Category: The 10 Most Inspiring Women Business Leaders to Watch in 2023_Profile

Meet Ritjana Caveli, an accomplished CEO and Co-founder of ERC International – an Executive Search Consultancy dedicated to providing exceptional Human Resource Services, including Recruitment, HR, Diversity & Inclusion, and Nationalisation. With 16 years of experience in Emerging Markets, Equity, and Education, Ritjana has made significant contributions to the industry and has a strong track record of executing investments and restructuring businesses across the GCC and Global Emerging Markets.

Having worked for top investment funds such as Aberdeen Asset Management, Masdar, and Dubai Investment Group, Ritjana’s corporate experience has equipped her with a wealth of knowledge and expertise. She has also been a keynote speaker at various forums in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bahrain, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, where she has shared her insights and experience.

She also works closely with the nationalization programs in the GCC, particularly Emiratisation, where she has been instrumental in empowering the local workforce to bring positive change to their countries.

Ritjana holds a degree from the prestigious London School of Economics and has lived in different parts of the world, which has given her a unique perspective and a deep appreciation for culture and history. Her biggest passion when she’s not working is traveling and exploring new cultures.

Establishing the Company

Ritjana established ERC in 2016 with a small team in Dubai. At first, ERC started as an Emiratization boutique search firm, which later got involved in Saudization and from their Ritjana helped it diversify its services in recruitment and executive search services servicing clients in Asia, the Middle East, and East Europe with an angle of D&I and focus in bridging the gap and creating more opportunities for minorities and women.

As the CEO and Co-founder of the company, Ritjana now aspires to have teams across Asia, Europe, and Africa, enabling ERC to stay close to its clients. This international presence will enhance ERC’s ability to serve its existing clients, spanning 17 different geographies, and infuse an international flavor into its operations. By strategically positioning teams across different continents, Ritjana aims to strengthen ERC’s customer relationships, understand local nuances, and provide tailored solutions that align with its client’s specific needs and cultural contexts. This expansion plan reflects Ritjana’s commitment to delivering exceptional service while fostering meaningful connections with clients worldwide.

“When we started off, just like with every new business, the challenge was building a strong rapport with clients and earning their trust. However, for us as a team, we saw challenges as opportunities and were able to overcome them together united as a team. Setting up this business as someone who didn’t come from the background wasn’t an easy ride. However, as an entrepreneur, you learn that there is no Plan B; you have to keep on pushing and delivering upon your commitments.”– remembers Ritjana.

Bringing Change

ERC International sets itself apart from other recruitment companies through its distinctive End-to-End Account Management approach. The company strongly emphasizes developing an in-depth understanding of market sectors, taking it a step further by integrating diversity into its services. ERC fully acknowledges the significance of diversity across nationality, gender, minority representation, and sexual orientation. By embracing and celebrating diversity, ERC crafts customized talent solutions for organizations and corporations operating in diverse borders and markets. This inclusive approach enables ERC to access exceptional talent from around the globe and offers equal opportunities to top talents, irrespective of their geographical location.

Synchronizing with Recent Developments

Ritjana places great importance on staying competitive in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing environment. She and her team participate in webinars, conferences, and strategy meetings to better understand their clients’ talent strategies. They then take this information back to their drawing board to determine if any internal operational or delivery processes need to be changed or adjusted to deliver better outcomes for ERC’s clients. To aid in their efforts, Ritjana and her team use AI-driven tools in sourcing and research, along with various techniques to expedite their research skills, as part of ERC’s brand promise of delivering within 48 hours.

Standing Out

ERC International stands out in the market for several key reasons. Firstly, the company is known for its resilience and resourcefulness, always finding innovative solutions. Secondly, it prioritizes transparency in client relationships, fostering trust and open communication. Another distinguishing factor is ERC’s commitment to fast service delivery, addressing the common stigma associated with recruitment companies. ERC has built a strong reputation for fulfilling commitments promptly.

Ritjana believes one of ERC’s key strengths lies in its multicultural team across five countries. This diverse composition provides the company with a unique advantage. It grants the company much-needed access to a wide range of talent pools and deep cultural understanding, enabling it to offer comprehensive solutions to clients that go beyond recruitment. The ultimate goal for ERC International is to establish long-term partnerships with their clients, acting as trusted business advisors rather than simply a talent placement agency. This holistic approach involves going above and beyond to provide value-added services and strategic support to clients, driving their success.

