Shows
Mindset Power TalkE4:S2 Stefani Ivanova: VIOLENCE IS NOT A CONVERSATION! Love doesn’t leave bruises! …A shared story – about domestic violence and mental health.A few weeks ago, Stefani posted photos of bruises on her face and revealed that she was a victim of domestic violence. On Facebook, she shared that it took her a long time to gather the courage to speak out and share her perspective on the incident, which sparked a wave of outrage on social media.She also stepped in front of the camera for the Mindset Power Talk podcast—not just to share her personal story with Milena Hadzhiivanova, but to help raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence.But Stefani is so mu...
2025-02-271h 04
INSEAD UnfilteredMarita & Marcello Cavalcanti: On Ego, Compromise and Stacking the DishwasherLast year, the MBA 2003D class created a separate podcast series capturing stories of their class in the run-up to their 20 year reunion. This Unfiltered episode features content from one of those podcasts.
Marita and Marcello Cavalcanti talk about life as an INSEAD couple, about navigating the relay race of dual careers within a marriage and about playing second fiddle. They also share interesting points of view on finance, startups, blockchain and capitalism.
Huge thanks go to Milena Ivanova, who plays host on this podcast, and who offered to...
2024-05-0621 min
Beauty At WorkBeauty in Science: An Interdisciplinary Conversation at the University of Oxford (Part 2 of 3)In July 2022, we held an interdisciplinary panel at Magdalen College the University of Oxford on the role of beauty in science. The event was sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust and Magdalen College. The panel represented perspectives from diverse disciplines: mathematics, physics, biology, philosophy of science, and sociology.You can see the slides from the panelists’ presentations on the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/t6AQ9O2MLUY?si=VQpoyHYaMSWYpBoNThis is the second episode in the series; in our last episode we heard from Dr. Ben MacArthur and Dr...
2024-05-0335 min
Mindset Power TalkE15:S1 Atanas Mesechkov: GIVE A HUG...TODAY!…For the dances, the people, and the important thingsWe know his soul from the dances.
We've seen him with passion in his eyes and posture, with tenderness and care in his support. We've also seen him in pain last week, dancing with a broken toe on the same day.
But here, in this episode, we dive into the depth. Without sensationalism or cheap news, rather into his lessons and mindfulness.
Atanas Mesechkov is a Balkan champion in sports dances and holder of the title "Champion of Bulgaria". His name seems to be synonymous with the art of dance in the...
2024-04-101h 00
Republic of INSEADE28: "Let's Play" - you just never know what kind of ripples you're going to create“If you want to help a community, then by far educations is the best way to do it. I don't know if it matters so much what you teach, but as long as kids get excited about learning and get excited about going to school, that makes a huge difference.”“Just by talking about it and it inspires other people to do something similar in their communities, you just never know what kind of ripples you're going to create, right?”“Once you don't think so much about yourself and once you don't think about what you're get...
2024-03-1756 min
Beauty At WorkWhy is beauty relevant in science? (Dr. Milena Ivanova) Clip from S1E2What makes beauty relevant to science? In this clip, Cambridge Philosopher Dr. Milena Ivanova shares the story of how she came to study the intersection of aesthetics and science, and what she's learned in the process.For the full interview see: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2043099/11497942For the broader project, visit: https://www.beautyatwork.netSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BeautyatWorkPodcastSupport the show
2024-03-0512 minRepublic of INSEADE27: "Okay, that's a message of hope for the future."Top recommendations for Dean Veloso from the ‘03Ds:“Just make sure that your education is raising the bar on future management, not only in terms of technical knowledge, but in terms of values.”“The university has a great asset, it's the Alumni Network - invest more and with the expectation to get more out of it.”“Keep up the education of your alumni and give them the opportunity to get back together, because at the level of the class is where you have the strongest bonds.”Our 20Y reunion in a nutshell: Exci...
