Confidence is often misunderstood as a trait you either possess or don’t. However, according to prominent female leaders from diverse professional backgrounds who recently discussed this topic on She's Next Talks, confidence is much more akin to a muscle—one strengthened with practice and determination. “Confidence gets stronger each time you push past your comfort zone,” shares Jovana Vulic, a project manager at Digitalise Me from Montenegro, recounting her nerve-wracking first presentation as a university student in front of CEOs and royalty. “Preparation and mindset shifts,” she says, “helped me to take control of the situation. Zhanna Kazakbayeva, founder of Botaqan, a resale platform for children’s items, highlights similar strategies drawn from her early career as a drilling engineer—a notably challenging field dominated by men. She pinpoints mastery of knowledge, mentorship, and proactive initiative as critical confidence builders. “My knowledge became my power,” Zhanna asserts, underscoring the tangible results of persistent learning and advocacy. Cristina Doros, senior vice president at Visa, reinforces this narrative by reflecting on her initial lack of industry knowledge and resulting self-doubt. “I realised that I needed to make my expertise unquestionable,” she said. Through diligent study, she turned her uncertainty into strength, proving that confidence indeed can be cultivated strategically.

“I became CEO on the day the war in Ukraine started — it’s a date I’ll never forget,” says Olga Surugiu, CEO of Orange Moldova, in the latest episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next, empowered by Visa. 

For Olga, leadership began long before the boardroom. “I think my leadership skills were visible back in kindergarten,” she laughs. Born and raised in Moldova, she left home at 17 to study in Bucharest, then later in France, driven by insatiable curiosity and a desire to understand the ‘why’ behind everything. 

Despite speaking seven languages and earning multiple degrees, Olga recalls struggling with insecurity early on. “I wasn’t sure anyone would hire me,” she admits. “But within 10 days, I had seven offers. That changed everything.” 

Today, Olga leads Orange Moldova with what she calls an “entrepreneurial mindset.” She’s built products from scratch, launched a robotics and innovation hub, and champions simplicity as a business principle. “Simple sells. Simple delights. Simplicity is tough—but it's worth it.” 

She’s also outspoken about the need to redefine leadership. “We become leaders so we can grow other leaders. You shouldn’t be afraid that someone will outgrow you—that’s the point. They should.” 

“I found Olga’s story both striking and grounding,” says podcast host Andrew Wrobel. “She’s reinvented what it means to lead, especially in a region where transformation isn’t abstract—it’s lived daily.” 

Reflecting on her journey, Olga says: “I’d tell my younger self—take it easy. Don’t worry so much. Things have a way of working out.” 

“Growing up in Gyumri, Armenia’s second city, I was surrounded by traditions that often-placed limitations on women. My dream was always to escape, to leave for Yerevan, the capital, and start a new life. But life had other plans for me, and I’m glad it did,” says Amalya Yeghoyan, Executive Director of the Gyumri Information Technologies Centre (GITC), in her conversation with Andrew Wrobel. 

Amalya’s story began in 2007 when, as a 21-year-old linguistics student, she was encouraged to apply for a receptionist role at GITC. Despite her doubts about succeeding without connections, she aced the interview and began her journey at an organisation that would transform her life and her hometown. 

“GITC was a revelation for me. At a time when Gyumri was struggling with poverty and unemployment following a devastating earthquake, the centre’s mission was to teach people how to ‘fish’ instead of giving them fish. We aimed to train young people in programming and coding to create opportunities and attract companies to Gyumri,” she recalls. 

Amalya’s vision doesn’t stop at technology. She has spearheaded initiatives like empowering war veterans and developing entrepreneurship programmes for women displaced by conflict. “Women are natural problem solvers and risk-takers. They see opportunities where others see obstacles. This is why entrepreneurship is so vital for them,” she says. 

Amalya Yeghoyan’s journey from a linguistics student to a trailblazer in Armenia’s tech ecosystem is a testament to the power of perseverance and the impact of investing in people. 

Just recently, Amalya was also named Emerging Europe’s Female Business Leader, chosen in a public voting and by a professional jury.  

“I was working in a corporate environment, in a hotel, in the marketing department, and we were seeking professional travellers and family travellers [who could help us] promote our hotel,” Havva Safarova tells Andrew Wrobel. 

“Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to find any travelling families who have a blog. One night my husband said to me: ‘You travel, we have kids, and you are a marketer so you can do it best’.” 

Now, Havva is an internet personality and a content creator with thousands of followers. She also educates others. She is the author of seminars and marathons that empower women and emphasise that, “the limit of women is only in their brains.” 

Like many mothers, she struggled with dividing her time between family and work. 

“I couldn't work and manage, taking the kids to the kindergarten and then taking care of them. As a freelancer it was very hard; when you are in a corporate environment, you are working from nine to six. But when you are a freelancer, you are working 24/7. 

“And I was sitting in coffee shops aware that people were watching...I was bringing my kids to the coffee shop and people were saying that they disrupted them.” 

So, Havva came up with yet another idea: Ninja Kids Club.  

“My mother was my first mentor. I remember her advice when I was a child. Back then, we had grades from one to five. Five was the best mark, four was okay and three was not very good. And one day, I came back and said ‘Mum, I got a four, and that’s really good because the rest of the class got threes.’ And my mother said to me, ‘Darling, you had better look at those who are ahead of you, not those who are behind,” Viktoria Konstantinova, Head of EMEA Talent Marketing at GlobalLogic, tells Andrew Wrobel. 

With over 20 years in marketing across various sectors, Konstantinova now works for an international software company with 30,000 engineers worldwide and leads marketing efforts in 20 countries. Now she encourages other women to look for mentors. 

"We are literally sitting and waiting for you to reach out and ask questions. This is a two-way street. This is not a monologue. This is a dialogue. While giving, we are receiving; and communicating with inspiring people, especially women who want to start a business or who want to change their lives. This is inspirational for us.” 

“Our [solution] is an innovative platform for riders of any level to book and fully explore our tour features with the assistance of digital video routes. When you go to our website, you can see all horseback tours around Georgia. The platform's objective is to develop a niche market for equestrian tourism in the region,” Ana Nadiradze, co-founder of Horsetours, tells Andrew Wrobel. 

“Ana has created a really interesting business and she can show how to combine ecommerce and equestrian tourism together,” says Diana Kiguradze, regional manager, Caucasus, CISSEE at Visa. 

Not only that, she has introduced digitalisation to a sector that was analogue for too long. 

“We are going to digitise the potential of equestrian tourists in Western Georgia and create a digital video road,” Ana adds. 

“I am a person that loves experimenting and learning by doing. So, it was just this passion that I have for doing something that makes the world better, but by learning from others, by connecting with other cultures, and learning from those who have already done more,” Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek, Global Director of Google for Startups, tells Andrew Wrobel. 

She has created a series of workshops called ‘I Am Remarkable.’ 

“We just wanted to support women to be more confident and to acknowledge their strengths, to acknowledge how great they are. Because very often we see female founders don't have that confidence. This is a very popular workshop right now, not only among female entrepreneurs but also any female audiences from students through regular individual contributors.” 

Agnieszka comes from Poland and she cherishes the fact that she comes from Central and Eastern Europe. 

“I come from this region. This region is diverse, with a lot of different countries, and a lot of different connections and languages. Somehow it's easy when you come from this region to actually manage a global team because you already know that there are differences, you already know that you have to listen and you understand the context of the other person from another country…because it all matters in communication.” 

Today she manages Google for Startups initiatives carried out in over 125 countries including joint activities with over 60 incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces.  

“I started [the business] on my second maternity leave 10 years ago. Before that, I was engaged in large corporations in high positions in marketing and public relations. [...] I used the pause to rethink my purpose in business and I started testing healthy oatmeal cookies, which was really strange back then,” Milica Ličina Čalija, the founder of Anđeli (Serbian for Angels) tells Andrew Wrobel. 

“Now, we do have some kind of awareness of the importance of healthy eating. Back then, online shopping was not as developed as it is now. And healthy habits in eating were not as developed.” 

The cookie producer now has eight employees, and seven of them are women. They are a social enterprise because all of the female employees are either over 45 years old, which is a group in Serbia that cannot be easily employed, or have some kind of chronic illness. 

“It's a community, a kind of family. And when I say that I'm an activist and I empower women, I do not only do that through some kind of advocacy,” she adds. 

But Milica is also an activist and runs her own podcast.  

"I always talk about difficult moments and obstacles, thinking that if I share that experience, someone else will be encouraged to overcome the same obstacle,” she says. 