By embodying resilience, transparency, and swift service delivery, combined with a multicultural team and a commitment to comprehensive client solutions, ERC International has carved its place in the market as a trusted partner and valuable resource for businesses seeking exceptional talent and strategic guidance.

“In the last 3 years, we have been closely involved and supporting the ever-growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East by supporting their teams to grow with tech talents, programmers, data scientists, CTOs, etc. We are proud to partner with some of our clients and see their growth become our growth,”- Ritjana.

On Women Entrepreneurs

Ritjana is deeply passionate about advocating for women in entrepreneurial roles. She firmly believes that the increasing representation of women as entrepreneurs has significantly impacted business and economic growth within the country. Women-owned businesses have a vital role in society, not only by generating employment opportunities but also by driving demographic shifts and serving as a source of inspiration for future generations of female founders. Ritjana recognizes the UAE’s remarkable progress in promoting women’s entrepreneurship, showcasing the breakthroughs made by women in overcoming barriers and achieving success. As a woman, she takes immense pride in witnessing the strides women have taken on their entrepreneurial journeys. However, she also acknowledges that there is still work to achieve complete equality and empowerment.

Sexual harassment is a serious problem in Egypt and has become increasingly pervasive in recent years. The country has one of the highest sexual harassment rates in the world, with nearly 99% of Egyptian women reporting experiencing some form of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment often takes the form of verbal or physical harassment, including catcalling, unwanted touching, and even rape. It is often seen as a normal part of everyday life in Egypt, and many women feel powerless to do anything about it. Even if they report the harassment, they are often met with indifference or even denial from the authorities. Although the Egyptian government has taken steps to address the issue, much is still to be done. Many laws have been passed to protect women from sexual harassment, but they are rarely enforced. So, in 2020 Gehad Hamdy, a 27-year-old dentist, founded the Speak Up initiative against sexual harassment and gender-based violence in Egypt. Speak Up is the number one destination for the victims of gender-based violence in Egypt, looking for perpetrators’ exposure, psychological support, legal guidance, and solidarity. In 2022, BBC recognized Gehad as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the world. She is also a winner of two Women SME Leaders 2022 awards, including The Change Maker and The Humanitarian. Additionally, she was a finalist for the Women Empowerment Award by Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum 2021 and the current finalist for the International Humanitarian Award by Women4Africa 2022.

Establishing Speak-Up

Since its foundation in 2020, the Speak Up movement has gained immense momentum. With its followers increasing each passing day, Speak Up has filled a much-needed gap for women in Egyptian society.

“Speak Up expanded widely and has been a direct cause of female-empowerment legislation issued by the Egyptian parliament. Also, we have initiated various campaigns against harassers and rapists, many of which resulted in their arrest and accountability,”– states Gehad.

Women from all backgrounds have found refuge in the Speak Up community for perpetrators’ exposure, legal guidance, and psychological support. Since the initiative’s inception, Gehad has witnessed an unbelievable rise in the number of women coming out and reporting their harassers, despite the threats made against every woman in Egypt who does so. After gaining unbelievable support from the majority of Egyptian celebrities, Speak Up also exposed many male public figures for promoting rape culture in their work and became widely feared by the harassers.

Bringing Perpetrators to Book

The most prominent example of Speak Up’s commitment to this cause is the famous campaign against a serial child rapist, Michael Fahmy. Gehad launched, managed, and mobilized all her resources for this campaign until the perpetrator was behind bars and tried for severe charges that eventually ended in a life sentence. Gehad was so devoted to the process of seeing these victims get justice that she had to quit her profession as a dentist in order to focus on the case.

“We also pushed for public figures to be canceled after promoting rape culture in their work, such as singer Saad Lamjarred who was accused of rape and whose shows in Egypt were canceled after a collaborative feminist campaign in which Speak Up played a big role,”– explains Gehad.

Gehad also spearheaded Speak Up’s viral campaign against the iconic Egyptian singer Amr Diab who took part in a Citroën advertisement that promoted non-consensual photographing of women. This viral campaign eventually resulted in the cancellation of the advertisement and an apology from the car manufacturer.

