Janine Woelki

I was recruited by Foundever right out of business school, and joined the EMEA HQ in the UK in 2008 as Marketing Manager for Germany and Eastern Europe.

After three years in England, I was identified as a high-potential and was invited by our CEO at the time to participate in a 12-month executive training program in Nashville. The program offered me the opportunity to spend each quarter performing a different function: three months with Kathleen Banashak, project managing and delivering the Richardson Sales Training; three months alongside one of our strongest Ops leader; three months with PMO/Direct TV action plan roll-out; and finally, three months with finance.

After completing the program, I was offered a position in Account Management. I decided to leave my European life behind, and transfer to the US. What an adventure! Yet scary at the same time; I was completely out of my comfort zone and 5,000 miles away from home. Luckily, my experience as a Lufthansa flight attendant throughout college prepared me for a job with 80% travel, and taught me how to work with different personalities and cultures, the importance of customer focus, de-escalation skills and a deep understanding of what great customer service looks like. The transition wasn’t easy at first: a new job, a new team, two challenging accounts, a foreign country; but my Foundever family always made me feel secure and supported. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I’ve received here.

I put a lot of work and dedication into my career, putting my personal life on hold for quite some time, because I considered this job the opportunity of a lifetime. To date, I’ve moved six times for my career – from Germany to London, then to Nashville and a few times within the US – to ensure that I’m close to where I need to be. Every move marks a milestone in my career, molding me into the person I am today in my role as Global Vice President – a title I’m very proud of.

Overall, I couldn’t have done it without the support of my Foundever family. Amazing mentors and managers who believed in me, and still do, and are dedicated to helping set me up for the next step in my career. There’s still a few more I want to take 🙂

In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the bold and powerful women of Foundever by sharing their stories – about balance, about success, about gender equality, about change, about what it feels like to be a woman today.