Nordea Tech Leadership Day

Last week Navigio stepped inside Nordea Group Technology’s Tech Leadership Day, a closed-door summit for the 100 executives steering the bank’s data, AI and platform agenda. 

 

Peter Westford opened with an imperative that set the tempo for the day:

 

“When regulation, technology and customer trust all accelerate at once, leaders must outrun their own best lap every quarter just to stay in the race.”

 

From there, our keynote mapped 5 forces reshaping leadership in regulated industries; AI-driven trust questions, a multi-generation Talent Tsunami, the reality that Tech ≠ Transformation, Reinvention as Norm and ever-tightening Compliance ​​and translated them into key critical capabilities that leaders can act on immediately: influence across ecosystems, resilience-built operating rhythms, ethical/AI foresight, and systemic context awareness, each anchored in concrete cadences.

 

The ensuing “Leading Through Change” panel brought those ideas to ground. Ilgi Evecan Duran and Martin Reje joined Nordea’s leaders Sarah Rogers Svensson (Head of Core Banking Change), Mattias Fras (Group Head, AI Hub), Fredrik Edlund (IT Country Lead, Core Systems) and Radha Gowri Subbian (Head of QA & Analytics, ESG Technology). The panel converged on a clear mandate: AI adoption is ultimately a leadership culture project. Curiosity-driven coaching must replace “expert certainty”, narrative clarity must translate uncertainty into shared purpose, and ecosystem partnerships must accelerate experimentation.

 

The conversation reinforced Navigio’s core thesis: organisations that anticipate disruption, build adaptive structures and craft cross-boundary strategy will shape Europe’s next wave of tech-driven value. We serve that ambition by guiding companies through their Full Potential Journey- from setting strategic direction to securing the right leaders and unlocking team performance.


Thank you to the Nordea Group Technology team for curating an uncommonly candid exchange of ideas, and Mikael Englund and Joacim Dahlgren Wanhainen for having us on this forum.

 

Next stop: Almedalen 2025

Curious about knowing more? We’ll unpack these themes and dive deeper into Resilient Leadership during the Almedalen Week. We still have a few slots open and would love to connect and exchange ideas. The easiest way to reach us is through this form.