We bring you the story of the Executive Director of our branch office in Amsterdam. Dane Martin Stenkilde is an expert who has been a member of our team since July, but our story with him began many years ago. He loves everything Croats like, we call him Vida, and we are happy that he became the real CROZ team member. In further text, we bring you a summary of the interview. We also recommend you take a look at the video interview (lots of things will be clearer to you).
Motivated by excellent business results in the markets of Great Britain and Germany, we have decided to move on to other prestigious European markets. The primary goal is to expand to the markets of Benelux and Scandinavia, and opening the office in the Netherlands was the first step in that direction. The CROZ’s branch office started to operate at the beginning of August, and it will be led by the Executive Director, Martin Stenkilde. Dane by origin, Martin has a vast knowledge in the field of technology and extensive experience in building and running complex sales networks in Europe and the USA. He will play the key role in the expansion of CROZ’s operations into Northern European markets.
Martin will bring to CROZ the experiences and practices he acquired working in leading positions for more than 10 years, including in European and American IBM. His area of expertise lies in managing global expansions, including the coordination of international sales channels and local partner companies. Martin worked as Global Channel Sales Leader at IBM before he joined CROZ.
Sales Director of CROZ, Vedrana Miholić, believes that Martin can greatly help CROZ with the breakthrough in these interesting but somewhere closed markets, as well as in the development of business, strategy and technology selection in which we will invest in general.
Our Martin visited the Zagreb office during Martinje, and we used this opportunity to conduct a brief interview with him. To spice it up, we have prepared the one-on-one interview, in which our Vedrana interviews him, and he interviews her.
Martin about Croats
Many times during his stay, Martin commented on one interesting thing. He met many Croats, and what fascinates him is the fact that we in Croatia are strong, eloquent, fighters and people with firm attitudes, extraordinary technical and communication skills. Such people are extremely easy to represent and “sell” to foreign clients, especially with excellent references they have. And when the Croat comes abroad, the transformation happens – he or she becomes modest and quiet. Martin’s message to all CROZ employees, as well as to individuals who are reading this is: “Just be yourselves. You have the knowledge and skills with which you can do wonders. Leave humility at home and show the world everything you know!”
It is not the coincidence that we agreed on a visit during Martinje because our new Martin loves Croatia, domestic wine, food, and people. And the time of his visit also coincided with the 5th Town Hall in CROZ. For those who do not know, Town Hall is a meeting of management and employees who are openly discussing all possible topics of common interest. Of course, Martin was one of the speakers. He introduced himself and met with a large number of colleagues, but still, we have one thing to mention. As a welcoming gift, we gave Martin the football dress of the Croatian national football team, from Domagoj Vida, of course.
