She's Next Talks

Episodi

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  She’s Next Talks with Sitara Aghayeva 15.07.2026 27min

  At 21, Sitara Aghayeva made a life-altering decision: she secretly taught herself the programming language Python in her bedroom. Despite holding a degree in accounting and facing intense pressure from her family to pursue a safe, traditional financial career, she deliberately chose the harder path. Today, the Baku native is a leading AI risk specialist at a major bank and the CEO of her own tech start-up, Comask.Aghayeva’s pivot into the tech world was fuelled by a military philosophy she read in a book: you must choose your hardship. She now applies that same pragmatic mindset to entrepreneurship. Her start-up, Comask, was born from a frustrating corporate pain point: losing valuable ideas during late-night WhatsApp brainstorming sessions. Her solution integrates task management directly into a messaging platform, converting chat keywords into actionable workflow tickets so no tasks are lost before the team reaches the office.Crucially, Comask features an AI "agile coach" that learns a team's work style, monitors workflows, and proactively messages delayed team members in multiple languages to offer help. Yet, Aghayeva remains highly critical of the tech industry’s current blind obsession with artificial intelligence. “First thing a start-up... should identify is the problem,” she advises, warning founders not to integrate AI simply to appease investors or follow the hype. If a problem can be solved with a simple two lines of Python code, she argues, that is the superior solution.As a professional who manages AI ethics and data privacy, Aghayeva's rule for daily AI use is strict: “If you think that if someone screams out about your information to the public and you will feel ashamed, don't share it with ChatGPT, Claude, or any other tool because it can leak”.In Azerbaijan, where success is often rigidly defined as a 9-to-five job with a monthly pay slip, Aghayeva is challenging the status quo. She actively pushes back against regional stereotypes that claim coding isn't suitable for women. Her advice to the next generation of female founders is to abandon the pursuit of perfection and simply take action. “Just release, push, write someone on LinkedIn... speak about your startup. It won't be perfect,” she urges. "If you go public, you take good comments and bad comments, and you should take both".
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  She's Next Talks with Nadera Alsukkar 07.07.2026 22min

  For over two decades, Nadera Alsukkar managed complex operations in some of the world's most volatile conflict zones. Born during the outbreak of the Bosnian war to a Bosnian and Jordanian family, she experienced displacement firsthand, igniting a lifelong passion for human rights. Armed with a degree in actuarial science and early experience volunteering with the Red Cross, she carved a unique path leading crisis responses in Syria and Iraq.Her crucible in leadership came while managing the White Helmets operations for Mayday Rescue, culminating in a highly complex, internationally celebrated evacuation of her team under severe military and diplomatic threat. Through these high-stakes environments, Alsukkar discovered that true leadership isn't about rigid planning, but understanding how to keep a team focused when forced to pivot under immense pressure. She also realised that calculating risk in a crisis requires looking beyond immediate relief to consider long-term sustainability and values.Despite her formidable resume, Alsukkar has intimately navigated the hurdles women face when seeking professional support. She recalls a male colleague dismissing her operational vision by telling her, “you plan like a Barbie”. This ingrained bias, combined with the internalised pressure women feel to have all the answers, makes asking for help incredibly daunting. “We're either we think we're not allowed to ask because we should know the answer, or we're not taken seriously,” she notes.Determined to change this, Alsukkar recently founded We Lead Next, a platform designed to democratise access to expertise and mentorship for young founders in the Balkans and the Middle East. She argues that the corporate world is still clinging to post-industrial management theories built for predictable manufacturing, which are entirely ill-equipped for an era dominated by rapid AI advancements and global uncertainty. Her start-up aims to gather experts in fields like fintech, deep AI, and biotech to build entirely new, community-driven ways of doing business.Reflecting on her demanding career and the reality of burnout, her advice to female entrepreneurs is surprisingly gentle. "Take it lightly," she urges, emphasising the importance of prioritising yourself and leaning into supportive communities. "Change happen one small effect after another, not dramatically. So slow down that's the most important thing".
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  She’s Next Talks with Gayane Arakelyan 19.06.2026 27min

