With International Women’s Day approaching on March 8, we at Workee would like to share stories of women who can rightfully be called role models for a generation of female leaders in the Danish retail industry.
Stina Glavind Dalgaard Pedersen: Climbing mountains and the career ladder at Coop and Carlsberg
Stina Glavind is a Danish business leader who has distinguished herself by holding the position of Executive Vice President in one of the biggest retail companies in Denmark.
In 2008, Stina became Sales Development Director at Carlsberg, where she was responsible for commercial strategy development, but in 2011, she joined Coop, starting as Group Category Manager with responsibility for purchasing dairy, bread and cold cuts.
In 2015, she was appointed Commercial Director of Kvickly and in a year she took over the position of Chain Director for Fakta A/S, where she was, among other things, behind the decision to close 47 of the chain’s most lucrative stores.
In 2018, Stina Glavind moved up to the top management team, when she was appointed as the new Executive Vice President of Coop Danmark, and was responsible for the company’s five retail chains (Kvickly, SuperBrugsen, DagliBrugsen, Fakta and Irma), HR and the supply chain.
But after almost 10 years with Coop, Stina has chosen to leave the group and continue conquering new positions. Now she has taken up the role of Director of the FDM, where she is in charge of Denmark’s largest consumer and interest organization with over 260,000 members.
In addition to an outstanding career in business, Stina is the first and only Danish woman to complete “the seven summits” – climbing and summiting the seven mountain peaks which represent the highest mountain on each of the Earth’s seven continents. She is also a holder of a private helicopter pilot license.
Maria Holmgaard Carlsen: From student assistant nurse to Vice President of Pandora
Maria Holmgaard Carlsen is a woman who has not only radically changed her profession, but has also taken a senior position in the new sphere.
Just 11 years ago, Maria was working as a nurse at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. But today, she is Vice President of Delivery & Planning, Digital & Technology for the world’s largest jewelry brand – Pandora.
In 2008, Maria Holmgaard Carlsen completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the Deaconess Foundation in Frederiksberg, and until the end of 2011 she worked as a nurse. In parallel, she was receiving education at Copenhagen Business School and after getting a master’s degree in Finance and Accounting in 2012, Maria changed her professional area and took the positions of Business Analyst and later Management Consultant for the Implement Consulting Group.
After gaining experience in her new role, she moved on to Pandora. Here, climbing up the ladder, she has held a handful of different titles before being appointed a Director of Business Development of the store network in the EMEA region in 2018. She is responsible for about half of Pandora’s revenue, which comes from this area.
Maria’s example shows that no matter your current occupation, you can reach the heights in any sphere: in just 10 years, Maria went from being a nurse to being Vice President of a world-famous company.
Mette Maix: Impressive experience as a director of famous companies
After years of countless promotions, it is difficult to compete with Mette Maix’s outstanding experience in Danish and international retail.
Mette Maix’s career at Coop started as a Department Manager and finished as a Chain Director for SuperBrugsen. After working there for almost 10 years, in 2011 she moved to Slovakia and became Marketing Director at the grocery giant Tesco. Mette Maix occupied this position for almost two years before returning home.
The Danish retail industry pulled her in again, when Mette Maix got the job as Executive Vice President of Føtex. Here she was, among other things, involved in launching Føtex Food.
In 2016, Mette Maix made a significant career change when she became CEO of Berlingske Media. Although she was skeptical when offered the job, she ended up saying yes. However, it was only a short stay and the retail industry called again.
In 2017, Mette became CEO at Flying Tiger Copenhagen – a global chain of Danish design stores, which today has more than 800 locations across 30 countries. Nevertheless, in 2019 Mette Maix resigned because she was unhappy with the composition of the management.
Today, Mette Maix is the CEO of Rosendahl Design Group, which is behind some of the most popular design classics in Denmark, such as Holmegaard, Kay Bojesen, Global, Rosendahl and Kähler, and has a turnover of around half a billion krones.
These Danish women, among many others, represent positive changes and inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.
As for Workee, 60% of our team is composed of women, and moreover, Workee is a female-led company: the CEO, Vera Reshetina, and the COO, Evgenia Bereziuk, have years of experience in the business world.
All these examples of successful women prove that the proportion of women in senior positions is increasing and there is no doubt that female advancement is unstoppable.
The Workee team wishes you a happy International Women’s Day!
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