Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify You think your job is hard? Imagine being the HR director of one of the most important companies in a country that has been at war for more than 2 years, is managing a labor market struggling from an outflow of refugees and loss of men to mobilization, and all while trying to recover after a 30% drop in GDP. Your company’s task includes the transmission of electricity from generation to distribution networks, as well as the operational and technological control of the Ukrainian Power System, which has been a daily target of Russia for the past 2.5 years.I…
Author: Mark McNamee
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify In this episode, my guest Kateryna Odarchenko, government relations specialist and head of political consultancy SIC Group, discussed some of the top investment challenges in Ukraine, including the need for strong government relations teams, the importance of transparency, the recent passage of the Lobbying Law in Ukraine, the evolving Ukrainian business culture, and much more. Kateryna has nine years of experience in democracy building and democracy campaign management. She is the author of 500+ publications about transparent public administration, campaign management, good governance, and civil society development. She is also the author of the “Election Game” handbook for politicians in…
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify This is the second part of the episode of what is it like to be the wife of a Ukrainian soldier captured by the Russians and beaten and tortured as a prisoner of war? This is the story of Natalia Zarytska, the founder of “Women of Steel”, an NGO dedicated to saving the soldiers who fought in Mariupol and at Azovstal in 2022. Despite being told her husband was dead multiple times, scared for her own life and the life of her child, and even harassed and threatened by Russians, Natalia never gave up hope on her husband and successfully…
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify What is it like to be the wife of a Ukrainian soldier captured by the Russians and beaten and tortured as a prisoner of war? This is the story of Natalia Zarytska, the founder of “Women of Steel”, an NGO dedicated to saving the soldiers who fought in Mariupol and at Azovstal in 2022. Despite being told her husband was dead multiple times, scared for her own life and the life of her child, and even harassed and threatened by Russians, Natalia never gave up hope on her husband and successfully fought for his release from Russian captivity.…
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify In this episode, Pavlo Narozhnyi – Founder of Reactive Post, an NGO that provides support to soldiers on the front lines – shared stories from the frontlines in the war, while also describing where the war is today and his vision of how the war develops in the coming year(s). Filled with anecdotes from soldiers’ experiences, plus the broader picture of both Ukraine and Russia’s capabilities and vulnerabilities on land, in the sea, and in the air, Pavlo brings greater clarity to the war in his engaging, serious, but light-hearted fashion. Pavlo founded his non-government organization (NGO) Reactive…
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify In this introductory episode of the podcast, I introduce myself – my personal, academic, and professional background – what the podcast will be about, and why I have moved to Ukraine to start a business. In short, I have been passionate about this region my entire life and have studied and worked on it my entire academic and professional career. For this reason, I have moved to Ukraine to make whatever small contribution I can make to help the country recover. In this podcast series, I will do my best to communicate life here in Ukraine,…