Unifeeder’s St. Petersburg Branch employee Svetlana Maydanova participated in the DP World for women initiative #MentorHer, a programme designed to facilitate knowledge transfer with mentors, in order to support, inspire, and motivate women in the workplace, and help build networks that open opportunities.
Svetlana Maydanova has been with Unifeeder since 2009 and is based in St. Petersburg. Besides many years of experience in Finance and Administration, she holds a Ph.D. from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, in enterprise architecture and digital technologies in logistics, which she defended in December 2020.
DP World mentoring initiative #MentorHer
DP World’s #MentorHer initiative is available to all female employees, across the DP World network
After having gained theoretical knowledge, Svetlana Maydanova sought to combine it with practical skills, which the DP World mentoring initiative - #MentorHer allowed her to do.
DP World’s #MentorHer initiative is available to all female employees, across the DP World network. As Unifeeder is a DP World-owned company, this provides unique opportunities for all Unifeeder female employees to learn from this programme.
Knowledge transfer with mentors
The programme facilitates knowledge transfer with mentors, who possess expertise and strength to inspire, motivate, and develop women, so as to understand and accomplish their present and future vision and purpose.
Describing the outcome of the programme, Unifeeder’s Chief Accountant, Svetlana Maydanova, said “This was a chance for me to be involved in new IT projects and to apply my knowledge in practice. If you dream of constant development, this programme is a good place to realise it.”
So far, the DP World for women initiative #MentorHer has successfully been held four times. In 2021, the programme involved 138 mentors and more than 200 mentees, from across the globe.
Svetlana Maydanova’s experiences
The mentor and mentee are thoroughly matched, based on various criteria, in order to ensure the best matches
The mentor and mentee are thoroughly matched, based on various criteria, in order to ensure the best matches, rewarding for both partners. Svetlana Maydanova’s mentor was Mohamed Absar, who is currently serving as the Head of Projects and Solutions at DP World, and is responsible for the back offices standardisation.
During the mentoring initiative, Mohamed Absar has provided significant support for Svetlana Maydanova, consulting her on a wide range of topics. Moreover, he has appointed her to several IT projects, running for implementation now, meaning that her experience in administration of logistics and enterprise architecture has also turned out to be very beneficial for DP World.
Gaining experience in global IT projects
For Svetlana Maydanova, this has been a chance to receive practical experience in global IT projects and business processes. Moreover, this also offered a chance to her to meet new colleagues across DP World and to renew cooperation with many Unifeeder colleagues.
Thus, the DP World for women initiative #MentorHer both empowers women and supports business goals. Svetlana Maydanova has been invited to extend her programme for another six months, meaning that after all, she will receive a year of practical experience in global IT projects. Meanwhile, she has already identified several areas for new scientific research.