„When you feel ready, tell everyone you want to grow!“

Meet Elena Torrente, Digital Health Director at DKV in Spain. Although taking on a leadership role was not her primary goal when she joined DKV, she has naturally grown into the role.

Elena has been with DKV for nine years, building and developing the Digital Health Department from scratch. During this time, her team has grown from five to ten people and DKV Spain has become one of the leading digital health providers in the country. Together, their strategy is to drive internal digitisation and create innovative products and digital health applications. In November 2024, she took on a new position in which she is responsible for Corporate Strategy, Transformation, and Innovation in addition to her previous responsibilities.

Elena's motivation is: "To improve the quality of our digital health services, make them more accessible to our customers and contribute to improving their health through the use of digital tools". The numbers speak for themselves: every month, more than 40,000 customers use DKV's digital platform, 30,000 use telemedicine services and more than 1 million have downloaded the app.

With a background in business administration, public management and political science, Elena started her career in Public Health Management, working in the regional ministry of health. This background has helped her to understand different departments at DKV and institutional relationships, as well as to represent DKV and ERGO at various events. She says: "Politics is everywhere, everything is about strategy, vision and power".

Taking a seat in the front row as a director of digital health has been a process for Elena, although she has always wanted to be in a position to influence strategy and decision making. Her former boss saw her potential and became her mentor. The next steps on Elena's journey were joining the ERGO Leadership Programme and being selected for Pioneer Days. "I love the sense of community and being inspired by other international talents in the ERGO Group".

Elena believes in strong relationships and learning from other people’s experiences. That's why she is a mentor for female talent at DKV Spain: "Mentoring is always about giving and taking. Leadership is about inspiring and influencing". She trusts her team's professionalism and gives them as much autonomy as possible, while being transparent and open about what is happening at DKV.

A good balance between work and private life is very important for Elena. "Spending time with my family and close friends keeps me grounded and makes me a better person and leader.” Several times a week, Elena blocks time in her calendar for her two favourite sports: "To recharge my batteries, I like to go bouldering. It helps me get away from work, see things from a different perspective and teaches me dedication and concentration. Yoga, on the other hand, keeps me calm and humble and teaches me that some days things do not work out like you want them to, and that's OK. You just have to try it again on another day!”

Women in Leadership at ERGO

Website: https://www.ergo.com/women-in-leadership