Meet Maria Nedic, our new Sales Support Specialist in the UK

Keto: Maria, welcome to Keto Software and thanks for sharing a bit about yourself. Before we talk about your professional life, I understand you’ve got an interesting multi-national background?

M: My family moved as refugees from Serbia to Sweden during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, so I grew up in the North of Sweden and am grateful for everything that country has provided for me. I like to think that I have a Swedish work ethic and a Central European attitude that there is always a solution if you look hard enough.

K: What led you to the UK for the first time?

M: I had the opportunity to study Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. A great place to be and the UK is such a great international melting pot.

K: After you finished at Nottingham, you went to the Netherlands?

M: I went to Amsterdam to study for my master’s initially but dropped out after 2 months and joined Tesla. It has been a very memorable 5 years and  I absolutely loved the place, which I always said it felt like a small village in a big city. If that makes any sense!

K: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Speaking of Tesla, I understand that you joined it right as it was breaking into the European market?

M: That’s right. I joined Tesla late 2018, working in inside sales initially.

K: And what were some of your favourite memories of working for Tesla?

M: For me, it was about the people and helping to build that business up as we were launching Model 3 in the European Market, particularly targeting the Nordics, so I got to be hands on with lots of parts of the business, sometimes literally!

One fond memory was my first Q1 at Tesla and we were delivering cars up until midnight in order to make our target of deliveries. The entire company was participating in making these deliveries happen, to scrubbing tires to handing over the keys. It was all hands-on deck until midnight. We beat the record by large and it was my first introduction to the company.

Tesla has a great mindset that every challenge can be overcome, which is something very important to me. It’s been a great nearly five years there and am ready for a new challenge.

K: And how did you hear about Keto Software?

I came across a notice from Tim, Keto Software’s Business Development Director UK & Ireland, on LinkedIn advertising the Sales Support role. That seemed like a great opportunity as Keto now looks to expand globally, just as the opportunity had looked with Tesla back in 2018.

K: Given your background, you could have your pick of employers so why choose Keto Software?

M: Based on my conversations with Tim and others at the company, transitioning to Keto seemed like a natural progression – an exceptional product, a talented team, and a multitude of captivating prospects to foster the company’s expansion within the UK market. I was motivated to become an integral part of this journey, contributing to Keto’s establishment not only within the UK market but on a global scale as well.

Fundamentally, it’s about the people and I’ve already had lots of great conversations with colleagues in Finland & the UK. Keto is very human-centric and forward-looking, which is another part of the appeal for me.

K: So what has your role at Keto involved so far?

M: It’s been a bit of everything, which is exactly what I wanted. As I said, I like to get hands on with things and we’ve already got some big things coming up like big events in London with Gartner and the House of PMO.

On a day-to-day basis, am currently working on supporting our sales and working to build up our partner networks. It’s a lot of different things all at once, which is part of the fun.

K: And how do things look like for your future with Keto?

M: Keto offers fantastic Strategic Portfolio Management with AI and there are no limits for us. Keto Software’s CEO Veijo and the management team have an exciting vision, just like I saw at Tesla when it launched in Europe in 2018.

Am currently working closely with Tim, looking at how we can grow to serve more and more customers. For the future, I’m also keen on the Swedish and Dutch markets, given my experience, so will soon be looking at how we can build partners in those countries too; longer term, we are also looking at the US and more global markets, so we have big plans!

K: To close things out is there anything surprising you would like to share with us?

M: Oh, I think I’m one of only a few people who worked for Tesla but don’t have a driving license.

K: Maria, thanks for sharing with us and welcome to Keto!

M: Thank you!