Katerina Kazak
In our employee spotlight series, we invite different employees to share their stories. With a face-to-face interview, we provide you some insight about what their role is and how we work at Genexis.
This employee spotlight is with Katerina Kazak. Katerina joined Genexisin 2012, and now works as a senior business development manager for the areas of Baltics and Poland at our Swedish office.
You’ve been working at Genexis for more than 10 years, how have things changed during this period?
For the last 10 years, Genexis has grown organically and via acquisitions, expanding to new markets, developing new products being a true FTTH driving force vendor in Europe.
When I started in 2012, Genexis had just acquired the CPE business unit of PacketFront, strengthening its position in the Nordics. That was the year when Genexis Sweden office officially opened and where I have been located taking care of sales and business development activities for the markets of Norway, Finland and Eastern Europe.
In 2018, Genexis joined forces with Inteno group, expanding its product offering to WiFi extenders, DSL gateways and Cloud management. As Inteno had branch offices in the markets of Norway and Finland, we gradually merged Genexis activities in these markets and I joined a sales team for the markets of Sweden and Baltics.
Today, I have a role of Senior Business Development Manager for the areas of Baltics and Poland as we believe that Poland is becoming a facilitator in FTTH adaptation in Europe. It has always been an exciting journey with a culture of shared values and striving for success. On a personal side, I have become a mother of 2 children since I started at Genexis. I have grown family wise as well.
How did you get started in the industry?
I would say I appeared in the right place at the right time. In 2005, I started my first job at a telecom service provider in Minsk, where I am originally from. At the same time, I was also studying at the university to become a specialist in International Economic Relations and Foreign Language Interpreter. At that time, I could never imagine my future job would be connected to the fiber optics industry.
In 2008, I moved to Sweden to finish master’s in business administration and joined Genexis Stockholm office in 2012, for a role of sales manager with a focus on Eastern European markets.
Being in the industry for more than 13 years, I still see the importance of encouraging women to try and explore the telecom and technical branch that has many opportunities to offer as an industry of the future.
What is your favorite part of working at Genexis?
For me, it is important to be part of a company that has a positive transformation force for people’s lives. At Genexis, we are a team that closely works together with customers and partners to innovate and revolutionize how fiber broadband can be realized in the home by means of sustainable future-proof products.
Therefore, I am passionate to create meaningful growth by setting new challenges, expanding to new areas and generating real business value which we do for and together with our customers.
Also, I like that we are a very diverse organization and being a part of the team that is driven by the big vision for next generation’s networks and connectivity experience. I am grateful for the trust and opportunities that Genexis offers.
How have you grown professionally compared to when you first joined?
I became quite technical and independent. At the beginning, the company was small, and everyone was doing a bit of everything. I learned a lot from being with technical teams at a customer lab for validations.
Now, we have different teams for such validation, and this is the advantage of becoming a bigger company where each department in a value chain is responsible for its part of the project. Working with many types of fast-paced agile organizations at our customers has helped to build the ability to structure and handle multiple projects simultaneously.
I also think that professional growth goes together with personal growth. Being a mother of two small children and a full-time employee means I’ve become very good at prioritizing and time management.
What advice would you provide to young women who are interested in this field?
My advice is simple: be authentic, motivated and curious.
In an environment where women are very few, the best thing is to stand out with attributes like creativity, outside-of the-box thinking and new fresh perspectives on things. Because that’s what is needed to make a difference. Also, believe in yourself, be strong and dare to try something new.