Natalia Svejgaard, 42 years, Senior Investment Manager for Ukraine (IØ) and West Balkan (IFU)
Natalia originally began as a trainee at IFU/IØ for a three month period, but has now been there for 14 years. “The challenges and the team spirit in IØ definitely make it a great place to work”, she comments on the reason for this.
Natalia’s project portfolio shows quite some responsibility, as she has been the team leader of a total of 131 projects under IFU and IØ. Natalia’s primary responsibilities include finding new projects, project appraisal and negotiation of project agreements. She has the responsibility for a project until the point of IØ’s disbursement to the project company, sometimes even longer as IØ’s board member.
The many projects sum up to provide a substantial amount of experience: “What makes my job special is that I am learning something new every day, with new projects, partners and risks. It is a constant process of learning in which I develop, increasing the quality of my projects.” The quality of the project management is the essential part of IØ as Natalia sees it: “I am proud to work for IØ. By being part of a project we improve the quality of it, thereby minimising the risk for IØ and the Danish partners and at the end of the day contributing to economic growth in the project countries as well as in Denmark.”
Contributing to growth and progress is a fulfilling part of her job: “At the end of the day I feel I’m making a difference. By promoting CSR, for instance, we are encouraging socially and ecologically sustainable business and increasing competition ability and growth.” Natalia does, however, see her primary responsibility as advising Danish companies as they establish themselves abroad. “The smaller the company – the bigger the challenge for me – and the bigger difference do I make.”
Employed at IFU/IØ: since 1995.
Mini-CV: Natalia is a master in cand.ling.merc. from the university of Warsaw and has been working as a conference interpreter with various companies and organizations such as the IFC, OPIC and the World Bank. She began studying economics to improve her interpreting skills, but was so caught up with the field, that she shifted her trade towards it. As such, she was the executive director of a small business development fund and had some consultant jobs with many Danish companies before coming to Denmark in 1991 where she got a master as cand.merc. from Aalborg University. Natalia joined IFU and IØ in 1994 as a trainee and later was employed as investment manager. Here, she established the Warsaw office and was based there from 1995 until she returned to Denmark in 1999.