“Before I started my internship at Visa, I [ran] a small eco-hotel in the mountains of Ukraine. It was a travel co-working space. It was after the first invasion in 2014. A lot of travel agencies were closed and travel managers needed to work somewhere so I decided to open a space where everybody could help each other and develop the travel industry,” Nataliia Ievtushenko, first an intern and now a full-time employee at Visa tells Andrew Wrobel in the eighth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa. 

“During the [internship] interview, I chose the product team. It's very interesting for me to see how products are created from the beginning, from the idea until the product is done.” 

“I'm the head of the women's Visa network inside the company. And I used to be the mentor for some of the newcomers and some of the women in the network. It's really great to feel that your experience, your advice helps someone to grow or just to realise themselves, to achieve results or even to build a relationship with someone. It's important not only for the mentee but also for the mentor just to know that they are helping the younger generation grow, find new paths,” Svitlana Chyrva, Vice President, Country Manager for Visa in Ukraine and Moldova, adds. 

“I changed companies for the first three roles that I had and then I came to Microsoft,” Michelle Simmons, General Manager Central Europe at Microsoft, tells Andrew Wrobel in the seventh episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa. 

“And what I found was that I've been able to take on new challenges and really work for many different companies inside Microsoft by changing functions, changing geographies and expanding my scope of responsibility. And so that's how I've ended up spending so long at one company because it's been just a platform for incredible learning, professional growth.” 

“I had the pleasure of first meeting Michelle earlier this year and during our conversations it was her approach to leadership that struck me most,” Andrew says. “That curiosity and authenticity, showing the way forward, especially now in such uncertain times and being able to create a vision for what the future looks like. And identifying and challenging talent in a supportive way so that they can move into their next role, even if it is at a different company.” 

“I measure myself on how I'm helping people in my organization to achieve their career goals,” Michelle adds. 

“There's been a lot of positive discussion and some positive progress when it comes to gender equality around the world, […] but I think clearly there's much more to be done to truly ensure the level of equality that we all aspire to and I think men have to play a vital role in that,” said Dan Baxter, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, in conversation with Emerging Europe’s Andrew Wrobel. 

This is why halfway through the first series of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa, we take a look at the role of men in the development of female empowerment as the process must include the awareness and engagement of men. 

“One of the steps is ensuring that you have a diverse work force to start with and setting very clear goals which are measured to ensure that you're continuing to increase the level of diversity within the organisation. [...] We need to show that there are significant benefits of having more women in the workplace, but also in the company environment.” 

“Involving men in initiatives such as She’s Next contributes to a broader understanding that diversity is an enormous benefit in a workplace. I am also delighted to be the podcast host and I very much hope I will be able to help raise awareness about diversity and the value of female entrepreneurship,” Andrew added. 

"When we started in 2018, […] it was really to try something new in the region and in our country [of Czechia],” Silke Horáková tells Andrew Wrobel in the fifth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa. 

“It was about convincing investors that impact investing is something valid and has a future. That it's worthwhile to invest for financial returns, and doing something good for society at the same time.” 

Silke is one of the founders and a partner at Tilia Impact Ventures, one of the first impact funds in central and eastern Europe. She was previously the CEO of the Czech Private Equity & Venture Capital Association and is originally from Germany. She moved to Czechia during the Velvet Revolution. She is also the co-owner of Albatros Media, the largest Czech book publishing company. 

“Silke says she is not an entrepreneur herself. Yet she’s co-founded quite a few initiatives, including the European Women in VC community that empowers founders who are making a difference in the world. What struck me is the passion she has for social and environmental impact. I very much wish we had more people that are so committed to supporting changemakers in the emerging Europe region,” Andrew says. 

“Looking back to 2010, when I heard for the first time about the concept of impact investing, right from the start I had a deep desire to do something,” Silke adds. 

“I was born into a century and a family that went through every kind of disruption imaginable. I come from […] Central Asia, which has gone through tremendous turbulence: two brutal world wars, multiple civil wars in between every kind of disruption possible, and then that finished with the collapse of our government,“ Nadya Zhexembayeva tells Andrew Wrobel in the fourth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.  

Her first job was in an insurance business selling life insurance in the collapsing Soviet Union. Now Nadya is a recovering academic scientist, entrepreneur, educator, and the founder and chief reinvention officer at ⁠Reinvention Academy⁠.  

