leaders talk

Quote:  “There’s a lot that’s going to be thrown at you in your journey, and if you believe in what you’re doing and you’ve built resilience, the chances are higher that you’ll survive that.”

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #thefemalefactor #D&I #gendergap

Getting personal in part 2 of our finale, Tanja Sternbauer, co-founder and co-CEO of the female factor, shares the ups and downs of creating a business from scratch. She reveals her favorite moments and fails and speaks on building a remote team.

Tanja also goes in depth about being a co-founder and the importance of evolving relationships and working through difficulties to make the shared leadership model work. The episode highlights lessons learned through sharing leadership and things that can make the journey worth while.

Tanja Sternbauer: Tanja is a serial entrepreneur, awarded as "Female Rolemodel in Europe" and named one of the 100 most influential businesswomen in Austria. She co-founded the female factor, a global career and hr platform working on closing the gender leadership gap. The community is supporting aspiring female leaders across 75+ countries to get a seat at the decision-making table and advises inclusive companies like Google, EY, Visa and Mondi on attracting and retaining female talent.

Mahdis Gharaei:
Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

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Quote:  “Everyone told us: “There needs to be one who calls the shots and it’s not gonna work if it’s the two of you.” So everyone said “nope,” and we said “duh.”

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #thefemalefactor #D&I #gendergap

In part 1 of our finale, Tanja Sternbauer, co-founder and co-CEO of the female factor, talks about the path to making female leaders more visible. She shares the reasons behind the creation of the female factor and the pros and cons of co-founding a company together.

Tanja discusses the future generation of leaders and how the female factor seeks to foster them in their own team.  She shares her vision of remote work culture and nurturing mental health in a space where the team is truly passionate about their mission and job. Tanja goes deep into her experience with shared leadership and explains why it’s a model that she and her co-founder Mahdis love.

Tanja Sternbauer: Tanja is a serial entrepreneur, awarded as "Female Rolemodel in Europe" and named one of the 100 most influential businesswomen in Austria. She co-founded the female factor, a global career and hr platform working on closing the gender leadership gap. The community is supporting aspiring female leaders across 75+ countries to get a seat at the decision-making table and advises inclusive companies like Google, EY, Visa and Mondi on attracting and retaining female talent.

Mahdis Gharaei:
Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

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Quote: "The team has to feel that you trust them. You grow when you delegate"

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #OBB #D&I #gendergap

In this episode, Sandra Gott-Karlbauer, the Managing Director at ÖBB Train Tech, talks about the importance of empathy and managing complexity when it comes to leadership. She shares her biggest challenges in leadership positions and how she overcomes them, while also shedding light on ÖBB’s initiatives to reduce the gender leadership gap and the progress she sees..

Sandra sheds some light on her leadership style and emphasises the importance of delegation for both the leader and the team. She shares tips on how to retain employees and maintain a solid commitment to DEI in the workplace. Sandra touches on a wide range of topics from cross-mentoring, parenting, how to keep up-to-date with tech and ends with the promising commitment of increasing women's presence in ÖBB over the next years.

Sandra Gott-Karlbauer: Sandra Gott-Karlbauer is the Managing Director at ÖBB Train Tech and one of the most important women in the Austrian mobility sector. Now she is responsible for more than 4,000 technicians and prior to this position she was the CEO of Business Unit Urban Transport at Siemens.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: "We develop durable skills because we believe that those skills would stay relevant for decades whereas lots of hard skills might get outdated"

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #robowunderkind #D&I #gendergap

In this episode, Anna Iarotska, the Co-founder & CEO of Robo Wunderkind, talks about her journey of building a global edtech company. She shares her superpower, which constantly helps her in an ever-changing world and market conditions. Anna also speaks about what inspired her to create an ed-tech company and ignited the spark of a female entrepreneur in her. The female leader outlines what she likes the most about generating a product for children, and if there are any differences between crafting a tech product for girls and boys. During the interview, Anna talks about how she managed to combine work on 2 continents with family life, and how she transformed an in-person team into a remote one without losing a sense of belonging to the company. Anna mentions gender diversity in the field of engineering and shares her vision of progress in the industry. She also gives tips to adults who want to upskill or re-skill in the field of technology. Anna ends her speech with the commitment to help other women rise to the top.

