Liselotte Munk

Q. Tell us about your professional journey and what led you to become the CEO of Fadata?

I have been CEO at insurance solutions provider, Fadata, for 6 years. Prior to joining Fadata, I was Insurance Industry General Manager for Europe at DXC. I grew the business and became a Thought Leader in digital transformation for the insurance industry. In total, I have over 25 years of experience in the software and insurance industry. Despite my senior role in a tech company, I do not come from a technical background. I completed a master’s degree in finance and business economics. I was headhunted for Fadata and since accepting my role, I have restructured the company with central strategic people and continue to do so. I strongly believe that we will accelerate scaling up our growth pattern over the next 4-5 years and become a super-power thanks to our 30 years of experience in the insurance software industry. We understand the industry drivers and have engineered the foundations for next-gen insurance which will support our customers on their digital journey.

Q. How do you see the InsurTech industry evolving over the next 5-10 years?

It has become more difficult to attract investors to start-ups in InsurTech. Small point solutions are at risk of not having sufficient financial capacity to invest in the technology to match the market requirements. We foresee many being bought by large insurance solution providers which are in a much stronger position to deliver InsurTech and offer the full value chain. It is the experience of the industry and understanding the needs of insurers that confidently drives innovation. Tech-wise, a prominent InsurTech evolution will be the abilities provided by a modern cloud infrastructure. The cloud offers insurers a wealth of advantages, with efficiency and flexibility being top of the list. In the cloud, insurers benefit from significant process optimisation, the ability to deliver a better, more customised customer experience, access to future innovation, the ability to rapidly react and adapt, and much more, all of which have a positive impact on their bottom line when done well. The potential for insurers to thrive in the cloud is great and we hope more will be focusing on how best to make the leap. The cloud enables collaboration, which presents InsurTechs with the opportunity to be supported by larger, established software providers and expand their reach while delivering insurers more convenient access to features via their core system. AI is also becoming a prominent power for InsurTech, ushering in a new era of data-driven insurance. And of course, insurance companies have a wealth of data at their doorstep. What a great time to unleash data potential.

Q. What are the biggest challenges facing the InsurTech industry?

We continue to encourage the insurance industry to catch up with other industries to become fully digital. By leaping into the digital era and delivering insurance in a completely new way, insurers can remove the constraints of ageing technology and cumbersome processes and shift to customer-centric product offerings. Adopting new technology in order to stay competitive is most definitely a challenge. In the first instance, for many, a cultural mindset transformation that innovation is not simply a department is a great start. So, too, is promoting the message that change has its rewards. Attract exciting, new talent that is more au fait with technology. Already we see classic insurers securing younger people familiar with IT at an executive level, making it much easier to communicate the benefits of InsurTech and work side-by-side on a clear strategy. Injecting fresh DNA into a typically traditional industry will play a huge part in driving transformation forward. One of our main challenges is attracting enough talent as we expand, while ensuring we maintain our company values.

Q. What role does artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) play in your product offerings?

Insurance is a big-data industry, and AI and ML have a significant role to play in the future of insurance, making it possible to analyse the invaluable large volumes of data. Insurers benefit from insights into individual customer behaviour, preferences, and risk profiles, enabling them to tailor products and services accordingly. We enable the opportunity to orchestrate data in an efficient way and utilise data effectively, which enables insurers to deliver the level of personalised services, products, and experience that new generations expect in the modern world. Fadata is making data accessible and structured and providing the means to process data in real-time. We have embraced a community ethos and developed an ecosystem of specialist partners, many of which add features powered by AI to our core system. These expert data-collecting tools provide our users with the means to improve their services, from expediting straight-through-processing to enabling automated marketing for triggering relevant communications to create value. We are also utilising AI to develop and test software. AI tools will mature quickly, and in turn, help to mature software faster.

Q. What are some of the significant challenges you have faced as a female leader in a male-dominated environment?

Besides my own management team now, I have always been the only female in every work team I have been a part of. It never occurred to me that this was a challenge, but looking back, it indeed was. I’ve found that male-dominated workplaces are extremely focused on “the numbers,” while I was also interested in the development of people, understanding different cultures, structures, and people’s motivations. Trying to highlight that the numbers are just the result of what people are achieving has often been a challenge. I can’t say with confidence that I have succeeded in changing the priorities of any of my peers along the way, but I truly believe that empathising with people has made a difference to the businesses that I have been involved with. To make change happen, you have to do things differently. Yes, understand the numbers, but it is not essential to solely focus on them. Every company analyses success by numbers, but it’s what drives people to achieve them that translates into progress. Thankfully, I’d say times are changing (potentially the result of the increase in female leaders) and future generations won’t be as challenged.

Q. What advice would you give other women who aspire to leadership roles in male-dominated environments?

Firstly, women, just like men, need to ensure that they have the education, skills, experience, motivation, and competitiveness to step into big tech roles. Armed with this toolbox, they have a strong chance of progressing their career. However, there should be an onus on companies to recognise the female traits that often see them trailing behind their male counterparts on the company ladder. Traits that can be beneficial to the organisation of a company and therefore best suited to management-level roles. Women are more empathetic, championing people rather than gender. We can instinctively volunteer our time for the jobs that aren’t our responsibility and aren’t visible or rewarded. This ‘can-do attitude’ is a golden attribute to praise and nurture and could be recognised as creating value; otherwise, companies should be doing more to ensure housekeeping is shared between genders. I mentor young women at the Danish IT university, and one of the most important messages I deliver is “be willing to take the power and the risk, be disruptive, speak up, create value in your work, and absolutely refuse to make the coffee!”

Q. How do you support and promote diversity and inclusion within your company?

We are proud to be committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We break the mold and cast our net further to find candidates that may not currently be considered by other companies. I preside over an executive management group that is 50% female, which as you can imagine, is almost unheard of in a tech or insurance company. We have introduced a number of initiatives, and by 2026, we aim to have a 50/50 ratio on gender diversity in all managerial levels as well as c-level. We have employees from almost 20 nationalities, which we celebrate and take great care to accommodate, considerate of the diverse values in varying countries. Talking specifically about women, the sad truth is that there is only a small pool of candidates to consider. Tech education establishments and companies could do a lot more to attract women to the industry. That said, if a tech company truly wanted to hire women, the responsibility is on them to find the right profile and attract them.

Q. Looking back, what key piece of advice would you give yourself?

I would tell myself that the reality is you never really get wiser. The world is constantly changing, so it is necessary to reflect all the time. There is an element of recognising how things work well and understanding the constants, but be prepared to shift goals posts, expect the unexpected, and be willing to make hard choices to influence change and succeed.

Q. Are there any upcoming plans for Fadata you are particularly passionate about?

Fadata is undergoing major growth and on our current trajectory, we will achieve our goal to go from €30m revenue to €100m revenue within 5 years. Our internationalisation expansion includes new offices positioning us in three major regions – EU, APAC, and LATAM – a business strategy that is boosted by landing clients and supporting them to expand into new territories. Fadata has become a major SaaS provider, and naturally, our goals align with those of our clients. We celebrate co-creation and are proud to be learning from our clients and translating that knowledge into our solutions for the benefit of all. We are supporting our clients in creating efficient internal Centres of Excellence for critical business processes, providing training and assisting with setup to enable them to insource their business’s critical knowledge. In doing so, we are positively engaging with advisory boards on different levels within a client’s business, promoting an exchange of knowledge that will influence future relations and benefit all clients. I’m also excited to see how we can use AI to our advantage. It is impossible to ignore the significance of AI evolution, and despite the immaturity of its applications right now, we fully expect to obtain significant productivity out of AI investment.

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