2023-12-221h 03
Republic of INSEADAnd finally… "You had your eat, pray, love moment." "I totally did. I won't be shy about it. I was very, very lucky."For me there were two options. I can be very rich and lonely 10 years down the line, or I had to change something so that I'm happy and I'm not lonely and I'm with someone that I enjoy being with.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I changed absolutely everything. So I was in the recruitment industry in Poland before INSEAD, and then I ended up in investment banking in Austria. The only thing I didn't change was the market, because my entire life, the theme has been emerging markets.I spent two and a half...
2023-10-0457 minRepublic of INSEADKeep humming.... "You're walking on this rope with a river full of alligators below you, and you're doing a dance basically"Running your own business is like a marathon at the speed of a sprintYour mental health is under constant stress, what I realized early on is it's a very lonely space to do it, because there are very few people who do this.Quite frankly, you're dealing with more failures than successes than from the outside people see.I still remember sitting on my balcony with helicopters flying by, with soldiers and machine guns roads were blocked. You know buildings boarded up or you know it was, it was absolutely intense.
2023-10-0356 minRepublic of INSEAD"Vanity, definitely my favorite sin"“And remember, it’s not a judgement of your performance, it’s just we don’t need this position anymore.”After selling the chain of clinics business twice, I got fired from day 1 to day 2 with the typical capitalist view, you put your things in a box and leave the premises in 2 hours type of thing. This put me in a very difficult position of trying to redefine myself as a business person, so I took a step back.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:5 years ago I joined one of my most recent investments, because I felt it...
2023-10-0244 min
Republic of INSEAD"Business appears to be 20 smacks in the face and 1 little tickle."I'm sure when we started our first business together we were like “God, this is the learning one and we're just gonna smash it all the way through the rest of them”. Unfortunately hasn't quite turned out that way, it continues to be a learning experience. Turns out, there's new sh*t to learn every time.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:The journey is the destination.If you ask me where I thought I'd be 20 years after INSEAD I think I've definitely, largely because of my wife, who I met at INSEAD and my business part...
2023-10-011h 08Republic of INSEAD"My job is to make sure that when you wake up in the morning and decide to spend some money, you'll like spend it on me."s sana in corpore sano - it's been a great awakening, a scary awakening but now I'm in a good place.With a corporate job and globe trotting, moving international, living life as we would have dreamt of at INSEAD, you also need to have certain discipline which I did not have. When I just moved to Bangkok in 2019, I was basically living between Paris and Bangkok for close to eight months and then traveling in different geographies. This took a toll where I was living out of a suitcase for eight months, eating, drinking whatever I...
2023-09-3044 minRepublic of INSEAD"If you can choose between being kind or being right choose kind" said our little LapinWhen you're moving as a family, the only common denominator you have is the family, so you stick together and you make sure that everybody goes through the experience in the smoothest way possible.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Quite a ride, it brought me through 5 different locations (Switzerland, France, Spain, Andora, Bulgaria and now Israel), 9 or 10 different positions and all with this desire, this intent to actually revolutionize to some extent a quite old and legacy industry and move it into something closer to the twenty first century.We've always wanted to be kept...
2023-09-2849 minRepublic of INSEADThe monkey does it better than us, AI is going to do it better than the monkeys.It's surprising to me that people are still amazed at the fact that banks can go bust. It most definitely will not be the last time [a bank goes bust], it's a cyclical thing.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:“I try not to do stress.”We had initially gone to Dubai to spend 4 years there. 4 years turned into 13. All in all can't complain, it's been a good couple of decades.The challenge has been to maintain a good balance of finding stimulation at work, finding stimulation at home with your family, with your spor...
2023-09-2639 minRepublic of INSEADWhat I learned in politics is, you need to work with everybodyWhen I was very young I just was interested by politics because you can influence. It's very fulfilling when you see that you can make things change. So that's really the main driver now.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:From 2009 to 2020 I was having two hats - one was the local managing partner of EY in Luxembourg, a firm of about 1700 employees, the second one was to be the private equity leader for EMEA.I always had also a kind of public vibe in myself which is that I was always very much engaged into...
