Veronika Puncheva, President of Administrative Board of Metro Cash & Carry Serbia – I don’t know what “impossible” means

If her wish from early childhood came true, Veronika Puncheva would be now staying in Serbian capital city and investigating the case whose resolving requires cooperation between Serbian police and their Bulgarian colleagues. However, she came to Belgrade from Ukraine and, instead of preventing international criminal activities, she works on expanding international market chain Metro Cash&Carry for over a decade now. She is the first lady who assumed the position of the President of the Administrative Board in that company, and she takes even more pride in the results achieved by the team in Serbia.

- I expect the employees to be committed to work and focused on achieving the goals. I respect free will the most, as well as independence in decision-making, permanent aspiring to success and excellence at what one does. Maybe I am sometimes too demanding and impatient, some would say intollerant, and that is why, when I realize that I’m overreacting, I do my best to lower the criteria – Veronika said at the beginning of her story for eKapija.

Miss Engineer

Veronika was born and grew up in Sofia, where her parents moved in early 20th century. She remembers her childhood for growing up in a peaceful part of the town and spending long summer days with her friends.

- We used to stay until late in the night and our parents were never worried where we were and what we were doing, not even when we were picking fruits from our neighbors’ trees without their knowledge. It was a different time, the time when all of us were incredibly carefree – Veronika says about Sofia in the 1980’s.

When she was young, she was engaged in athletics, she played a piano and attended singing and dancing classes, but none of these extracurricular activities grew into profession. She was also good at shooting and confirmed that at many competitions she took part in while in high school. She admits she’s a rarely bad photographer and that she has never met anyone with less talent then her.

- I dreamed for a long time of becoming the crime inspector, while my other big dream was to travel the world. The first wish has never come true because I gave it up, and I am still working on making my other dream come true. So far, I have visited 50 countries.

Having graduated from the High School of Mathematics in Sofia, a very respectable secondary school famous for both strict criteria and free spirit, Veronika enrolled in the Faculty of Technical Engineering.

I graduated from the Department of Textile Production and got the first job in the profession. It was very nice hearing the workers in the factory calling me “Miss engineer”. Sometimes I was not sure if they were addressing me or someone who stood behind me.

After working in several sectors, she started her career in Metro in Bulgaria in 1998. After that, she spent more than four years working in the same company in Ukraine, where she was a member of the Administrative Board. She started leading the team in Serbia in 2008.

- The most significant period in my career, which greatly affected my later understanding of the business, was my work with Mr. Janson from German company BASF. I was only 25 and he recognized that I had some qualities and characteristics that even I was not aware of at the time.

Family is Pillar of Success

She sees herself as very ambitious and says that she receives the greatest support in building her career from her spouse, a Bulgarian journalist who is famous in European media industry.

- Petar has always believed in me and supported me in all situations. We have two daughters. The older one studies Media in Great Britain, while the younger one is with us in Belgrade and she already speaks Serbian fluently. We do many things together, and that probably help us always find a new topic for conversation.

Veronika speaks Bulgarian, English, German and Russian, and she will also understand you if you speak Serbian, which gets better every day.

She has finally managed to include sports in her list of regular non-business activities.

- I sometimes regret not being engaged in sports more because I think I could have achieved good results – says Veronika.

Her life philosophy is simple – nothing is impossible.

- Ambition is one of the best drivers in business world, but people often neglect other relations in life because of ambition. It is important to cherish the ambition in the right way and shape it for the real things.