Mirella Hansen

My journey to a business career in Denmark was not a walk in the park. I had to navigate many hurdles and weather a few storms, and no matter the number of people who told me I shouldn’t try, that I wouldn’t be able to make it, I perceived did it my own way.(se yndlingssang) My dream was to get a career in finance-but this was not an option in my childhood, as I was born in Romania during the communist period. However, change came to Romania. 1989 I have participated to the revolution against the communist regime and plenty of new possibilities turned up.In 1995 I have graduated the degree program in International Business at the Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest, which is one of the most prestigious business schoolsin Romania. I was dreaming of working with international business, but I needed to find a new career path, as I got married and moved to Denmark in 1994, I pursued a Master of Science in Business and Administration at Copenhagen Business School, while working full-time in the audit industry. I became a Public Certified Accountant in 1997 and finished a Henley Business School Master of Business administration in 2003. I left the audit industry in 2014 as I realized that my true call is leadership. I worked as Head of Group Financial Reporting for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (the Danish Equivalent of BBC) for 4 years, and I started my current job (Director of Group Finance at Coop Denmark group) in 2018. The leadership challenge is the one aspect I could not live without, and I became aware of that helping organisations succeed with complex transformation projects is my passion. I try to give back by being a mentor for the younger generation.