2023-09-2140 minRepublic of INSEADI now introduce myself as a farmer when people ask what I do and nobody takes me seriouslyIf you invested all of your tuition in Apple stock, last time I checked, it was about $22 million.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Just over ten years ago I set up my own business with a partner from INSEAD and another friend to build, own and operate renewable energy power stations in the UK.We invested about a half a billion dollars at that time, had some great successes. I moved then to the States in 2017 to set up our US business and that business has become a solar developer.Hardest for me...
2023-09-1842 minRepublic of INSEADAnd so I said to myself "Whatever I do next, I want to work in a place where there's a longer term horizon of doing things."The company I was working for, we were so extremely short-term focused and we almost changed strategy every three months, we were literally throwing money out of the window, just to get customers’ market share, and somehow it didn't feel right to me. I didn't have the financial understanding to really put a calculator to it, and then the company also literally almost went bankrupt at the end of the 3 years and so I said, you know somehow this cannot be right, you can't run a business with such a short-term horizon.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Go...
2023-09-1436 minRepublic of INSEADThe fact that you can change the shape of the curve of life, like really bend the curve of life is amazing.You're basically creating miracles that fit in the palm of your hand and you're helping reimagine life for patients.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Givers are not good takers.I don't think of the 2000s as twenty years ago, I still think of the 80s, or the 70s as twenty years ago.I started in Singapore, then went back to the US and lived and worked in New Jersey and Chicago, then Munich, London and back in the US. I was fortunate enough to have those opportunities with the same company, so I...
2023-09-1040 minRepublic of INSEADPlease go fast, but we're going to give you the time that is required.The story of someone about to disrupt a part of medicine.“What if we were able to invent a technology, basically a new material, that would allow to repair and reconnect tissues without trauma, in an atraumatic manner, in a non-penetrating manner.”What you're trying to do is big, it is going to take time and we're going to give you time.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I love the last twenty years, I'm very excited for the next twenty to be honest.I would have never described myself at the time...
2023-09-0450 minRepublic of INSEADWe got shipwrecked, luckily on this tiny island in the Filipino archipelagoThe adults were so weak they had to be carried off the shipwreck onto shore… Today, I lead the diabetes business in Medtronic, a global leader in medical devices. The business is about 2.3 billion, with over 5,000 employees. The story of “the person most likely to rule the planet in the future”20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I find myself not in the mainstream part of these companies, but having a big impact on the future of those companies.A bit of a nomad - three million miles of travel approximately, 3 continents, 3 children, 3 C-suite roles, 7 cities and 10...
2023-08-3051 minRepublic of INSEADI've taken INSEAD to space and I think I've been the first one to do that.The rocket was emblazoned with the INSEAD logo and underneath that it said KacificOne, the name of our satellite, and a FORCE FOR GOOD and so it was the force for good logo from INSEAD.Force for Food is part of the famous John Kennedy speech, when he declared that by the end of the decade he would send men to the Moon. I like that reference that space can be a force for good; money can be a force for good, capitalism can be a force for good and you can use money to do the...
2023-08-2150 minRepublic of INSEADEvery time I get seduced into prioritizing wealth then I tend to make wrong decisions.But when I genuinely enjoy what I do, then I do a really good job at it and then the financial side tends to take care of itself.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I had realised that rather than trying to be someone else, or trying to fit into a system, the best thing I could do was focus on what I thought was right and follow my instincts.We spent what probably is the best 5 years of my life and career living in Dar es Salaam, working in a nonprofit.I had...
2023-08-0645 minRepublic of INSEADThere's nothing like a crisis to force people to pivot and change: the world of travel, luxury and entertainmentWe'll break the rules because we're rule breakers20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:It was one of those things where I've always believed that you need to look inside yourself and figure out will you regret saying no to this one. And this was just one of those ones where I said yeah, this one is something I have to do.Global marketing director for De Beers diamond jewellers, an LVMH company, an amazing kind of training ground, because if anyone knows how to do luxury branding and marketing, it's LVMH.Going into...
