Marina, what is your current position?

I am the Head of Group Internal Audit at DITH. I’m in charge of organizing this new body worldwide. It is a challenging project which I like to call Global Assurance & Advisory Project because it is aimed at establishing best practices of risk management, control and corporate governance all over the DITH Group that encompasses more than 30 companies worldwide and 3300 employees.

How the EMBA helped you in your job as a woman?

The EMBA provided me with tools, skills and frameworks to successfully grow within my organization, become purpose-driven, broad-minded and forced me to step out of my comfort zone. My competence is strengthened and acknowledged.

Why you decided to start an EMBA?

I realized I wasn’t learning new things, I wasn’t improving my knowledge for too long, I wasn’t challenging my mind.

Describe yourself before and after EMBA in three words.

Before: focused on details.

After: open mindset, seeking challenges.

How the program changed your mindset?

The program did change my mindset, and it was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks to a curriculum that teaches both hard and soft skills my vision became more strategic and open. The confrontation and exchange of views with the class and the teachers was of great value in this.                        

Would you suggest an EMBA to women? Why?

From early childhood, girls are taught that their success is contingent upon acting in certain stereotypical ways, such as being polite, soft-spoken, compliant and relations-ship oriented. Throughout their lives, this message is reinforced by media, family and society. But “nice girls don’t get the corner office”, as a L.P. Frankel says. Women are 3.8 per cent of Fortune 500 CEOs, worldwide 8 per cent of top executives are female. It is a matter of empowerment and an EMBA is one of the tools a woman can use to empower herself.