Anna Iarotska: Anna Iarotska is the Co-founder & CEO at Robo Wunderkind. She is a London School of Economics alumni who helps kids develop a passion for science, technology, engineering and maths and raises the level of digital education in schools.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

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Quote: “Passionate for people. Passionate for leading.”

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #Miele #D&I #gendergap

In this episode, Sandra Kolleth, Managing Director of Miele Austria, Slovenia & Croatia, talks about her career path from Xerox to Miele. She describes how she developed her "passion for sales" vision and replaced it with a "passion for people" as the biggest element of the communication process. Sandra highlights the biggest challenge in her transition from B2B to B2B2C and B2C sales. Sandra also explains how she decided to accept Miele’s offer and switch companies, after working for Xerox for 23 years. Sandra, who is loyal to the company she works at, shares her vision for different career cycles and the younger generation in terms of switching between professions and companies. She also points out how this affects diversity within the organisation. During the episode, Sandra describes her leadership style, gives advice to leaders, talks about how women tend to underestimate their strengths, and highlights the value of coaching and mentoring - for both mentor and mentee. At last, Sandra talks about her commitments to close the gender leadership gap.

Sandra Kolleth: Sandra Kolleth is the Managing Director of Miele in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. She has been the President of the American Chamber of Commerce and a contributor to a non-profit organization on social policy and education.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times. 

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: "You are not a leader until you create another leader."

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #technology #womenintech #SAP #D&I #gendergap

For the eighth episode of the leaders talk podcast, host Mahdis Gharaei is joined by Christina Wilfinger, the Managing Director of SAP Austria. Christina talks about how playing music as a child helped her discover not only her creative side, but also assists her in the tech industry now. She also shares her vision of leadership and points out how it’s different from management by metaphorically comparing these themes to playing football. Mahdis and Christina touch on the topic of parenting and work-life balance, and how one can draw energy for new projects. Christina goes on to tell us what an "office day" is like at SAP Austria and how it contributes to team cohesion and interest groups within the company. She sheds light on how more female talents need to gain confidence for taking on a leadership position, and shares how she helps to reduce the leadership gap with her personal example.

Christine Wilfinger: Christina Wilfinger is the Managing Director of SAP in Austria - the first female managing director in Austria. She also teaches at the Danube University in Krems. And she lives with her husband and daughter in Vienna.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote:  “One thing we can start with as women, is being nicer to each other and to support each other. We need to change the pictures in our heads first. How can we change the picture in men’s heads if we don’t change ours first?”

“I think as leaders, we are not only there for targets but to support, motivate and empower our employees.”

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #technology #finance #womeninfinance #Visa #D&I #gendergap

In the sixth episode of the Leaders Talk podcast, host Mahdis Gharaei is joined by Stefanie Ahammer, the Country Director of Visa in Austria. Stefanie reveals her superpower, the benefits of supportive mentors and struggles she has experienced in her leadership career. She shares with us her passion for innovation in the financial sector and providing services that work to connect tech, finance and people all together, so that people can pay and get paid wherever they are in the world. She reveals her mantra of “clarity before harmony” and how this helps her perform her role successfully. Additionally, Stefanie walks us through her journey of overcoming self doubt and self consciousness to become a confident leader and what more we can do to change the images we have in our heads of certain sectors being male dominated. She also openly discusses her experience of motherhood and the support she received from Visa, including the story of finding out she was pregnant just two weeks after being offered her current position as Country Director.

Stefanie Ahammer: Stefanie Ahammer is the country director of Visa in Austria. Stefanie has held various leadership positions in the financial service industry for over 12 years. Before joining Visa in 2019 and moving to Vienna, she worked at American Express in Germany for 10 years. She is passionate about driving online payments, contactless payment and other financial innovations forward in Austria.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: everything we do we measure: are we good in getting up our revenues? Are we good at achieving our cash flow? So why not measure how many women we have on board positions?

