Yesterday, Holland FinTech organized a special edition of events to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, entitled “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal future in a Covid-19 World.” As the name suggests, for this event, we have invited some high profile leaders from the Fintech Industry to share insights and perspectives on what it means to be a successful woman in 2021 during a global pandemic. We focused on their journey to where each of them is now and how the pandemic has affected the way they work.

Our Panels included:

Eugenie Casier, Risk and Compliance Director Funding Options for The Netherlands and the UK

Conny Dorrestijn, Founding Partner at Bankifi and Holland FinTech Advisory Board

Fleur Dujardin, CEO at InShared and Holland FinTech Board Member

Angelique Schouten, Founder at Trailblazings and Holland FinTech Board Member

Topics discussed & Key points addressed:

• How to be successful to balance professional & personal life. On this note, being a mother and an esteemed female leader in her professional life, Fleur Dujardin, CEO at InShared and Holland FinTech Board Member, shared that it is highly important to unwind from your work, spend time with your kids and family. The whole act of balancing between motherhood and her career helps her “become more effective” and “get to know” herself better. In addition, Conny Dorrestijn, Founding Partner at Bankifi and Holland FinTech Advisory Board, dived into the definition of experience at the workplace and what other characteristics are needed to achieve high expertise: “Experience is not wisdom on its own. Experience is only wisdom when you couple it with curiosity”.
• The differences between working cultures in different countries. With this in mind, Angelique Schouten, Founder at Trailblazings and Holland FinTech Board Member, opened up about her rich experience in working in various multinational environments and advised people to establish a dominant position in the meeting room so she could influence how others might perceive her during the discussion. For people who have a more down-to-earth nature and have a hard time assert dominance such as Eugenie, Risk and Compliance Director Funding Options for The Netherlands and the UK, the advice is to focus oneself and the journey to achieve personal development.
• Tips and tricks on working remotely. First initiative to combat Covid-19 and provide successful leadership is to prepare and have a crisis team in place, according to Fleur Dujardin, CEO at InShared and Holland FinTech Board Member. It is crucial to stay connected with your team members on a personal as well as professional level by paying more attention to them and make them feel secure with their jobs. 
• Female Leadership. The panelists emphasized that there should be no separation between female and male leadership as the best style is to combine both of them harmoniously and learn to hear the voice of younger generations from different cultures.

Ending up on a positive note, these female industry leaders encouraged the young generation to hold themselves in high esteem, to learn to focus on personal development, and not dive too deep into your negativity. And in the words of Edith Eva Eger, “You are the master of your own mind.”

Did you miss the event? Feel free to watch the recording below: