A poignant tribute to a mother's lasting influence, exploring how one life-changing phone call in 1997 became a doorway to understanding love, loss, and the quiet strength that shapes us forever.
Her Story
About Svetlana
She is an accomplished market research executive with over two decades of experience at Euromonitor International, where she has held progressive leadership roles in syndicated research across the Americas and globally. Most recently, she served as Head of Syndicated Research Development, designing and delivering impactful training for research teams locally, regionally, and globally, running workshops for new hires in Mexico on client interactions, and managing the Beauty and Fashion syndicated team in Chicago while overseeing successful client deliveries, providing guidance and feedback to team members. Her earlier career at Euromonitor includes serving as Head of Syndicated Research for the Americas, where she managed teams across Chicago, Mexico City, Santiago, and São Paulo, saved the company over $400,000 over three years through strategic resource realignment, hired and promoted analysts and research managers, chaired the Regional Editorial Board, and coordinated with the Consulting Division under the "One Research" framework. Also, she served as Head of Syndicated Home and Tech Americas, as Head of Syndicated Industry Research, as Global Head of Syndicated Tissue and Hygiene Industry, and as Senior Research Analyst covering retailing, soft and hot drinks, alcoholic drinks, consumer foodservice, and consumer health, among other industries. Earlier in her career, she worked as an in-country analyst in Montreal (Canada), as a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant at McGill University's Department of Sociology, and as a Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Nationalism in Prague. In her long career, she presented at numerous industry global events, where she shared with audience challenges and opportunities for growth. Her career reflects a deep commitment to research excellence, team development, and delivering actionable insights that help clients navigate complex markets.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Svetlana
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my perseverance, ambition, drive to succeed, and strong survival instinct. In my life, I experienced many life-changing events. Some affected me positively (e.g. collapse of the Soviet Union, which many years ago opened up literally world of opportunities for me). Some affected me negatively. Among these were my mom’s passing in 1997, my dramatic rock-climbing accident three years ago, and this July I was laid off after more than 23 years with the same company, along with many other people around our global offices, due to company downsizing and cost cutting. Through it all, I never gave up and swore to myself that I will stay strong, will survive and will thrive again.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I received is to be honest with myself and never give up.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to be strong, to be honest, not to give up when the going gets tough. And the going will get tough inevitably, especially when they start going up career ladder. Don’t shy away from new responsibilities and take the challenge head on.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge I see is constant evolution of market research. New methodologies, new tools appear every year. Now AI is changing the work environment. You constantly have to stay tuned and adapt to new challenges. You never stop learning.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Values that are most important to me in my professional life are empathy, consistency, trust, and confidence in myself and my colleagues. In my personal life, sometimes I value peace and quiet. But more often than not, I enjoy challenge, especially challenge of rock climbing. When I get into a sticky situation when climbing, I remain calm, composed, and I seek the best strategy to get out of the situation
Her Content Hub
Articles by Svetlana
The Morning Everything Changed: For Catherine (Ekaterina), my mom
A mother's quiet strength echoes across decades and distances.
In 1997, one ordinary morning became the dividing line in my life. I picked up the phone in my small student apartment in Canada, expecting the usual call. Instead, I heard my father's voice—heavy, hollow, carrying a weight that instantly changed the air around me. He told me my mother had passed away. She was at home in Moldova. I was thousands of miles away.
For three months before that day, I had been calling her every single day. I didn't question it; it felt like something I simply had to do—a quiet pull, a premonition I only understood later. When the news came, I dropped everything, boarded the first flight I could find, and arrived home the evening before the funeral.
Even now, decades later, I still talk to her—when I'm stuck, when I need courage, even when I'm deciding what to wear. Her presence remains stitched into the fabric of my everyday life.
In the days after her passing, memories rose in waves—vivid and insistent.
I remember myself in sixth grade, hunched over geometry exercises at our tiny kitchen table. My mother moved between the stove and my notebook, explaining the importance of geometry while preparing dinner for the four of us. I loved algebra; geometry felt like a puzzle with missing pieces. She never lost patience, even when I did.
I remember her stories from university—her final year, when she taught chemistry and math to students of all ages. They asked her to return after graduation, but she chose a different path, stepping into economics and building her career at one of Chisinau's (Moldova's capital) leading enterprises. She carried her intellect lightly—never as a boast, always as a quiet force.
She loved animals with the same devotion she gave to everything else. When we got a kitten, she cooked for him. Having grown up on her home cooking, he refused to eat anything else—even when pet food finally appeared in Moldova. I remember late evenings: my mom sitting at the kitchen table, our cat Murzik perched on the table, purring as she slowly brushed him. They both enjoyed that quiet time. He was spoiled beyond measure.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, life became unpredictable. For our family, it was often very difficult. I was attending university then, watching my mother navigate each challenge with determination and grace. She tried to make the best of every bad situation, even when the odds were stacked against us.
Her resilience wasn't loud. It didn't announce itself. It lived in the way she carried herself, the way she protected us, and the way she kept going. That quiet strength shaped me more than any single moment.
Losing her carved a before and after into my life. But her influence—her voice, her lessons, her warmth—remains. I still reach for her when I need guidance. I still hear her when I'm unsure.
Some people leave, but never really disappear. My mother is one of them.
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