#leadership #femaleleaders #networking #D&I #motherhood #careerchange

In this episode, Maria Zesch, the CEO of TAKKT - a large B2B retailer for business equipment, discusses her superpower as a female leader, and the importance of having a broad perspective when it comes to leadership and choosing your team. She shares more about the decision of changing careers at the age of 48 and how the business scene in Austria looks like for mothers who also want to pursue a career. Maria also talks about the importance of being a quota fan and supporting D&I strategies in order to bring more women in board positions and shares the commitment she is making in her company to help more women rise to the top.

Maria Zesch: Maria has been a Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member of a leading European telecommunications company and just recently decided to make an interesting change in her career, becoming the CEO of TAKKT - which is a large B2B retailer for business equipment with 2.500 employees in Europe and North America. And you are also a Supervisory Board Member in the energy and telco sector.

She is a senior customer-oriented executive with more than 10 years in CXO functions. She has a proven growth track record and extensive Sales, Service, Marketing and Digital experience in telco, ICT, consulting. She is driving change and growth by transforming organizations and is a digital innovator and influential leader who drives IOT, 5G, Big Data, NB-IOT, cloud business, agile transformation, Tribe-led organization development.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: "The media industry has the responsibility to showcase female role models. They have a tremendous responsibility and there is often a blind spot. We need to be mindful of mental health and support people to understand when to drop off because flexibility comes at a price. It comes with the fact that you’re always available."

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #technology #femaleceo #Kununu #D&I #gendergap

In this episode, Nina Zimmerman, CEO of Kununu reveals her superpower, her personal experiences becoming a CEO, both as a woman and a person of colour and the gamechangers there have been for her in her career.
Nina shares her insights on the visibility of female leaders and the portrayal of them in the media and what more can be done to shine the spotlight on successful women. She reveals the most valuable leadership traits, including transparency, the ability to handle the truth and treating criticism and feedback as a gift rather than something to be taken personally. She aligns these traits with the work of Kununu, Europe’s biggest employer review and branding site, in which she discusses how companies can benefit from using the anonymous feedback provided by employees on the site. In particular, how features such as rating family friendliness can transform working conditions for employees, particularly women. Furthermore, there is also a discussion of “new work” trends and practices. Nina shares her knowledge of how to implement them effectively whilst acknowledging the impact on the employee and how to maintain them at the forefront.

Nina Zimmerman:  is the CEO of Kununu, an employer review and branding site that is one of the market leaders in the DACH region, which showcases over 4 million reviews from employees of almost 1 million companies globally. Nina’s area of expertise lies in all things concerning the digital space including leading digital businesses. Before Nina was CEO at Kununu, she was a manager at one of Germany’s largest technology and media companies. Nina is passionate about people and regards her superpower as her ability to connect with people, taking interest in the stories behind them and what motivates them.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: diversity is so important, but it's never easy -  you have to work for diversity - by taking the time to go through this process, this makes us much fitter as a team and is a competitive advantage./ Diversity is not a women's topic. Diversity in all dimensions is an issue for us as a society.

#femaleleaders #technology #femalesintech #diveristy #D&I #parenthood #businessdevelopment #Infineon #leadership

Dr. Sabine Herlitschka, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Infineon Technologies Austria AG, openly shares her superpower, what leadership means to her and the principles she follows when choosing her leadership team. She confessed how diversity is a hard concept to deal with, yet extremely important, as a leader, and the differences in implementation of D&I strategies around the world. Furthermore, Sabine explains the initiatives her company is taking to support parenthood in offering flexible working opportunities and shares the idea of the technology focused kindergarten for her employee's children. She talks about the beauty of working in tech and the overall purpose of the sector, the journey of including women in the industry and the mistake that led to a redirection in her career. Finally, Sabine shares the future plans and commitments of Infineon and that at the top, is not necessarily lonely, but busy.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote:  diversity is not only women and men / stay authentic and stay as you are and not as you think others should expect you to be