Bringing an Immense Societal Change

Under Gehad’s Leadership, Speak Up worked on more than 400 cases, bringing justice to victims. Through its vast network of connections, the organization has provided free legal and psychological assistance to more than 14,000 victims by connecting them to volunteering professionals.

Speak Up advocated for amendments to Egyptian law that criminalized Female Genital Mutilation, which the Egyptian House of Representatives adopted, and the law came into effect in march 2021. In response to its campaigns, Speak Up has collected over 15,000 sexual harassment testimonies and 20,000 testimonies of domestic violence, marital rape, bullying, virginity tests, female genital mutilation (FGM), violent obligation on religious rituals, and medical bias against women. Also, a viral campaign by Speak Up has ensured the provision of free sanitary pads in more than 80 schools and 11 cafes across Egypt.

Looking at the Future

In the future, Gehad will continue to advocate for creating a special unit at the ministry of interior trained to handle female blackmail and extortion. She also plans to scale the initiative to get higher reach in all governorates of Egypt with professionals addressing local issues in each Egyptian governorate and launch a professional blog to increase awareness on various topics related to sexual and reproductive health, legal issues regarding harassment, and general awareness.

Being the initiative’s founder, Gehad envisions Speak Up solidifying and officializing its role as the primary actor and channel of communication coordinating between the victims and the authorities.

“My vision for a better world is one free of gender-based violence in all its forms, where women and minorities are empowered to speak up for themselves and not be shamed by their societies,”– Gehad concludes.

 

As the CEO of Pixelhunters, a global leader in 3D content, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, Metaverse, and game development, Dr. Ani Atanasova is well-versed in animation, 3D design, anamorphic content, and user interaction. With a Ph.D. in Quantum and Optoelectronics, she has been involved in research, teaching, and various patented projects in the EU pertaining to lasers, laser amplifiers, laser applications, and magnetic field management. She is on the advisory boards of several universities in the UAE and is the UAE correspondent for the Young Business Leaders France and chairwoman of the UAE Chapter of the International Game Developers Association. Additionally, she has been a judge for the International Business Awards, Stevie Awards, and “A Design” Awards. Dr. Ani is also a frequent speaker at conferences focusing on technology, women’s leadership, AR/VR, innovation, game design, and gamification.

We recently got the chance to sit down with Dr. Ani to learn more about how she is leading Pixelhunters to exceed customer expectations by binding future technology to their accomplished artists’ visual imagination and knowledge.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Q) Ani Atanasova, first of all, thanks for your time from the suitcase of your busy schedule. Enlighten us, as a businesswoman, what was your mission at the outset?

Dr. Ani) “Pixelhunters is not just a business for me, but my life.” It is a label of love, not just because am passionate about the work, but also, I run the business with my husband Iliya Atanasov.

I came from a science background before Pixelhunters. The reason for shifting to the creative field is actually my husband. We are 24 years together; for him creating digital art is a passion, he started in the CGI field as a hobby that he turned into a profession. Almost 14 years ago, he convinced me that we could have an exciting journey with Pixelhunters, and thus the story begins.

We merged our interests, and expertise to build Pixelhunters. A lot of people are curious about the name – we hunt pixels to create beautiful things.

I am a very tenacious person that doesn’t give up easily at obstacles; my mission was and still is to make Pixelhunters a recognizable brand that stands out with quality that brings value to our customers. In the beginning, I had to learn fast about the industry, but I was motivated to introduce science into the art, which we successfully did.

 Q) Shine some light on Pixelhunters. What are its key services/products?

Dr. Ani) We create content in any format – 2D, 3D, films, games, combined with any latest technology available – AR, VR, motion captures, sensors, screens, holograms, and robots, empowered by Data and science to create digital experiences that matter.

Q) What is the change you are bringing with your brand today? Tell us about the clientele that can benefit from Pixelhunters.

Dr. Ani) We bring immersion to businesses and education. Our mission is to excite the audience’s interactions with brands, creating experiences that attract, educate, and entertain at the same time. We work for governments, large corporations, and SMEs.

Q) Please enlighten us on how did you build your team.

