I run Strides Advisory, a fractional operator practice based in Amsterdam. Over the past fourteen years my work has been operator work inside or alongside companies in transition — first in technology, then in international infrastructure projects. The structural-causes lens that defines Strides emerged from watching the same patterns recur across both.
From 2012 to 2020, I worked with SPS Commerce, the Ukrainian arm of a US-listed technology company, on an eight-and-a-half-year engagement that began as a single English-teaching contract and grew into transformational operating work. I built the learning function from zero, took the team's average English level from A2 to B2 within a few years, embedded language progress into individual development plans, and hired and mentored a second teacher. By 2018 I had taken over recruiting and employer branding after the company's recruiter departed: rebuilt the recruitment process, closed the company's accumulated hiring debt, ran weekly management development workshops for first-time managers, and contributed to the work that secured US senior management's approval of the Kyiv office expansion.
Since December 2019, I have worked with 7Sprint on large international projects. The first, between 2019 and 2021, was a roughly €100 million concert hall development. I sourced and engaged the feasibility consultant, worked with Theatre Projects on the architectural competition brief, ran the international competition as the single point of contact for participating firms, and drafted the architectural services agreement with the winning lead architect. The design team that came together included Snøhetta, Buro Happold, Schlaich Bergermann Partner, and Theatre Projects. Since August 2024, I have been leading client-side coordination on a roughly €60 million residential development in Cyprus — thirty-five villas, a mega-villa, and lifestyle amenities — managing multidisciplinary consultants across Switzerland, Cyprus, Greece, and Ukraine.
I opened Strides Advisory in January 2025. The 7Sprint Cyprus engagement is now its first formal client. The structural-causes lens that defines Strides emerged from watching the same patterns recur across both contexts — technology scale-up at SPS Commerce, complex multi-stakeholder coordination at 7Sprint. In both, the operating problems that consumed most attention were rarely the actual problem. The cause sat one layer down, in choices that had been made earlier and were no longer fitting the work the company was now trying to do.
Some of these credentials formalised work I was already doing without training. Others I took out of interest at the time, and they have since become useful in ways I did not anticipate.
Education. Bachelor's, Management of International Economic Activity (Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, 2007–2011). One year completed of a second bachelor's in Systems and Methods of AI at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, paused at the start of maternity leave in 2021.
Project management. PMP holder (Project Management Institute, March 2026). Project Management Principles and Practices Specialization (UC Irvine), with further coursework on project risks and changes, budgeting and scheduling, and the practical capstone.
Quantitative methods. MIT 6.431x — Probability: The Science of Uncertainty and Data. Stanford University — Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms. University of Zurich — An Intuitive Introduction to Probability. University of Colorado Boulder — Algorithms for Searching, Sorting, and Indexing.
Business and analytics. The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania — Introduction to Corporate Finance, People Analytics, Operations Analytics, Accounting Analytics, Managing Social and Human Capital. Yale University — Financial Markets, The Global Financial Crisis.
Programming and data. Java (UPenn), Computer Networking (Google), C (UC Santa Cruz), SQL for Data Science (UC Davis), Relational Databases.
Negotiation and change management. Negotiation Fundamentals (ESSEC Business School). Change Management (PwC Ukraine).
Languages. English: Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), C2. Dutch: Nederlands als tweede taal, B1. Native: Ukrainian, Russian. Plus consecutive interpretation training, English for Specific Purposes: Law (Rennert International), and the International House Certificate in Teaching Languages (IHCTL) for adult learners.
Translation. English to Ukrainian — co-translator and project coordinator for The Chronicles of Narnia, books 1–5 and 7 (Книжковий Клуб «Клуб сімейного дозвілля», Kharkiv, 2012–2014). Ukrainian to English — co-translator and English text editor for From East to West: Japanese Miniature Sculpture from the Oleksandr Feldman Collection (Folio, Kharkiv, 2009).
I am based in Amsterdam and hold Dutch nationality. Most engagements are remote with periodic in-person time. I work in English. Available across the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and the broader EU; selectively in Cyprus, Turkey, and the United States.
A short email is enough. Tell me what's been happening and what you've already tried. I read every message myself and reply within two business days.
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