CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards

17 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards 2018 NORWAY TURID GROTMOLL CEO of SpareBank 1 Group ABOUT TURID GROTMOLL When Turid Grotmoll joined SpareBank 1 as its director for residential market and non-life insurance business in 2004, 409 people were working for the company. “ Of those people, 408 of them were insurance people, and then there was me .” She is now elected Chairman of Finance Norway, the industry organisation for the financial industry in Norway, representing about 240 financial companies with around 36,000 employees. As Turid explains, her route to the finance industry was far from typical. Educated as a teacher in mathematics and media and as an engineer in electronics, sound and video, she also has a Masters of Management in marketing and business process reengineering and scenario management. “ I worked in Norwegian broadcast television for 11 years as an engineer, editing programs, producing sports and news, and after that I worked at Telenor, Norway’s incumbent telecommunications business, for 17 years ,” she says. During that time the organisation evolved from monopoly status to a global mobile player and Turid ultimately held the role of CEO at Telenor Private, with responsibility for residential markets. “ After being part of the attempt at merging Telenor and Sweden’s Telia, I was ready for new challenges. That was when I joined SpareBank 1 .” She may have been an industry outsider when she joined SpareBank 1, but it’s a position that she has made work for her. “ I started working with the distribution, sales, pricing, product development, procurement, CRM and data processing, working through everything to transform it from a product-focused to a customer- centric company ,” she says. In 2012 Turid took up the role of chief executive of the non-life insurance business and later that year, chief executive of the merged life and non-life insurance business. Then in 2015 she was appointed to her current position as CEO for the Group. It’s a role she relishes. “ I find the SpareBank 1 owners and partners meet the future in a very open-minded way and I like that. They are curious and always looking to the future; they travel all over the world to see what’s next. ” Turid brings her experiences at the forefront of technology developments in the telecommunications industry into the banking and finance sector. “ I came from Norway’s major telecom provider and I learned things there that I wanted to take into another business ,” she says. It also fires her instincts as a businesswoman. “ I like competing; I like making money; I like the sales and the development .” The feeling of achieving success together is what keeps her motivated and moving forward. “ I have always been a team player and I think that feeling is what I enjoy the most .” FIRM PROFILE SpareBank 1 was established after Norway faced a financial crisis from the late 80s to the early 90s and many savings banks were near bankruptcy. “This led to quite serious discussions between many savings banks on how to stay strong and independent while retaining their regional focus. And also how to compete with the bigger banks while markets were changing very rapidly,” says Turid. “Through those discussions they built trust and a common understanding and a willingness to give a little independence to gain a lot of cooperation.” Thus, Sparebankgruppen, an alliance founded by four independent savings banks, was established on 11 November, 1996. There have been some changes over the years. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) joined the alliance in 1999-2000, and Sparebanken Hedmark joined in 2006, while Sparebanken Vest left the alliance in 2003–2004. “There have been some changes but the alliance has had a long life,” says Turid. It now consists of 14 banks with 300 offices across the country. They distribute the Group’s products and join forces in areas such as brands, work processes, and IT and systems development. The customers trust in insurance companies in Norway is very high compared to other markets. SpareBank 1 Insurance is repeatedly ranked as number one in customer satisfaction and loyalty, recently by Norwegian Customer Barometer 2018. SpareBank 1 Insurance has also taken a step further on sustainability. Through the past two years, steps are taken from being a responsible community member to becoming a contributor to sustainability. Climate change is affecting the insurance industry directly. Our motivation to commit to sustainability is, as much as understanding changes in risk, also to explore business opportunities. New concepts for financial services are needed for the world to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. SpareBank 1 is ranked as Bank industry leader in Sustainable Brand Index 2018, the Nordics’ largest brand study focusing on sustainability with more than 40,000 consumer interviews.