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #mentoring #D&I #gendergap

Christiane Noll, managing director of Avanade in Austria, shares why it is important for people to come first in every business, her perspective on the diversity aspect in teams and the flexibility in her leadership style. Going further, she discusses the progress regarding the number of females on executive level roles in Europe and DACH area, the role mentoring and networking played in her success and the reasons behind choosing to get into the tech industry. Christiane also shares her views on the new hybrid world and gives us insights on her new book and shares the story behind the title - 'IT GIRLS – Wie Frauen die digitale Welt prägen'. She addresses the quota subject and argues why we shamefully still need to include it in the D&I strategy and shares what are the things she would have liked to know 20 years ago.

Speaker bio:

Christiane Noll:  is the managing director of Avanade in Austria. She sees the digital transformation as a decisive competitive advantage for companies in Austria and together with her team accompanies them on the way to the digital enterprise. It is important to her that people are at the center of attention to successfully address issues such as digital innovation, Cloud, Internet of Things, digital jobs and the digitization of customer experiences. These fields are more relevant than ever for large corporations, SMEs and the public sector in Austria.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: stay curious, stay open to opportunities, and take advantage of them.

#diversity #femaleleaders #leadership #mentoring #D&I #gendergap

Solveig Menard-Galli, COO & board member at Wienerberger, shares why listening to her team and to the market is one of the most important aspects of leadership, and why it is important to not rush too fast to decisions but instead take the time needed. She discusses diversity and business, and how we are going through a huge transformation of our society as a whole. Solveig also shares her experiences with changing industries as well as the challenges she has faced while working abroad - and going back home - both personally and professionally. She addresses how she as a leader and Wienerberger as company work with (gender) diversity goals, for example in regard to recruiting new team members and putting together leadership teams.

Speaker bio:
Mag. Solveig Menard-Galli: is the COO of Wienerberger Building Solutions and Member of the Wienerberger AG Board, the world’s largest producer of bricks. Prior to her role at Wienerberger, Solveig has worked in leadership positions in other large international companies, such as Heineken in the Netherlands. Solveig puts much emphasis on the importance of listening and being open-minded in leadership. She sees international experience as a valuable contributor to her own (professional) life and would advise others to take advantage of international opportunities.

Mahdis Gharaei: Mahdis is the cofounder and co-ceo of the global career and HR platform the female factor. Prior to that she was the youngest and only female general manager of an airline in Austria & Germany. She’s a passionate diversity advocate, business woman and opportunity maker by heart. Her TEDxtalk around female leadership in business has been watched over 40.000 times.

About the female factor: The female factor is a global community for the next generation of female leaders, enabling them to get their seat at the table. The brand recently launched Europe’s first job platform connecting female job seekers with inclusive companies.

About Senate of Economy: As an independent business network, the SENATE OF ECONOMY is a driving force in shaping a sustainable society and a global eco-social market economy. We offer concrete and practice-oriented know-how for entrepreneurs and political decision-makers.

Stay in touch with us:

Quote: "Diversity is something that Google supports - with a lot of effort and a lot of impact - it’s also about the inclusivity around it - it's one thing to bring diverse talent in, and another thing to create a culture where everyone is heard and can thrive"

#technology #leadership #female leaders # femalesinSTEM

In the first episode of our leaders talk podcast, Christine Antlanger-Winter - Country Director of Google Austria since 2019,  shares her superpower and how her dedication and drive to do things differently helped her get a leadership role at Google. She also explains that diversity is something that she, as a leader, supports amongst her team but also Google, as an employer. Christine recognises the power of authenticity and showing vulnerability in leadership and acknowledges the importance of trust in relationships as "the glue for having diverse teams work". She walks us through her mistakes that turned out to be a favorable redirection in the end, how she sees women in the future of the tech sector and she will openly discuss motherhood aspects in regards to her career. We will also tap how loneliness can be experienced as a female leader,  the role mentoring can play  and Christine’s commitment to help the next generation of female leaders.

Speaker bio: