I began my professional career in France, working as a journalist for a European broadcasting channel, Euronews. I was working at the forward planning desk, in charge of the coordination of various up-coming news related events – both planned (elections, festivals, press conferences …) and unplanned (breaking news, disasters, coups d’etats etc.). The coordination was internal with the multilingual teams of journalists and technicians, but also with institutions and partners, such as the European Parliament, EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and various European national TV partner channels. I loved the adrenaline, the diversity and unexpected surprises that went with this job. It definitely taught me agility, diplomacy, persuasion, and organization!

Once I arrived in Croatia, I had to completely reinvent myself. For the next 20 years, I was working as a senior manager for the biggest telecommunication company and later, leading hospitality company in Croatia – both of them run mostly by Croats but owned by Germans or Austrians. My focus was on sales and customer relationship management. Many issues to tackle there: from leading my own teams (at the time when I was also bringing up 3 small children), to navigating between different business mentalities and ideas of right choices for both the company and its employees.

Sometimes it was rewarding, most of the time it was demanding, sometimes overwhelming – but all of the time I was gaining precious experience. Working as a foreigner in a country catching up with Western-European business standards, I had to adapt to fast-developing and ever-changing businesses run by strong-willed (sometimes maybe not strong-willed enough?) decision-makers. It was a challenge I rose up to consistently all the time. It was also a proper introduction into my career today – coaching. Men or women, local or ex-pat, young lions or experienced CEOs, they were all important influences and provided me with deep insight into the complicated, multi-layered needs of a company that strives to be prosperous in the global world we live in now.