2023-07-311h 00Republic of INSEAD"The tsunami in Asia was the first of 3 tsunamis I faced in my professional life."20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:“People don’t remember books; they remember sentences. More specifically, they remember stories.”Four different places in the last 20 years. I married for the second time and hopefully the last time, I also fell in love with running, so I became an avid marathoner, hopefully I'll complete the 6 majors.Corporate culture matters quite a lot, so all those OB classes were actually quite helpful.On Credit Suisse - one of the key takeaways is how a centennial brand or franchise could vanish in a matter of months.ON T...
2023-07-2739 minRepublic of INSEADAn INSEAD couple: Happiness is being able to do waffles on a Sunday morning for my daughters and my wife and spending time with them20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Mike Tyson, the philosopher, says that everybody has a plan until you get a punch in your face.INSEAD was a big part, a big success factor for us. We got the family out of it, but we also got pretty good jobs after.I learned to code and I wanted to go back into trading and I went into systematic trading for 5 years and then developed models for cryptocurrencies as well and then I fell completely in love with that and fell into the rabbit hole of blockchain, web 3.
2023-07-231h 01Republic of INSEAD"When you're an entrepreneur, and you're not successful with your first shot, bouncing back from failure is probably the most difficult."20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I told myself I'm going to be a hotelier. Okay so how do I become a hotelier? Well, no hotel owner in their right mind will ask me to run their hotel. So I guess I need to be a hotel owner myself.In my thirties I was kind of a Parisian nightlife kingpin and had a lot of fun, a lot of fun. I probably had a little bit of a delayed teenage crisis and threw my career out the window and decided to go into nightlife.Money came...
2023-07-1642 minRepublic of INSEADLife is a marathon, not a sprint: as a parent it's important to actually dial things down a bit, rather than push kids20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:Success is a balanced life, I'm not sure I'm there yet, but that's an aspiration.I don't think I was fully aware of the challenge for international couples of moving around and managing two careers.Sometimes he's followed me and sometimes I've followed him and it's worked out pretty well, but it hasn't been easy.I feel very lucky because I love the work that I do, I love the fact that I get to work with candidates who are all over the world, who have that wonderful...
2023-07-1243 minRepublic of INSEADMr. CA$H: "Well, why can't you build a Moon rocket in your back garden?"20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I never intended to start a space rocket company.I started to literally Google “How do you build a moon rocket”Consulting has never been my kind of thing, you don't have enough responsibility I think in consulting for execution, I quite like the responsibility of execution.Rule 3 was “Don't fuck it up”.CEO role in that kind of company is 24 / 7 / 365.Stubbornness and stamina are really massively important in any entrepreneurial task.“You're really stubborn. You don't give up. You don't quit, you just k...
2023-07-0848 minRepublic of INSEAD"Prom Queen": If I didn't have that pain point of trying to combine family life with professional life, I probably would have never become an entrepreneur.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:I had at some point of time to decide whether I wanted to have a career, or to be a mother whose children can recognize her.Being a banker, I was really very risk averse, so starting my own thing was the last thing I thought I would do, but mothers do so many things that we wouldn't do in normal circumstances.Institutions might come and go, but people stay.Credit Suisse had the amazing ability to attract some absolutely brilliant people and then the amazing ability of...
2023-07-0449 minRepublic of INSEADThe food industry: We feel the pain of global warming instantly, here, and now, and today.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:It's been a juggle to combine two careers and raise a couple of healthy, good kids and particularly a career in a multinational on the one hand and a very local kind of rooted career in medicine on the other hand.The most difficult time by far was after the 2008 financial crisis, when I think a lot of businesses were under pressure and ours was no exception at the time. By far the toughest, but also very character building, so was a useful experience at the same time.One of...
2023-06-3031 minRepublic of INSEAD"Before I had to excuse myself for being a techie on a board, now everybody wants to ask me "Well, how do we apply AI to our business?""20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:You know, days go slowly and years fly by”.I wasn't that keen on children to begin with, but once we couldn't have one I got actually very keen and life is what happens while you're making other plans. And suddenly I have 4 children.I've been on the boards of maybe thirty-forty companies in the past fourteen years.To be perfectly honest, I was really tired with the pregnancies, and the babies, and the work, and the travel. And so I decided to try to be a board me...
