures and recommendations on risky vulnerabilities and oversees implementation as part of follow-ups.

How did you start your career?

I began my career at PwC Germany in the Tax Services department. I’ve been working in the ERGO Group for eight years. I started at ERGO in Russia, where it operated in the market with two companies for non-life and life business. In my last position there I was head of auditing. The two companies were sold in 2018 (life) and 2019 (non-life).

In 2018 I was successful in applying for a position in Regional Internal Audit Management (RIAM) at ERGO in Germany and moved to Düsseldorf. The RIAM team is responsible for supporting the international auditing units from a Group perspective.

I worked at RIAM for one and a half years before moving to Austria.

What is your motto?

For me the focus is always on learning and trying out new things and achieving my personal and professional goals.

What makes you proud?

The robust audit results that our auditing team provides, while in the process creating added value for the Group as a whole.

Friendly and cooperative team spirit, and openness and transparency in our team meetings. Each of us can contribute to making our processes more efficient and to improving how we work together.

Please complete this sentence: I support my staff – junior managers and colleagues – in difficult situations by …

… listening attentively to them and trying to put myself in their situation. I then provide feedback on how I would handle the situation if I were in their shoes. You can generally find a good solution through exchanging ideas and discussing opinions.

Let’s assume that a colleague often has thoughts like: "I don’t deserve to be successful", "I’m just not good enough", "I’ll never manage that", or "Other people are miles better than I am..." – What advice would you give them?

To carry out a self-assessment based on a specific listing of their own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we try to compare ourselves with others without having a good basis for the benchmark. But everything should work out if your own profile fits the responsibility you are taking on and provided you have the right motivation. My motto: Always believe in yourself and seize whatever opportunities arise!