Dr. Ani) Teams are the essence of any business. Pixelhunters is a family-owned business. My husband is the CTO and the creative director. Our team is more than work colleagues – it is our family. We accept our team’s strengths and differences; we are trying to work in harmony while always enjoying the creative process. Most of our team members are many years with us. For our business, creative portfolios are essential, but they are something easy to build. We value most ethical skills and loyalty; this is what we reward in team growth.

Q) How did you deal with the challenge of acceptance? What were the other challenges you overcame?

Dr. Ani) My first challenge with Pixelhunters was related to conveying to the market who we are. We built a top team of recognized artists; we have been creating award-winning videos, but then you realize quality is not enough. Developing a business is building your reputation – everything is important – quality, leadership, production speed, understanding the values of the countries you work in, pricing, competition, customer service, flexibility doing changes, and working on last-minute projects. In the challenging economy nowadays, more stuff is added to this list. Business is not given; it must be earned. It is not guaranteed that if the company is old, it will sustain itself forever. We need to add value to it every single day.

Q) What has been the development path of Pixelhunters?

Dr. Ani) We started as an animation & VFX company; we became the first indie game developer in the UAE. We were within the first designing AR & VR starting with the early developer versions of these technologies; we experiment with every new tech on the market to see how to make more exciting digital journeys. We have developed a couple of VR & AR platforms related to education & training. We have done hundreds of experiential marketing projects, and lately, we have been very much involved in metaverses (for clients and with our metaverse platform). Creating immersions for every industry with proven engagement has always been paving our path to the future.

Q) How is your company synchronizing with the latest advancements in 3D designs & animation?

Dr. Ani) We must constantly learn and follow the trends and the latest innovations. Most of our team members are engineers, so R&D is the essence of our success. Improving the speed of production while increasing the quality is our top priority. We are proud that we often work on projects many others don’t dare to accept due to impossible deadlines.

Q) If you were to answer a young female executive’s question, ‘How can I be a good leader?’, what would you advise?

Dr. Ani) Most important is to know yourself well – your strengths and your weaknesses. Amplify your skills every day, and don’t be afraid to fail. Learning for life should be your motto, and keep going if you believe your actions are valuable for you, your team, and your customers. Success doesn’t come overnight. It needs persistence and hard work. Thus with time, all your weaknesses will turn into strengths.

Q) What is so exclusive about Pixelhunters that has brought so much success to the company? What business/people problems have it successfully solved?

Dr. Ani) Some people work to live, while we live to work. We love so much the creative process and seeing how our efforts turn into beautiful content and experiences. We do not perceive work as something we must do because it pays the bills. We accept every project as a challenge, and we always try to put ourselves into our client’s shoes, understand their pain points and align with their goals. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing our clients happy with the projects we did together and especially seeing our work in use for many years. Nowadays, there is so much content around us that sometimes it takes effort to focus. Must have outstanding quality, idea, something different, unseen before. Making the content interactive involves users in personalized experiences that they tend to memorize longer.

We are also well-known in the educational field, especially in game-based learning and gamification. The power of games is that they make people follow the rules voluntarily to achieve a game goal, so we use that as an advantage to make learning more fun, engaging, and lasting. We are leaders in multiplayer learning based on competition or collaboration to speed up studying, saving time and effort. We have our own game-based multiplayer platform, as well as our own metaverse, to experience learning and team interactions even better.

 Q) What are your views on women’s entrepreneurship?

Dr. Ani) Women are less risk-takers, but women-led businesses are proven more sustainable in the long run. Women have more patience in achieving long-term goals, hearing often, and dealing with the “NO” word, and I believe this comes naturally from our motherhood.

I often speak worldwide about women entrepreneurs, women in technology, and women leaders, and I feel happy to witness and meet the growing number of great women professionals with successful businesses.

Q) Please highlight the achievements and accolades attained by the Company by far.

Dr. Ani) We have worked on several platforms that are worldwide innovations. For example, a VR platform for visualizing youth’s future; another is a unique hazard perception training and testing platform that evaluates driver’s performance to hazards in real-time; and the other is an AR-enabled multiplayer learning platform. We also created hundreds of game-based marketing & awareness tools, many immersive rooms & experiences, and we made a giant step into the metaverse last year for client projects and our own.