Project Management

Gregory Twohig, VTQ Magazine

Having started a career in the financial industry, Ivona Ward brought a wide range of skills and expertise to her current role in Vistatec as a Project Management Team Lead.

After studying a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Masters in Controlling and Auditing at the University of Graz, Austria, Ivona worked at a major financial services company as part of the financial auditing team. Her industry expertise eventually brought her to a role in a start-up in the oil and gas industry where she created the entire financial system for the company – no simple feat!

After deciding on a career change following her move to Ireland, Ivona began her role as a Junior Project Manager in Vistatec. It was not long after her first foray into the localization industry until she entered a new position within the company as Lead Linguistic Program Manager. After gaining valuable experience in these roles, she subsequently returned to the production team as a Senior Project Manager, where she felt her strengths were better utilized. Since then, she has assumed her current role as a Team Lead for one of the Dublin production teams at Vistatec.

Ivona’s day-to-day projects span over a variety of areas, including program creation, team development, and creating new initiatives. “My main responsibility is to ensure that production goals are met for my team.” Ivona works towards the alignment of production goals with the team and to drive growth for her team. In essence, it is an extremely dynamic role that requires the structure to adapt responsively to new challenges and client requirements.

A central part of this role is the continuous development of the team. This people-focused aspect of the role is something that Ivona particularly enjoys: “Team development is a powerful aspect which requires very close collaboration with people. Particularly in my role, I’m quite enthusiastic about working with people to ensure their professional growth.”

Ivona loves the fluidity and adaptability of the program team: “What I find most thrilling about my role in Vistatec is that you can shape the program. We have a strong input in how we shape
the processes.”

Furthermore, Ivona states that the program team proactively adopt the mindset of “continuous improvement.” An important step that sees them regularly and critically analyzing current systems, while also exploring opportunities of using new systems and ensuring that the new team structure remains optimized for maximum results.

Outside of her localization career she devotes her spare time to philosophy and martial arts - two passions that she has had a keen interest in for many years and which she believes are both “pertinent
to the human form.”