Tell us a little history about your journey in media/advertising.
I’ve been in the media industry for more than 15 years and Dentsu has been a big part of my career. I started out as a comms planner based in Vienna – moved from local market planning on to European and later global roles on a variety of clients – P&G, adidas, Renault, H&M, GM, Diageo, and more recently Philips and Pandora. A short stint on client side soon made me realise how much I missed agency life and the vibe and collaboration an agency has to offer. Most of my work has been in client management and account leadership, with roles in Operations, New Business and Network Management along the way. For the last ten years I’ve been based in London, splitting my time between Carat Global and Carat UK. It’s always been my goal to live abroad and work with people from across the globe – it’s great that working with dentsu has made this possible.
What does it mean to you to be a woman in your role, and how has being a woman in this industry impacted your career?
This is a tough question to answer. Mostly because I would like to think that being a woman has not impacted my career very much at all. In my first few agency roles the majority of my team and senior leadership were actually women – so it never occurred to me that gender could be a factor or obstacle in my career.
Being a woman has probably affected my choices and priorities more than opportunities available to me. Over the course of time my priorities have definitely changed – a sustainable work/life balance and a job that truly plays to my strengths have become much more important. Once you are crystal clear on your priorities it becomes much easier to choose a path that’s right for you. In our industry, and in our network in particular, women (and men, for that matter) can achieve pretty much anything, as long as you are prepared to do what it takes.
How has dentsu (or brand) supported you as a woman in the workplace/industry?
Throughout my career at dentsu I’ve always been extremely lucky to have managers, mentors and colleagues who’ve fully supported me in what I wanted to achieve. At no point did I think that being a woman has hindered my career goals. If anything, having a male mentor often helped me see things from a different angle and challenge myself more than I would have done otherwise. There have been many day-to-day examples of being supported by the network, like taking part in our Women in Leadership programme or enabling me to look after family when it was most needed. On a bigger scale though, having female role models who are also feminine has probably had the biggest impact.
Why is it important for us to #embrace equity as a society/network and how will you ensure we are always starting from a place of equity?
By definition, equity means giving everyone the means they need in their particular situation in order to be successful. It’s highly individual and gender is only a small part of it. In my eyes, equity starts with encouraging each one of us to go after our dreams and true ambitions, whatever that might be and whether or not it’s part of societal norms. Great leaders can recognise the unique skills and talents of an individual and use their strengths to build well-balanced and diverse teams. Whilst I still have plenty to learn in this area, I am fully committed to supporting and building on the uniqueness each one of us brings to the world.
