Xander Mol

Senior IT Audit Manager in financial services, working on technology risk, DORA and information security governance. After hours I write software for the 8-bit computers I grew up with, at IDreamtIn8Bits.com.

Professional profile 8-bit projects

Xander Mol at Mont-Saint-Michel, rendered in the Commodore 64 colour palette — Utrecht, The Netherlands

Experience

~30

years of financial, operational and IT audit in Dutch financial services: ING, WestlandUtrecht Bank, NN Group.

Certified

RA · RE · CIA · CISA

Cloud

AWS Solutions Architect · Azure

Focus

DORA · AI · Cloud

After hours

23 retro projects · 35 articles on IDreamtIn8Bits.com

Based in

Utrecht, NL

01 / Profile

Auditing technology by understanding it

Senior IT Audit Manager in the financial services sector with close to 30 years of experience auditing complex and highly regulated organisations. My core expertise is grounded in financial, operational and IT audit (RA, RE, CIA, CISA); my work focuses on technology risk, information security and digital operational resilience.

I assess technical risks in depth and place them within their wider organisational and regulatory context: AI governance, cloud and third-party risk, digital resilience, and the IT implications of European financial regulation such as DORA and GDPR. I translate complex information security findings into clear, actionable risks for senior management and the board.

You cannot effectively audit or govern what you do not understand. That is why I invest in hands-on knowledge of the technologies I oversee: cloud environments (AWS, Azure), data analytics and AI-supported tools. Not to become a developer, but to base audit conclusions and security governance on informed, practical technical judgement.

Core competencies

IT Audit Leadership
InfoSec Governance
Operational Resilience (DORA)
Cloud Service Provider Audits
Enterprise Risk Management
IT Outsourcing Risk
AI Governance
Executive & Board Reporting
Data Analytics & Process Mining

02 / Experience

Three decades in financial services

June 2013 – Present
IT Audit Manager
NN Group · The Hague
Senior IT Audit Manager within Corporate Audit Services of a large Dutch financial services group, responsible for audits and advisory work on technology risk and regulation.
Leading and coaching multidisciplinary audit teams, evaluating information security governance, and advising on the IT implications of DORA, PSD2, Solvency II and GDPR. Coordinating audits of cloud service providers and critical third parties, including joint industry assessments through the Cloud Collaborative Audit Group (CCAG). Leading audits of IT outsourcing, AI governance and cloud-native environments.
Dec 2010 – June 2013
Audit Manager
WestlandUtrecht Bank · Amsterdam
Responsible for the internal audit function during a carve-out period following the financial crisis, within a lean, independent audit unit.
Worked directly with the Executive Board on organisation-wide assurance and risk management oversight, and supported the governance arrangements that later facilitated integration into NN Bank.
Feb 2005 – Dec 2010
Sr. Project and Change Manager
ING Group · Amsterdam
Global compliance and finance-related change initiatives within ING Bank: coordinating global Sarbanes-Oxley compliance across regions and preparing consolidated compliance and risk reporting for the Executive Board. Later Basel II implementations, legal entity rationalisation and global management accounting frameworks.
Aug 2003 – Feb 2005
Senior Consultant Operational Risk Management
ING Group · Amsterdam
Established the operational risk management function for ING Wholesale Banking Netherlands from the ground up, and took part in the early international Sarbanes-Oxley implementation as part of a global deployment team.
Sept 1996 – Aug 2003
Corporate Auditor (Financial, Operational & IT)
ING Group · Rotterdam & The Hague
Financial, operational and IT audits across insurance, mortgages, asset management and real estate, including assurance on regulatory reporting to the Dutch Central Bank. Y2K readiness audits and audits of legacy platform consolidation: the gradual move towards IT-focused audit work.

Education & credentials

Education

drs. Business Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Postgraduate Accounting & Auditing, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Postgraduate IT Auditing, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Audit credentials

RA, Registeraccountant (chartered accountant)
RE, Register EDP-auditor (IT auditor)
CISA, Certified Information Systems Auditor
CIA, Certified Internal Auditor

Cloud & architecture

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

AI & data science

IBM AI Engineering Specialization
IBM Data Science Specialization

03 / After hours

I dreamt in 8 bits

IDreamtIn8Bits.com is my hobby site about the 8-bit computers I grew up with. I write new software for them that connects them to the present: tools, games and demos, all open source on GitHub, and a BBS you can dial into from a real Commodore or from the browser.