Interview: Natascha Polderman, Group CIO of Control Risks

Computing speaks to Natascha Polderman, Group CIO of Control Risks, and winner of IT Leader of the Year in the SME category at the 2018 Women in IT Excellence Awards

Small and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, but so are the leaders that give them direction and inspire their teams to achieve great things.

Last November, Control Risks Group CIO Natascha Polderman was named IT Leader of the Year in the SME category at the 2018 Women in IT Excellence Awards.

The Women in IT Excellence Awards 2019 are now open for entries, check our categories and submission guidelines now!

The event brought together over 600 delegates to celebrate the inspirational women at the forefront of the UK's booming technology sector.

Polderman is responsible for the IT, business process and systems function at the specialist risk organisation, which operates across 37 global offices and works with clients in all sectors.

"I was proud to have won the award, and it was a special night to be at a table with so many other women from my company, as seven had been shortlisted," she says, reflecting on the win.

"It gave us an opportunity to showcase our talented and diverse tech teams outside the organisation. The company celebrated our awards and I think that we sent a really positive message about females in tech within the company and to our clients.

"I also think the awards motivated our shortlisted candidates - a boost of confidence is sometimes all you need."

The winning ingredient

When it came to entering the awards, Natascha wrote an honest application that focused on her earlier experience in the technology sector.

"I have always been interested in technology, although perhaps not a typical manner in that I leaned more towards the buzz of helping someone solve a technical issue and I also really enjoyed showing value with data," she says.

"In the early days, I was one those Microsoft Access and SQL query fanatics and generally leaned towards that aspect of IT rather than fixing hardware problems or building servers.

"I am very passionate about making sure that tech teams focus on the sustainability of a solution and, more importantly, the value that the investment will provide rather than the tech itself."

Natascha credits her success to working "with talented technologists who can challenge my thinking and also encourage us to be innovative".

She says: "I am really proud of the team I work with in IT as we have a great mix of skills, nationalities, gender. And we are truly diverse, which shows in how we operate."

A diverse role

What Polderman loves the most about her role is the variety it offers. "No day is the same. I find myself moving from subject, such as talking to someone in the business about how we can automate some of their processes," she enthuses.

"And then the next meeting could be about how we encourage our business to reduce single-use plastic. The people at the company are also quite diverse and interesting to speak to and are generally very open about sharing new ideas."

However, Natascha admits that her biggest challenge is trying to find enough time to do everything. Alongside a busy career as a successful CIO, she's also a mum to an eight-year-old daughter.

"My husband and I do our best to juggle it all, but there are some days when we find it tough. This is balanced with the days when everything works," says Polderman.

Looking ahead

Natascha reveals that her biggest priority for 2019 is incorporating technology into everything the business does for clients, as well as maximising agility and the diversity of teams.

"The IT team have developed a set of roadmaps for various areas of our business where we intend to invest in technology such as automating manual processes or enabling the business to do more with their data along with providing clients additional benefit through our platforms," she says.

"We also have to do this as fast as possible - and at a cost the company can afford - while balancing information security requirements and ensuring we are innovative as well as working with the people who are closest to our clients."

She concludes: "This is absolutely why we need diverse technology teams, because each of these priorities requires different skill sets: technologists, relationships builders, influencers, programme and delivery experts to name a few."