Viktoria
Name
Viktoria
Position
Board Advisor / Mentor
Location
London, Prague, Hong Kong, Melbourne
Business Experience
British Chamber of Commerce
School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London
Summary
Founder, Owner & Managing Director of 2 market-leading, high-end service, consulting & design businesses in education & travel.
Experience in every SME job function from HR to Finance, Sales & Marketing to Operations and Strategy.
Leading the creation, marketing & sale of unique, high-touch educational & travel services for clients across USA, UK, Australia, South Africa, India & China and others.
Successfully executing critical turnaround projects in the Covid era.
21+ years’ international, cross-cultural leadership experience.
Experiential education pioneer; Speaker at key educational events and conferences in USA, Czech Republic, Australia, China & Hong Kong.
Experienced NED for several SMEs in UK & Hong Kong including digital, management consulting & training.
Leadership & entrepreneurship, women in business speaker for several MBA programs.
Co-creator & judge for global hackathons.
Qualifications
Royal Holloway, University of London BA(Hons) in English Literature
Certificate in Marketing & Strategy, London Business School
Certificate in Strategy, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
Key Areas of Expertise
- Founder & Managing Director of two business in Asia & Europe
- Educational pioneer and 20+ years of educational design experience & delivery
- Deep understanding of cross-cultural teams and multi-location businesses
- Respected & proven ‘critical friend’ Excellent listener, holistic leader, experienced small-team mediator
- Proven experience within agile & innovative environments
- Inspirational speaker
- Rallying the stakeholders to create win-win-win solutions
Experience
- Established own business, International Study Programs sro in Prague in 1999, second business in Hong Kong 2011
- £10mm+ annual sales
- 10+ years remotely leading teams in Europe, Australia, South Africa & the UK, average 80%+ employee engagement
- Experience in every function in start-up to scale-up
- Chair of SME Committee, British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, advising the Board on issues impacting SMEs in Hong Kong & the Pearl River Delta Region
- Non-Executive Director of Hawtrey Dene (management consultancy) and Electric Dialogue (digital – taken to exit) in the UK; advisor & mentor to several business owners in UK, Czech Republic, Hong Kong & Australia
- Advisory Board member of School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London
- Former member of YPO Prague & Pearl River Delta chapters
- Engaging & inspirational speaker
- Values-led, purpose-driven
- Active listener, highly collaborative, strategic visionary
- Navigator through multiple issues – from strategy to values creation, across all stakeholder groups
- Successfully led a company for 21 years, ultimately handing over the running to an excellent management team
- Transformed businesses through Covid – with over 80% engagement from staff and managers