I joined Hilti nine years ago in France. My intentions were to climb the career ladder and follow our family plans, and this came true. As international couple – I am from Czech Republic and my husband is French – we always intended combining living and working abroad.
Starting as Finance Business Partner for our sales division Paris/North and Logistics enabled me to quickly understand Hilti’s business model and its drivers, and to work on cross-functional projects related to financial performance improvements. My key achievements were to develop a strategic plan to strongly grow the business in our sales division and to be able to steer the investments and returns together with the sales team.
I quickly became Head of Controlling for the Western Europe region which includes France, Belgium & Luxembourg (BeLux), Spain and Portugal. I was able to set the regional Controlling function, put in place orchestration of performance management and continued to lead the team of Finance Business Partners for our biggest market in France. In the meantime, I also became mother the second time, just two months after my promotion.
A year and a half later, during completion of the Hilti Global Executive Development Program Impact, I was promoted to Finance Business Partner for our BeLux organizations, becoming part of the leadership team and contributing to set and execute our Champion 2020 strategy for the organization, driving results and developing our team members.

After three years in Belgium, Hilti offered me a new step in my career, as Head of Finance for Hilti’s Middle East, Turkey and Africa region based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and it has been a ride since then. Endless diversity, cultural differences, complex macroeconomic environments. It is amazing, both personally and professionally.
When taking up a new opportunity abroad, it’s always very important to ensure that the family feels comfortable and settled in a new environment. At the same time, it’s about getting to performance in a new role: knowing the organization, market, peers, team members, processes and to bring value to the organization fast. 
I am very grateful to Hilti to give me such trust and opportunities and to my family for their support.