As a finance leader and mother of two adult sons, Maria Papadopoulou has first-hand knowledge of the challenges faced by professional women who balance work with family life. She developed excellent time management skills while simultaneously raising her children and pursuing a demanding career. ‘Every minute was planned,’ she recalls, ‘and meaningful to either my professional career, learning goals or family’.
Today, Papadopoulou is group internal audit, process and governance director at Greek content, entertainment and media company Antenna Group. The group operates internationally and is growing fast. To support that growth, Papadopoulou is establishing internal controls, processes and governance frameworks. This means balancing agility with strong governance and ‘ensuring that controls enable, rather than hinder, business progress’.
‘This is a safe place for us to expand our network and support each other’
Alongside her busy day job, Papadopoulou is co-leader of the Greek Career Women Go Global – Lean in Circle, a networking group that she founded in September with her friend, Kari Haniotou, a sales & marketing consultant and coach. The Circle already boasts more than 40 members – university-educated female professionals with at least five years’ experience, who are either self-employed or work in the corporate world.
Advancement and inclusion
Papadopoulou’s group is part of Lean In, a global community of women founded by former Meta Platforms COO Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In aims to foster leadership, advancement and inclusion for women in the workplace by convening ‘Circles’ where women can learn new skills, grow as leaders and support each other to pursue their goals. The common theme uniting the women who’ve joined Papadopoulou’s Circle is that they either have – or aspire to – an international career.
The Greek Career Women Go Global – Lean in Circle meets virtually every month, for a couple of hours. Sessions are in English, due to not all group members speaking fluent Greek, and a range of topics are explored. These might include negotiating as a woman or the role of sponsors and mentors in a woman’s career.
‘This is a safe place for us to unapologetically expand our network and support each other’s professional roles across borders,’ Papadopoulou explains. ‘Every meeting is very meaningful.’
‘Thanks to ACCA, I can quickly grasp complex challenges and drive solution-orientated discussions’
Papadopoulou embarked on her professional journey after graduating from the Greek University of Macedonia with a degree in accounting and finance. She joined PwC Greece as a trainee auditor and opted to study for the ACCA qualification, completing her exams in 2002.
‘It has been invaluable in my career,’ she says. ‘Thanks to ACCA, I can quickly grasp complex challenges and drive solution-orientated discussions that have led to real business improvements.’
Business improvement
Business improvement has, in fact, been a theme of Papadopoulou’s career from the early days. She left PwC Greece to join fast-growing mobile operator Cosmote as an internal audit manager, drawn by the prospect of providing strategic support to both the organisation and its shareholders.
‘It’s an opportunity to assess risks, improve processes and contribute to business success by combining assurance and consulting,’ she says of internal audit. ‘That is what attracted me to the field.’
Bias – both conscious and unconscious – is an ongoing issue for professional women
After a decade with Cosmote, Papadopoulou became deputy director of internal audit at its parent company, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE Group). An operational merger between Cosmote and OTE brought her into contact with Deutsche Telekom, then a major shareholder in OTE and now its majority shareholder.
After discovering that Deutsche Telekom’s group audit team was planning to transform its operating model for internal audit, she volunteered to be involved in that process. A rigorous assessment led to her appointment as a senior manager in Deutsche Telekom’s group audit transformation office.
Award winning
The transformation of Deutsche Telekom’s internal audit operating model was a huge project involving digitalisation, as well as process, HR and leadership changes, among other focus areas. Thankfully, it turned out to be a very successful project – so successful, in fact, that the team won an internal award for their efforts.
During the project, Papadopoulou spent time in Deutsche Telekom’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany, as well as being involved in its international operations, although she did most of her work remotely from Greece.
After the project wrapped up, Papadopoulou became senior manager for Deutsche Telekom’s group audit international operations. Her familiarity with the transformation strategy made her the ideal person to implement it in practice. While in this role she helped to drive the adoption of robotic process automation within internal audit, with the aim of increasing efficiency and enhancing insights.
Female leaders are more likely to face micro-aggressions that challenge their competence
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Join the IWD conversation with ACCA’s all-female council team and students on gender equity, accelerating change and career aspirations
After spending a year as a self-employed consultant, Papadopoulou joined Antenna Group in February 2024. She had been approached for the role by an executive search firm that believed she would be a great fit for the business due to her global experience and background in audit and transformation.
Bias awareness
While there has been considerable progress on gender equality in many markets, a Women in the Workplace study by consultancy McKinsey in partnership with LeanIn.org found that female leaders are more likely than their male counterparts to face micro-aggressions that challenge their competence. These include being interrupted or having their judgment questioned.
Papadopoulou believes that bias – both conscious and unconscious – is an ongoing issue for professional women, in Europe as well as elsewhere. Talking about her home country, she says: ‘In Greece, there can be traditional views on gender roles, which can make it harder for women to pursue career progression. The Lean In Network Greece (Athens) works with the government and organisations to promote and support diversity, equity, and inclusion, and runs public campaigns for awareness.’
‘It’s about learning, growing and lifting each other up’
The Lean In Network Greece (Athens) includes over 135 circles and 2,500-plus members, driven by a passionate network of volunteers from diverse industries and professional backgrounds. It is recognised as the largest network of Lean In globally.
Raising awareness is key to helping people recognise and address biases, Papadopoulou argues. If she sees another woman being interrupted in a meeting, she makes a point of ensuring that the woman is allowed to continue. She also acts as an informal mentor to other women and believes that networking is critical for supporting women to grow professionally – no surprise given she’s the co-leader of a networking group.
‘Networking is essential,’ Papadopoulou concludes. ‘It’s about learning, growing and lifting each other up. We give, we take, we learn, we share. It’s a two-way street.’
CV
2024
Group internal audit, process and governance director, Antenna Group
2023
Self-employed business consultant
2017
Senior manager, group audit transformation office and then group audit international operations, Deutsche Telekom
2012
Deputy director for the OTE Group internal audit, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation
2003
Internal audit manager and then deputy director for internal audit in 2008, Cosmote Group, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation
1998
Audit and business advisory assistant manager, senior auditor and auditor, PwC Greece
