“Eraneos feels like a startup with professionals: there is a lot of freedom, autonomy, and transparency.”

Meet Senior Manager Noor

From the Public Prosecution Service to integrity supervision in the financial sector and subsequently to IT risk supervision: Noor Witteveen has had an impressive and versatile career. Her expertise now lies at the intersection of compliance and technology. She focuses on safeguarding the digital security of organizations. With her broad knowledge and expertise, she joined Eraneos’ Cybersecurity team in November 2024.

“My background is in criminal law, and at the Public Prosecution Service I was involved in major fraud cases, among other things,” Noor says. After more than seven years, she made the switch to De Nederlandsche Bank, where she became a supervisor. “In this role, I focused mainly on integrity risks, governance, and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act”. In 2018, she decided to delve into IT risks. “IT is developing at a rapid pace and is becoming increasingly important. Nowadays, companies simply can’t operate without IT,” Noor explains. “That’s why I decided to pursue a postdoc and become an IT auditor. By now, I have a good understanding of how financial institutions work. In addition, I am familiar with various IT risks from a broad perspective”.

Noor sees IT as a reflection of life. “IT follows the changes in our lives. It is present everywhere and will continue to grow alongside us”. This means that the risks will also evolve, change, and take on new forms. “We will always need to reflect on this together, and this constant renewal in the field is what makes it so enjoyable for me”.

Legislation for resilience

Noor’s market specialization is the financial sector, with a focus on pension funds, public utility organizations, and insurers. She is currently deeply involved with DORA. “To better protect financial institutions against cyberattacks, the European Union introduced DORA,” Noor explains. “This regulation requires organizations not only to secure their own IT systems, but also to be responsible for the resilience of their suppliers, in order to reduce the risks of cyberattacks throughout the entire supply chain. DORA provides very concrete, rule-based requirements that you must follow, but there are also many open standards that institutions need to interpret themselves.” This latter part often proves challenging for institutions. “At Eraneos, we help clients connect these open standards to their concrete situation. We assist in determining the best way to comply, and how far they need to go”.

“In the end, as a company, you want to become more resilient yourself, regardless of the regulations,” Noor mentions, “because wherever there is IT, there are risks, and you need to manage those. Risk management goes far beyond just anticipating a cyberattack by a hacker. For example, think of outsourcing (part of) your IT to another party or using artificial intelligence. Every action you take involves risks, and those are all topics we at Eraneos help organizations with”.

Working in two worlds

When you’ve worked at a company for a long time, it’s always a bit daunting to try something new, and this was no different for Noor. “I had to adjust at first, but soon realized I had entered two worlds: my employer’s world and my client’s world. From day one, I’ve felt completely at home at Eraneos. It’s the place where I’m given a lot of freedom to try new things, together with people who are just as driven as I am,” Noor smiles. “And on top of that, of course, I have my client, where I carry out my consulting work. That’s a completely different organization, with its own unique culture”.

Noor is not the only Eraneos colleague currently working at her client’s site. “I’m the only one from my immediate team at the client, but there’s also a colleague from the Organizational Excellence & Transformation team working here,” Noor explains. She really appreciates having someone from Eraneos to brainstorm with. “I think that’s also an advantage of doing a project through Eraneos rather than as a freelancer,” Noor adds. “What I really value about Eraneos is that you do it together. If I run into any issues, I can consult with my colleague or coordinate things, without losing our independence as consultants”.

A culture of collaboration

One of the reasons Noor chose Eraneos is the atmosphere. “Here, it’s much less competitive than at a Big Four firm, where you’re often assigned to a partner and there’s more of an ‘up or out’ culture. At Eraneos, we have a good mix of experienced and young professionals, and collaboration is based more on mutual respect. I really appreciate that we help each other here and that the atmosphere is not so tense.” You’re given complete freedom and autonomy; a nice example of this is that the annual review is conducted by your peers, not by a manager. “I haven’t experienced it myself yet, but my colleagues tell me these peer reviews are very valuable sessions where you receive a lot of feedback in a respectful way”.

If you ask Noor how she would describe her colleagues, she says: “Headstrong! Everyone here is a bit headstrong, but in a good way! We all have our own area of expertise, which makes us creative when it comes to problem-solving and also creates an open and informal working atmosphere where we can learn a lot from each other”.

And outside of work?

In her free time, Noor enjoys a variety of hobbies. “I love walking, cooking, and reading,” Noor says. “I have a wide range of interests, from history to Buddhism, but traveling is definitely at the top of my list.” Together with her partner, she enjoys discovering the world. “Last year, we went on a wonderful trip through Asia, visiting Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan,” she shares. Their next trip is already planned: Croatia. “When people ask me what my favorite destination is, I can never give an answer,” she says. “Every place has its beautiful and less beautiful sides, but that’s exactly what’s so wonderful about life. Every form of beauty is different, and one is not less beautiful than another”.