How do you spend your weekend or downtimes?

Exercising, cooking with my partner for the week ahead every Sunday morning (I strongly recommend the batch-cooking books from Stephanie de Turckheim and Caroline Pessin), and the rest of my downtime & weekends is spent with my kids.

How do you deal with stress and build resilience?

For a long time, I dealt with it pretty poorly! Talking to peers at work and outside of work is a huge help. Having kids has also been a big factor in building resilience. They keep me grounded and remind me what truly matters. And as dull as it sounds, sleeping well, eating well, and exercising is the basis for managing stress.

What would have been your alternative career path or University degree?

I would have been a terrible one but I'm incredibly fascinated by the artistry and skill involved in hairdressing. Hairdressers can literally transform someone's look.

What are you currently learning or what’s one of the last things you learnt?

I’m currently learning Japanese. Beyond the traditional Apps (Duolingo, Drops, etc.), and textbooks, I speak to a Japanese teacher living in japan once a week via Preply

Who is a (female) professional that inspired you along your career journey?

My answer may sound out of place but… While I haven't had a female role model who perfectly embodies my career aspirations, I've learned a great deal by observing men with inadequate skill sets advance in their careers. If they were given opportunities, then I should be even more determined to seize mine and try new things.

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On a more personal note, there was an American male colleague, not much older than me, who significantly impacted my career by providing invaluable advice on overcoming professional challenges and opened my eyes to the realities of gender inequality in the workplace.

What would you do if you were not afraid?

Move to Japan with my family for 3 years

What’s the one question we didn’t ask you, but you’d like to answer?

• Question: What should be an important topic of conversation on gender equality but is often forgotten?

• Answer: When women take maternity leave or work part-time for childcare, the long-term effects on pensions can be significant. Families should be able to openly discuss these financial implications and have tools to calculate the impact on income and future retirement security. Imagine being able to easily see, maybe even in an Excel sheet, how a 20% reduction in paid hours translates to a decrease in current income and future pension contributions. That kind of transparency could empower families to make informed decisions while ensuring women aren't unfairly disadvantaged.

The previous interviewee left a question for you...

• Question: Who are the 5 famous people you’d invite to an imaginary dinner party, and what would you cook / serve?

• Answer: I’d love to have Angela Merkel (German Chancellor 2005-2021), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister 2017-2023), Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (Iceland Prime Minister 2009-2013), Kaja Kallas (Estonia Prime Minister since 2021), and Sanna Marin (Finland Prime Minister 2019-2023). I’d love to hear their views on the future of Western Culture and if they’re pessimistic, what could be done to change the current course of action. I’d go for sharing platters with nibbles from Ottolenghi’s book ’Simple’