“And if for some people stability is a norm, for me, turbulence is the norm. Today, as we face all kinds of disruption, it’s a competitive advantage, meaning I am more ready to deal with change.”  

“Imagine this scene, a relatively young professor at business school meets a vice president of a bank in the same class,” says Cristina Doros, now vice president, regional manager for Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Visa, who first med Nadya back in 2009.  

“It's an inspiration because sometimes when you feel down, when you think your things are going south and you are no good at anything, then I see, I look at Nadya's speeches, I listen to her online, I read the post and I said to myself, OK, you know what, that's the meaning you've been missing.”  

“We are all learning from each other and in that environment, it's all about creating conditions where we can all share, because the wisdom in the room is tremendous with all of these executives,” Nadya adds. 

“I was born and raised in a family of engineers. All around me were gadgets and software, and I wasn't really excited about them. My father taught me how to programme. It was basic, and it was more than 30 years ago, and did not excite me that much,” Elena Marinova tells Andrew Wrobel in the third episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by VISA. 

Elena is president and chair of the board of directors at Musala Soft, a software service company, founded in 2000 and currently with offices in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Egypt, and Emerging Europe’s Female Business Leader for 2020. 

“But 2000 was the year of the dot com crash. We started with fancy Silicon Valley start-ups. Everything was super shiny…unicorns and rainbows. A few months later, we lost all our clients. And a year later, we were almost done. […] It turned out to be an extremely fun and dynamic field.” 

Musala Soft was recently acquired by the KKCG Group and is now part of Qinshift, although it has kept its original brand. 

“I have known Elena for a few years, and I cannot find another person who is so committed to supporting young generations of programmers, and not just in her home country of Bulgaria. Back in 2017, she co-founded the European Junior Olympiad in Informatics for kids from the Council of Europe countries and gave them a stage to compete and create friendships that will last for life and lead to scientific breakthroughs and a better and more connected world. And her enthusiasm is contagious,” Andrew says. 

“If you like the things that you're doing, of course, you're doing more of them and it's not a nine to five thing. It's something you live with all the time,” Elena adds.  

And she seems to have taken a liking to programming in the end. 

“My background is the tourism industry, but when my son was born, he came with a bonus. [This is how] autism came into our lives,” Turkan Ismayilli, the founder of the YouTube channel Cin Bala with animations and fairy tales addressed to special children, tells Andrew Wrobel in the second episode of She’s Next Talks. 

Turkan started the channel during the Covid-19 pandemic, after her family had come to Germany and attending therapy sessions was close to impossible. 

"Our direction is clear, and we started the YouTube channel [to help] autistic kids living in Azerbaijan who do not have a chance to go to therapy centres. [Thanks to these videos] children can learn to speak. We saw it day by day with our son and we have received a lot of messages [from others who say the same]. 

“To me, it is very much specific to women’s entrepreneurship overall because the research also showed that it's us women having a need from any standpoint, having the need to help, having a need to support our family, having the need to help our close ones move further. We are doers, we do stuff no matter how much we are afraid, no matter how much we are not sure. Mostly we are not sure, but we still do things,” adds Cristina Doros, vice president, regional manager for Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Visa, who also joined the episode. 

“I'm a growth guide which means I support leaders and managers and start-up founders and some public figures in sorting out their businesses and lives,” Dragana ‘Gaga’ Djermanović tells Andrew Wrobel in the first episode of She’s Next Talks. 

Gaga is a recognised and awarded personal and professional growth advisor. Through her extensive career, she has mentored more than 1,000 managers, leaders, public figures, and founders. 

“I'm very passionate about supporting people who believe in their dreams and want to realise them, but suffer because they don’t have a clear goal or vision. Sometimes, even with a clear goal or vision, it's too small.” 

“Gaga is a real inspiration for me. From being the youngest manager in a financial institution in Serbia in her early twenties, through leaving the corporate world to becoming a global influencer, she has shown that nothing is impossible. I was stunned by her remarkably positive attitude and her understanding of giving not only taking,” says Andrew. 

"Wherever you are and whatever you have done so far, whatever you think you have, you can give to others. And that's an example, either ideas, context or you can even support someone's story: that's giving. And usually, people are building networks in order to receive,” Gaga says.