Hi, I'm Ender
Proactive, self-motivated and collaborative leader
I am based in Copenhagen, Denmark and currently working for SimCorp as a Director of Engineering, producing world class investment management software. Prior to that, I worked for Danske Bank - a major bank in Northern Europe. I have a solid background in Computer Science, and I also worked as a computer scientist where I conducted research and lectured in computer science.
My Journey
I hold a PhD degree in Computer Science from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) including a research stay at University of Oxford. My PhD thesis was nominated to the Best PhD Thesis Award of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics by professors from prestigious universities. All my academic studies have been supervised by world class full professors, such as Hanne Riis Nielson, Flemming Nielson, Marta Kwiatkowska, and Mehmet Bülent Örencik.
In the first decade of my career, I worked as a researcher in computer science and software engineering. In parallel with conducting research and lecturing on security, verification, performance, I also kept a sharp focus on growing analytical, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. I made presentations and published articles in international conferences, I was interviewed by journalists, I gave invited talks to industry professionals in Europe, and I took active positions in national and international research consortiums and projects. I served as a vice-president of the DTU PhD Association, and as a Delegate of Denmark in the European Council for Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers.
In the second decade of my career, I worked for the software industry in Denmark. I utilized my software engineering and leadership skills blended with my structural and analytical approach, in order to solve most challenging software development problems. Inherently, my impact has increased and I moved from being an individual contributor to leading development teams to meet their goals while continuously improving and coordinating with other teams. I have been very much people-oriented, tool/language-agnostic, with a lean-agile mindset all along, advocating continuous learning and leading by example.
Currently, I am at the beginning of the third decade of my career, and continuing my journey while refining my leadership style. My professional interests lie in leading and unlocking the potential of large organizations.
My Leadership Style
My work life almost exclusively took place in the Scandinavian work culture, that is known for flat hierarchy, work-life balance, and autonomy. Enriched with the diversity in the work force especially in the software development and technology, the work culture helped me shape a more egalitarian, consensual, confrontational, and direct style using Erin Meyer's terminology from The Culture Map.
Kim Scott's Radical Candor approach has been my North Star, in my leadership journey. The main idea being the leaders need to show that they care personally for employees while also challenging them directly with clear, kind feedback that is not aggressive or insincere.
In addition, I believe in growth mindset - thatis abilities can be developed (as defined in Carol Dweck's Mindset) - and perseverance (as explained in Angela Duckworth's Grit)
My personal preferences profiles indicate that I am persuasive, enthusiastic, dynamic, and sociable. In less conscious mode (e.g. when under stress), my profile tends to exhibit more of competitive and determined behaviour.