  At just 20 years old, journalism student Gayane Arakelyan was handed a daunting task: translate an English article about "cloud computing" into Armenian. She knew nothing about technology, but she accepted the challenge anyway. That single translation connected her with international diasporan entrepreneurs and laid the groundwork for Digital Pomegranate, which has grown into the largest tech company outside of Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.Rather than following the traditional route to the capital, Arakelyan and her co-founders deliberately established their headquarters in her native Gyumri, Armenia's second city. To overcome the challenge of finding local talent, they launched a campaign to draw workers away from the capital's traffic and air pollution, offering a better lifestyle and remote work benefits. "If it was an easy path, everyone would already be there," she reflects.Since taking over as CEO in 2018, Arakelyan has steered the company from a contract software shop into a product development firm. Their latest venture, idea boxes.app, is currently launching in Japan, where they are actively looking to partner with 50 female founders. Through a revenue-share model, Digital Pomegranate provides the "tech muscle" to build complex business apps, allowing women to focus entirely on their industry expertise and market development.Navigating the tech world as a non-engineer, Arakelyan relies heavily on her leadership skills to create an empowering environment for her team. She notes that while Armenia’s IT sector enjoys a rare 50/50 gender split, self-doubt remains the biggest hurdle for female entrepreneurs. Following a life-changing leadership program in the United States, she realised her own missing link. "I was trying to be as equal as possible, trying to focus more on hard work," she says, before discovering that simply having confidence in her abilities was enough.Today, Arakelyan considers her greatest success to be the harmony she has found between her demanding international career and her family life with two young children. Her ultimate advice for women navigating the high-stress tech industry is to surround themselves with a supportive community and refuse to quit. “We just need to keep going," she urges. "Because when we stop, it makes a lot of things stop”.
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  She’s Next Talks with Dorina Lluka Davies 27.05.2026 25min

  For 25 years, Dorina Lluka Davies built a successful career in Kosovo’s civil society, shaping policy and empowering youth. Yet, her most recent venture began not in an executive office, but in her parents’ garage, wrestling with a power drill and discarded car tyres.The pivot came during the quiet reflection of the pandemic. Pregnant with twins, Davies found herself confronting a profound question: “what kind of world are we going to leave to the children”? She explored recycling but discovered it often releases toxic chemicals, calling it “the best of the worst”. Instead, she turned to upcycling—the safest way to extend a product's life—and founded her startup, Simply Green.In Kosovo, where roughly two million used tyres end up as massive land pollutants, Davies saw an untapped resource for furniture. She spent a year learning to build seats from scratch, strictly designing them so they wouldn't look like old tyres and trigger local stigmas around second-hand goods.As she navigated this new sector, she uncovered a stark gender disparity: out of nearly 800 active furniture businesses in Kosovo, only three or four were owned by women. Davies views this gap through a strict economic lens. “If women don't contribute, you actually are having less money,” she argues, noting that women also bring vital creativity and detail-oriented innovation to design.For Davies, being underestimated is powerful fuel. “If someone says to me I cannot do [something], that's the wrong thing to say to me because I will do everything... to approve that I can,” she says. “I don't like people putting me on the box”.Having survived the Kosovo war at age 14, Davies understands resilience. She approaches business challenges like the "fourth rose" in a parable, which, when pruned by a gardener, doesn't cry out in victimhood but instead asks, “I wonder what lesson is trying to teach me”. It's a creative mindset she urges all female entrepreneurs to embrace when facing setbacks.
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  She’s Next Talks with Ivana Gažić 25.04.2026 25min

  “I always stand as the only woman at the pictures of, let's say, 10 or 13 CEOs of regional exchanges,” observes Ivana Gažić, President of the Management Board at the Zagreb Stock Exchange. Speaking on the latest episode of She’s Next Talks, her tone is not one of defeat, but of pragmatic resolve.Gažić's ascent in the financial sector mirrors the economic evolution of her own country. Entering university as Croatia transitioned from socialism to capitalism in the early 1990s, she deliberately chose finance simply because it was reputed to be the most demanding field. "I was very interested in statistics and explaining to myself the world through numbers," she recalls. Armed with a modern economic education and fluent English, she started in the exchange office of a London-listed Croatian firm and methodically climbed the ranks of investment banking, eventually taking the helm of the Zagreb Stock Exchange in 2011.Over two decades in the industry, Gažić has witnessed the stubborn inertia of male-dominated boardrooms. Early in her career, she opposed gender quotas, assuming the market would naturally balance the scales. Twenty years later, observing no organic improvement, her stance has shifted. She notes that intervention isn't just about fairness, but about sound financial strategy. “Regulators have noticed that increasing the number of women on boards has decreased the risk profile of companies,” she points out, adding that diversity forces firms to act more prudently during times of crisis.At the Zagreb Stock Exchange, Gažić has intentionally cultivated a distinctly different corporate environment. She flatly rejects the aggressive, "screaming" management styles that have long plagued the financial industry. Instead, she champions a leadership model that checks egos at the door and values collaboration. Crucially, she actively discourages her female colleagues from mimicking male behaviour just to survive in the room. “I am always pointing out my female traits,” she says. “I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of; I think actually it's an advantage”. Today, three of the four directors on her core management team are women, though she notes she often has to invest significant time in encouraging female talent to accept promotions they might otherwise second-guess.Despite her executive success, Gažić is remarkably candid about the cultural headwinds women still face in emerging Europe. She points out a frustrating paradox in Croatia’s workforce: while 61 per cent of university graduates are female, intense societal pressure still pushes women toward traditional domestic roles. "If they are working a lot and they have high management positions, then everybody is actually somehow judging them," she says, noting that this harsh judgment often comes from other women. To combat this, she argues, the business world needs more male advocates—particularly those in power who recognise the systemic unfairness when their own highly educated daughters enter the workforce.When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Gažić is wonderfully practical: seek out "gender-agnostic" bosses who only care about the quality of your output, and find the courage to argue your case earlier in your career.As for her own trajectory, Gažić remains entirely captivated by the pulse of the markets. Having recently led the Zagreb exchange through a period of regional acquisitions, she thrives on the industry's relentless evolution. “The problems we were dealing with when I joined, they are long overgrown,” she reflects. “I will stay in the stock exchange business for sure”
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  She's Next Talks with Jamilya Yusupova 13.01.2026 20min

  “I am a seasoned project manager with 20 years of progressive working experience,” says Jamilya Yusupova, a business development consultant based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in the latest episode of She’s Next Talks, empowered by Visa.Her journey spans health, education, and rural development—but her heart lies in agriculture. “Tajikistan is a rural country,” she explains. “I’m passionate about creating long-term value to the community and environment.” That passion led her to develop a mobile app and e-trade platform, now used by more than 200,000 farmers across Central Asia. “It’s applicable in all Central Asian countries, including Russian speakers.”Jamilya’s career began in 1995 as a junior accountant, but she quickly pivoted from finance to development. “I find out for me it's boring to continue this accounting procedures from time to time,” she recalls. Her move into private sector development eventually led her to mentor women-led businesses across Tajikistan—from robotics and aquaculture to greenhouses and agritech.She names the barriers clearly: “For me, actually, it was ageism and sexism.” Even now, she says, “when you become professional... most of the private sector, they don't trust.” But change is underway. “I was surprised when I found out that we have mining companies led by women.”Jamilya currently mentors three successful women entrepreneurs—and sees a common thread in their journeys: “Most of them are scaring for failure. I think they have to believe in themselves. They need to trust their skills and judgments.” Access to finance and ownership remains a challenge, but mindset is where she starts. “Learning is one of the key issues for women entrepreneurs.”To Jamilya, entrepreneurship requires grit, patience, and adaptability. “By taking patience, he motivates others... by patience, I think you can just destroy the rocks.” She sees adaptability as essential—especially in uncertain times. “You don’t have to panic. You have to believe in yourself that you are able to manage.”Her most memorable risk? Launching a cross-border platform for Tajik and Kyrgyz farmers. “Of course it was calculated, and I believe in my intuition,” she says. The result: a digital hub that outlived donor-funded projects and still serves thousands.Looking back, she credits her former managers, colleagues—and family—as mentors. “My great-grandfather was the first teacher in Dushanbe,” she shares. “I think it’s important when you have such examples from a person who already has expertise and he just shows you the way.”Her advice to her 20-year-old self is simple: “Trust, learn, and appreciate what you have... appreciate the people whom you met... appreciate the task which you gave.”And to young women starting out today: “Every challenge you face is an opportunity to grow.”
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  She's Next Talks with Sanja Popović Pantić 07.11.2025 35min