2023-06-2243 minRepublic of INSEADThe world of biotech: It's like you just saw somebody run one hundred meters in 2.5 secondsYou defied some of the laws of physics to make that happen!Get the dog out for a walk, hop on the train or car to work or to school, put your gym gear on and tune in to find out who’s the next guest in the Republic of Insead podcast. A few of my favorite snippets are below.20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:A number of crazy things happened related to the business and the growth of the business. We happened to find ourselves in an amazing position, through rapid succession, finished a fu...
2023-06-1650 minRepublic of INSEAD"Harry Potter": I still feel I've got another start-up inside me.The speed of light is a hard constraint in this world.“Just mention the letters “I.T.” and a disheveled Harry Potter like figure will emerge from his back-row slumber. Either cheerful or recovering from a perhaps too cheerful night, he continually brightened our spirits. He has entertained us with his guitar stylings and has bemused us with his weekend hangover wear – an exceedingly well-worn bathrobe. Sociable and hospitable, he quickly shed his studious image to become the social butterfly we know and love today. He became, in short, the man we’ll remember from the party photos. Th...
2023-06-1143 min
Beauty At WorkCan scientific experiments be beautiful? with Dr. Milena IvanovaToday’s guest is Dr. Milena Ivanova, a philosopher of science based at Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University, where she is a fellow, graduate tutor, and the Director of Studies in Philosophy. Dr. Ivanova’s research involves studying aesthetics in the expansive field of science and publishing numerous articles, papers, and books on the subject. She is the author of Duhem and Holism (Cambridge UP, 2021) and co-editor of The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination, and Understanding (Routledge, 2020). Dr. Ivanova lends us her expertise to explore the following:What...
2022-10-1552 min
DiarioJudio.cominvitación y oportunidad para los mexicanos descendientes de Bulgaria y el apoyo a comunidad judía Milena Ivanova (2Invitación y oportunidad para los mexicanos descendientes de Bulgaria y su apoyo a comunidad judía La Excma. Embajadora Bulgaria MILENA IVANOVA invita a todos los miembros de la comunidad judía de México de Origen Búlgaro a acercase y encontrar las infinitas opciones, actividades y beneficios que en conjunto pueden realizarse. Entre ellas poder tener una ciudadanía de la comunidad Europea para todos aquellos judíos y no judíos de origen Búlgaro, sin importar el lugar de nacimiento Para fomentar este acercamiento y buscar mucho en comun se le jha dado el titulo de Cons...
2022-01-2235 min
DSC SOFIA Bulgarian PodcastDiana Alaikova and Milena Ivanova EA - За Детокс с клетъчен Рестарт , Нумерологията , бизнес нумерологията, ангелски терапии…Разговор с Милена Иванова ЕА
За записване към Детокс Септември 2021 - http://dscsofia.com/5-days-challenge/
#DianaAlaikova #MilenaIvanovaEA
2021-09-0120 min
Milena Radić - Govori da bih te videoElizabeta Ivanova: „I ja sam dete Sovjetskog Saveza"Došavši u Srbiju pre četiri godine, na studentsku razmenu, Elizabeta Ivanova suočila se sa značajnim kulturološkim i sociološkim razlikama. Način na koji adolescenti u Srbiji žive bio joj je iznenađujući, a skoro sasvim suprotstavljen svemu onome što se u Rusiji očekuje od mlade osobe koja krči svoj put ka odraslosti. Kako ju je život u Srbiji promenio i čemu naučio, čućete u današnjoj reportaži. Autor: Milena Radić
2021-06-2529 min
Forum for PhilosophyThe Nature of BeautyArtist Adrian Holme and philosopher Milena Ivanova discuss the nature of beauty and the relationship between art and science.
2020-11-1700 minAudio – Forum for PhilosophyThe Nature of BeautyArtist Adrian Holme and philosopher Milena Ivanova discuss the nature of beauty and the relationship between art and science.
2020-11-1700 minForum for PhilosophyThe Nature of BeautyArtist Adrian Holme and philosopher Milena Ivanova discuss the nature of beauty and the relationship between art and science.
2020-11-1700 min