Women Leaders in Tech
.MSpotlight: Ivanka Vassileva, Profuz Digital CEO, PBT EU CEO
The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) in 1975, but the earliest observance of the holiday goes back all the way to 1909. Countries around the world have embraced Women’s Day to varying degrees, but there’s an undeniable global movement to more diversity, inclusion, and equality. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. We take this opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments of women all over the world now and in the past.
Forward-Thinking
We are proud to share that the companies behind SubtitleNEXT, Profuz Digital and PBT EU, are women-owned, women-led and women-empowered workplaces. With 50/50 gender representation, we are blazing a trail to a more equitable work environment. Ivanka Vassileva is the CEO at both Profuz Digital, a software development company based in Canada, and PBT EU, a systems integrator based in Europe. She and Kamen Ferdinandov, CTO, co-founded the companies 6 years ago united by their vision to push the boundary of business processes and information management optimization, and democratize access to enterprise-grade multimedia solutions. Heading both companies has not been without challenges, but Ivanka has successfully channelled her passion and diplomacy, and has graciously evolved into a global leader.
Global Mindset
With an education background in linguistics and translation, Ivanka commands 4 languages fluently. While completing her Master’s degree, she wrote news stories based on Reuters news abstracts. Upon graduation, Ivanka took on a role with Air France. There she utilized her language skills, and developed her business acumen managing B2B and B2C client relationships globally. Six years later, she entered the tech industry and in just two years was promoted to Chief Operating Officer (COO). As a COO, Ivanka managed more than 120 employees, and helped clients world-wide achieve success.
Inclusive Leadership
Recent statistics show that at the executive level only 10% of roles in tech are held by women. If anything is to change in the future, next-generation female leaders need to truly be at the forefront of creating women-empowered workplaces. Recognizing women’s special talents and needs, and acting in accordance to embrace, support and accelerate as needed, is not an unattainable super-power. If every successful female leader feels it’s within her influence to uplift those around her with integrity and positivism, we will create a chain reaction of significant magnitude.
Belonging
Mrs Vassileva fosters an environment where collaboration is the norm, ideas are welcomed and given proper consideration. She encourages team members to pursue their passions, and recognizes them for all their contributions. And this is how Ivanka has lead the development and expansion of the SubtitleNEXT, Profuz LAPIS, and NEXT-TT product lines.
“Working for a woman leader is a privilege and a delight for me. Ivanka’s leadership style, work ethic and prioritization of accuracy, attention and responsibility resonate effortlessly with my own. That makes it easy for me to do my best every day. Work-life balance is extremely important for me. I am happy that she inspires a supportive environment. This empowers me to be productive and fulfilled in the office and in my personal life. I believe that women leaders make decisions faster and are better equipped to navigate in uncharted territories. I feel like I truly belong here.”, acknowledges Maria Ivanova, Finance and Logistics Manager at PBT EU.
Let’s celebrate this wonderful feeling of belongingness this IWD 2020! Happy March 8th from all of us!