  “I graduated into chaos,” says Sanja Popović Pantić, President of the Association of Businesswomen in Serbia and head of the female entrepreneurship group at Enterprise Europe Network, in the latest episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next, empowered by Visa. Sanja came of age during Serbia’s hyperinflation in the 1990s—when your salary could become worthless within an hour. “I studied economics, but nothing in the textbooks matched reality.” While many of her peers emigrated, she stayed—and started building. She now leads research at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, one of Serbia’s top centres for science and technology. But her deeper purpose emerged through supporting women entrepreneurs. “I hadn’t even heard of ‘women’s entrepreneurship’ until a conference in Washington opened my eyes.” Back home, she co-founded the Association of Businesswomen in Serbia—during wartime. At one early workshop, displaced women shared their stories. “They’d lost everything—but were still determined to build something. That day, I decided: don’t leave—help.” Over the past two decades, Sanja has helped reshape the landscape for women in business, including launching Success Flower, a national award recognising exceptional women entrepreneurs. “Many winners cry on stage—they never saw themselves as extraordinary until others told them.” Despite progress, challenges remain. Traditional inheritance practices still block rural women from owning land. Young female founders are doubted twice—for their age and their gender. “It still takes women nearly a decade to earn the trust men gain in three.” Yet Sanja believes women bring vital strengths to leadership. “We think beyond profit. That’s not a flaw—it’s long-term strategy.” “Sanja’s story blends resilience and clarity,” says podcast host Andrew Wrobel. “She proves that reinvention starts not with power—but with purpose.” Asked what she dreams of today, Sanja smiles: “To stay young in spirit. And to keep believing that goodness wins—even when the world says otherwise.” 
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  She's Next Talks with Iryna Tytarchuk 15.10.2025 32min

  “I applied for a job I wasn’t fully qualified for—at least on paper,” says Iryna Tytarchuk, Executive Director at Ukraine’s Investment and Trade Facilitation Centre, in the latest episode of She’s Next Talks, empowered by Visa.Back then, she was a university lecturer with deep expertise in agricultural policy but only intermediate English. “I rehearsed idioms just in case,” she laughs. “But at the interview, they never even asked.” She got the job—and it changed everything.Today, Iryna leads both policy work and grassroots entrepreneurship initiatives. She’s also the founder of Women In, a platform born from a simple observation: “Most of the people showing up to export training sessions were women—and most had more questions than confidence.” That realisation turned into action, then into a movement supporting female-led SMEs in navigating finance, strategy, and global markets.When war broke out in Ukraine, Irina saw both devastation and reinvention. “Some businesses were destroyed—literally,” she says. “Others pivoted with extraordinary courage. It wasn’t just about survival. They learned to calculate, strategise, export. They became true businesswomen.”She’s clear-eyed about the challenges, including access to finance and the biases women face in male-dominated investment circles. “We need to stop romanticising support,” she warns. “It’s not just about helping women because they’re women—it’s about recognising the innovation and value they bring.”Iryna is also redefining leadership. “Mentorship isn't therapy,” she says. “It’s about accountability, structure, and growth. And yes, we need more of it—especially in Eastern Europe, where the concept is still new.”“Iryna’s story is full of grit, warmth and practical reinvention,” says podcast host Andrew Wrobel. “She doesn’t just support women—she challenges them to own their potential and make bold moves.”Looking back, Irina has one message for her younger self: “Ask for help. Sooner. You’re not alone. And if something feels off—change it. Don’t wait five years like I did.”
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  She’s Next Talks with Emilia Mamajova, Ewa Chronowska, and Viktorija Trimbel  01.08.2025 34min

  Across emerging Europe, almost 2.2 million women entrepreneurs form a vibrant community, yet they face profound disparities when it comes to securing venture funding.  According to recent figures shared during a panel discussion moderated by Andrew Wrobel, Chief Reinvention Officer at Reinvantage, women-founded businesses receive a meagre one per cent of venture capital. Mixed-gender teams fare slightly better at five per cent, while all-male teams dominate with 94 per cent of the total funding pie. Emilia Mamajowa is a founding partner at Espira Investments, a private equity fund, which has a gender-smart investment strategy. Before founding Espira, she says that the funds she worked for made “very few” investments in women-led or gender-diverse firms. “I saw a gap on the market,” she adds. “I carried out a great deal of market research which reinforced international findings: companies with gender diversity in leadership positions prove significantly more resilient, particularly during financial downturns.” Ewa Chronowska, general partner at NextRoad Ventures and CEO at Vestbee, echoes this sentiment, emphasising perseverance and mission-driven entrepreneurship.  “I just went for it,” she says, underscoring the need for laser-focused determination and the willingness to manage significant personal sacrifices, especially when balancing family and career demands.  Chronowska stresses the importance of changing societal attitudes early: “We need to educate the market, but without turning it into a gender fight—this harms the perception of women who have already achieved success.” Viktorija Trimbel, managing director of the sovereign VC fund Co-Invest Capital, provides a compelling personal narrative of navigating professional roles in traditionally male-dominated financial sectors while balancing family life.  Trimbel highlights the critical role of support networks, suggesting that success for women in leadership roles also requires systemic shifts within company cultures.  "We need mixed environments,” she says, “mixed funds. We need to look at entrepreneurs as innovators, first of all, rather than as simply men or women. Only when speaking together can find best solutions that will address problems in a way which is beneficial to everyone.” 
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  She's Next Talks with Cristina Doros, Jovana Vulic, and Zhanna Kazakbayeva 23.05.2025 36min

  Confidence is often misunderstood as a trait you either possess or don’t. However, according to prominent female leaders from diverse professional backgrounds who recently discussed this topic on She's Next Talks, confidence is much more akin to a muscle—one strengthened with practice and determination. “Confidence gets stronger each time you push past your comfort zone,” shares Jovana Vulic, a project manager at Digitalise Me from Montenegro, recounting her nerve-wracking first presentation as a university student in front of CEOs and royalty. “Preparation and mindset shifts,” she says, “helped me to take control of the situation. Zhanna Kazakbayeva, founder of Botaqan, a resale platform for children’s items, highlights similar strategies drawn from her early career as a drilling engineer—a notably challenging field dominated by men. She pinpoints mastery of knowledge, mentorship, and proactive initiative as critical confidence builders. “My knowledge became my power,” Zhanna asserts, underscoring the tangible results of persistent learning and advocacy. Cristina Doros, senior vice president at Visa, reinforces this narrative by reflecting on her initial lack of industry knowledge and resulting self-doubt. “I realised that I needed to make my expertise unquestionable,” she said. Through diligent study, she turned her uncertainty into strength, proving that confidence indeed can be cultivated strategically.
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  She's Next Talks with Olga Surugiu 25.04.2025 30min

  “I became CEO on the day the war in Ukraine started — it’s a date I’ll never forget,” says Olga Surugiu, CEO of Orange Moldova, in the latest episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next, empowered by Visa. For Olga, leadership began long before the boardroom. “I think my leadership skills were visible back in kindergarten,” she laughs. Born and raised in Moldova, she left home at 17 to study in Bucharest, then later in France, driven by insatiable curiosity and a desire to understand the ‘why’ behind everything. Despite speaking seven languages and earning multiple degrees, Olga recalls struggling with insecurity early on. “I wasn’t sure anyone would hire me,” she admits. “But within 10 days, I had seven offers. That changed everything.” Today, Olga leads Orange Moldova with what she calls an “entrepreneurial mindset.” She’s built products from scratch, launched a robotics and innovation hub, and champions simplicity as a business principle. “Simple sells. Simple delights. Simplicity is tough—but it's worth it.” She’s also outspoken about the need to redefine leadership. “We become leaders so we can grow other leaders. You shouldn’t be afraid that someone will outgrow you—that’s the point. They should.” “I found Olga’s story both striking and grounding,” says podcast host Andrew Wrobel. “She’s reinvented what it means to lead, especially in a region where transformation isn’t abstract—it’s lived daily.” Reflecting on her journey, Olga says: “I’d tell my younger self—take it easy. Don’t worry so much. Things have a way of working out.” 
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  She’s Next Talks with Amalya Yeghoyan 27.12.2024 23min

  “Growing up in Gyumri, Armenia’s second city, I was surrounded by traditions that often-placed limitations on women. My dream was always to escape, to leave for Yerevan, the capital, and start a new life. But life had other plans for me, and I’m glad it did,” says Amalya Yeghoyan, Executive Director of the Gyumri Information Technologies Centre (GITC), in her conversation with Andrew Wrobel. Amalya’s story began in 2007 when, as a 21-year-old linguistics student, she was encouraged to apply for a receptionist role at GITC. Despite her doubts about succeeding without connections, she aced the interview and began her journey at an organisation that would transform her life and her hometown. “GITC was a revelation for me. At a time when Gyumri was struggling with poverty and unemployment following a devastating earthquake, the centre’s mission was to teach people how to ‘fish’ instead of giving them fish. We aimed to train young people in programming and coding to create opportunities and attract companies to Gyumri,” she recalls. Amalya’s vision doesn’t stop at technology. She has spearheaded initiatives like empowering war veterans and developing entrepreneurship programmes for women displaced by conflict. “Women are natural problem solvers and risk-takers. They see opportunities where others see obstacles. This is why entrepreneurship is so vital for them,” she says. Amalya Yeghoyan’s journey from a linguistics student to a trailblazer in Armenia’s tech ecosystem is a testament to the power of perseverance and the impact of investing in people. Just recently, Amalya was also named Emerging Europe’s Female Business Leader, chosen in a public voting and by a professional jury.  
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  She's Next Talks with Havva Safarova 01.03.2024 22min

  “I was working in a corporate environment, in a hotel, in the marketing department, and we were seeking professional travellers and family travellers [who could help us] promote our hotel,” Havva Safarova tells Andrew Wrobel. “Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to find any travelling families who have a blog. One night my husband said to me: ‘You travel, we have kids, and you are a marketer so you can do it best’.” Now, Havva is an internet personality and a content creator with thousands of followers. She also educates others. She is the author of seminars and marathons that empower women and emphasise that, “the limit of women is only in their brains.” Like many mothers, she struggled with dividing her time between family and work. “I couldn't work and manage, taking the kids to the kindergarten and then taking care of them. As a freelancer it was very hard; when you are in a corporate environment, you are working from nine to six. But when you are a freelancer, you are working 24/7. “And I was sitting in coffee shops aware that people were watching...I was bringing my kids to the coffee shop and people were saying that they disrupted them.” So, Havva came up with yet another idea: Ninja Kids Club.  
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  She's Next Talks with Viktoria Konstantinova 16.02.2024 29min

  “My mother was my first mentor. I remember her advice when I was a child. Back then, we had grades from one to five. Five was the best mark, four was okay and three was not very good. And one day, I came back and said ‘Mum, I got a four, and that’s really good because the rest of the class got threes.’ And my mother said to me, ‘Darling, you had better look at those who are ahead of you, not those who are behind,” Viktoria Konstantinova, Head of EMEA Talent Marketing at GlobalLogic, tells Andrew Wrobel. With over 20 years in marketing across various sectors, Konstantinova now works for an international software company with 30,000 engineers worldwide and leads marketing efforts in 20 countries. Now she encourages other women to look for mentors. "We are literally sitting and waiting for you to reach out and ask questions. This is a two-way street. This is not a monologue. This is a dialogue. While giving, we are receiving; and communicating with inspiring people, especially women who want to start a business or who want to change their lives. This is inspirational for us.” 
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  She's Next Talks Ana Nadiradze and Diana Kiguradze 09.02.2024 21min

  “Our [solution] is an innovative platform for riders of any level to book and fully explore our tour features with the assistance of digital video routes. When you go to our website, you can see all horseback tours around Georgia. The platform's objective is to develop a niche market for equestrian tourism in the region,” Ana Nadiradze, co-founder of Horsetours, tells Andrew Wrobel. “Ana has created a really interesting business and she can show how to combine ecommerce and equestrian tourism together,” says Diana Kiguradze, regional manager, Caucasus, CISSEE at Visa. Not only that, she has introduced digitalisation to a sector that was analogue for too long. “We are going to digitise the potential of equestrian tourists in Western Georgia and create a digital video road,” Ana adds. 
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  She's Next Talks with Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek 02.02.2024 28min

  “I am a person that loves experimenting and learning by doing. So, it was just this passion that I have for doing something that makes the world better, but by learning from others, by connecting with other cultures, and learning from those who have already done more,” Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek, Global Director of Google for Startups, tells Andrew Wrobel. She has created a series of workshops called ‘I Am Remarkable.’ “We just wanted to support women to be more confident and to acknowledge their strengths, to acknowledge how great they are. Because very often we see female founders don't have that confidence. This is a very popular workshop right now, not only among female entrepreneurs but also any female audiences from students through regular individual contributors.” Agnieszka comes from Poland and she cherishes the fact that she comes from Central and Eastern Europe. “I come from this region. This region is diverse, with a lot of different countries, and a lot of different connections and languages. Somehow it's easy when you come from this region to actually manage a global team because you already know that there are differences, you already know that you have to listen and you understand the context of the other person from another country…because it all matters in communication.” Today she manages Google for Startups initiatives carried out in over 125 countries including joint activities with over 60 incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces.  
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  She's Next Talks with Milica Ličina Čalija and Vladimir Đorđević 26.01.2024 32min

  “I started [the business] on my second maternity leave 10 years ago. Before that, I was engaged in large corporations in high positions in marketing and public relations. [...] I used the pause to rethink my purpose in business and I started testing healthy oatmeal cookies, which was really strange back then,” Milica Ličina Čalija, the founder of Anđeli (Serbian for Angels) tells Andrew Wrobel. “Now, we do have some kind of awareness of the importance of healthy eating. Back then, online shopping was not as developed as it is now. And healthy habits in eating were not as developed.” The cookie producer now has eight employees, and seven of them are women. They are a social enterprise because all of the female employees are either over 45 years old, which is a group in Serbia that cannot be easily employed, or have some kind of chronic illness. “It's a community, a kind of family. And when I say that I'm an activist and I empower women, I do not only do that through some kind of advocacy,” she adds. But Milica is also an activist and runs her own podcast.  "I always talk about difficult moments and obstacles, thinking that if I share that experience, someone else will be encouraged to overcome the same obstacle,” she says. 
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  She’s Next Talks with Nataliia Ievtushenko and Svitlana Chyrva 11.08.2023 18min

  “Before I started my internship at Visa, I [ran] a small eco-hotel in the mountains of Ukraine. It was a travel co-working space. It was after the first invasion in 2014. A lot of travel agencies were closed and travel managers needed to work somewhere so I decided to open a space where everybody could help each other and develop the travel industry,” Nataliia Ievtushenko, first an intern and now a full-time employee at Visa tells Andrew Wrobel in the eighth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa. “During the [internship] interview, I chose the product team. It's very interesting for me to see how products are created from the beginning, from the idea until the product is done.” “I'm the head of the women's Visa network inside the company. And I used to be the mentor for some of the newcomers and some of the women in the network. It's really great to feel that your experience, your advice helps someone to grow or just to realise themselves, to achieve results or even to build a relationship with someone. It's important not only for the mentee but also for the mentor just to know that they are helping the younger generation grow, find new paths,” Svitlana Chyrva, Vice President, Country Manager for Visa in Ukraine and Moldova, adds. 
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  She’s Next Talks with Michelle Simmons 09.08.2023 19min

  “I changed companies for the first three roles that I had and then I came to Microsoft,” Michelle Simmons, General Manager Central Europe at Microsoft, tells Andrew Wrobel in the seventh episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa. “And what I found was that I've been able to take on new challenges and really work for many different companies inside Microsoft by changing functions, changing geographies and expanding my scope of responsibility. And so that's how I've ended up spending so long at one company because it's been just a platform for incredible learning, professional growth.” “I had the pleasure of first meeting Michelle earlier this year and during our conversations it was her approach to leadership that struck me most,” Andrew says. “That curiosity and authenticity, showing the way forward, especially now in such uncertain times and being able to create a vision for what the future looks like. And identifying and challenging talent in a supportive way so that they can move into their next role, even if it is at a different company.” “I measure myself on how I'm helping people in my organization to achieve their career goals,” Michelle adds. 
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  She’s Next Talks with Dan Baxter 04.08.2023 21min

  “There's been a lot of positive discussion and some positive progress when it comes to gender equality around the world, […] but I think clearly there's much more to be done to truly ensure the level of equality that we all aspire to and I think men have to play a vital role in that,” said Dan Baxter, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, in conversation with Emerging Europe’s Andrew Wrobel. This is why halfway through the first series of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa, we take a look at the role of men in the development of female empowerment as the process must include the awareness and engagement of men. “One of the steps is ensuring that you have a diverse work force to start with and setting very clear goals which are measured to ensure that you're continuing to increase the level of diversity within the organisation. [...] We need to show that there are significant benefits of having more women in the workplace, but also in the company environment.” “Involving men in initiatives such as She’s Next contributes to a broader understanding that diversity is an enormous benefit in a workplace. I am also delighted to be the podcast host and I very much hope I will be able to help raise awareness about diversity and the value of female entrepreneurship,” Andrew added.