Adina Kern, Project Manager in Group Performance ＆ Strategy Development
Portrait of Adina Kern
Since April 2021 I have been working as the Project Manager on a major change project centred around the future world of work at Group headquarters in Hannover. But I've already been with Hannover Re for more than 10 years and had the opportunity to take on a number of different roles in the company.
I took a bilingual school-leaving examination in Spanish and knew for sure that more than anything else I wanted to do a job where I could apply my flair for languages and mathematics. One option back then was studying to become a secondary school teacher for Spanish and maths, but I also took a close look at studying law or medicine in Spain. While I was still at school, I applied for an integrated degree programme at Talanx. During my interview, though, one thing very quickly became clear: with my soft spot for Spanish I would do even better joining Hannover Re
At the University of Applied Science in Hannover I read business administration with the required concentration in insurance. I had initially chosen financial services as my second concentration, although I changed this during my course in order to gain the greatest possible insight into the diverse areas of business management.
Since then, I've moved around three times in-house so as to keep tackling exciting new challenges and adding to my knowledge. In 2014, immediately after graduating, I took on my first position with the team "Retrocessions and Capital Markets". After that, in 2016, I moved over to Corporate Development, where I was able to hone my skills in project and process management and lead projects at my own responsibility right from the outset. During this time I also completed my MBA parallel to my work. In 2020 I joined the unit for Strategy Development. On this team we are tasked with advising and supporting the Executive Board in the development of the Group strategy, and we are also responsible for coordinating the Group-wide strategy process. In April 2021 I then took on another major project in the role of Project Manager, and that is still my focus right now. All these stops along the way have enabled me to grow and I am happy that until now I have been able to take on so many different tasks within the company.
Not only that, during my time with Hannover Re I've already had the opportunity to experience many exciting places all around the world. At the beginning of my employment, for example, I spent several weeks in London. I also had stays in Sydney and Hamilton (Bermuda). In 2016 and 2019 I organised, analysed and optimised the process landscapes on-site at these locations for the purpose of business process management. I'm curious to see where else the future takes me - after all, Hannover Re is present on (virtually) every continent. There's certainly never a dull moment.