Anastasia Karatrantou is a seasoned telecoms expert now working across various industries to align their digital transformation objectives with advanced connectivity solutions. With extensive experience in Telecoms organizations spanning network strategy, engineering, and innovation, she has played a key role in shaping industrial 5G from its infancy to foster a more interconnected digital ecosystem.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Anastasia shared her professional trajectory, insights on diversity and inclusion in tech, her favorite quote, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Anastasia. What inspired you to pursue a career in telecommunications, and what motivates you to continue working in this field?
The first two years of my undergraduate studies for a Meng in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, the school offered a plethora of classes, each representative of a different domain of the Electrical Engineering scope. This involved a lot of Maths, Physics, Electronics, Control Systems, and the list goes on. My first academic passion was developed around Computer Networking; I loved the logical thinking that governed this discipline and how essential it was for everything around me to function. One course at a time, I started developing the dream and ambition that engineering Telecommunication systems was a critical aspect of societies and that it was a noble cause to deploy science and technology for the benefit of connecting people better and faster. In my first postgraduate job, in Vodafone Group, I was really immersed in the power of Telecoms. Figuring out the end-to-end infrastructure that connects people and systems across borders, became a productive obsession. This coincided with an innovative period for the industry; 4G was the dominant technology but an entire world of smart and immersive applications was opening for us with the promise of 5G. I must admit, that years later, I still validate this feeling in every position I hold and that contributing to a better Telecoms ecosystem is an intellectually stimulating and noble purpose.
What do you love the most about your current role?
It all comes down to people. In every single role I had, people surrounding me was what motivated me and what made me happy. Especially in Capgemini, experts from so many different fields surround me and I get to participate in multi-disciplinary projects in a way that makes every day interesting. What has contributed the most to this, is the fact that Telecoms led me to 5G and 5G as a technology addresses a broad industrial spectrum. This means that I get to collaborate with people and companies with remarkably diverse operations, needs, objectives. My role challenges me to learn new things all the time and learn them also by interacting with brilliant and knowledgeable people. To generalize my experience, the essence is doing a job that stimulates my thinking and pushes me out of my comfort zone on a regular basis.
What are some of the most exciting developments or trends you see emerging in the telecommunications industry, and how do you think they will shape the future of communication?
The single most impactful trend at this moment, cross industry, is Artificial Intelligence and how as a tool it can unlock efficiencies or improve product and service quality. The same goes for Telecoms; it is an infrastructure heavy sector, undergoing a key transformation, AI brings the promise of improving services and customer experience and this is key. In addition, a key trend that has been around for a while, is the effort towards decoupling Software and Hardware, opening the underlying technologies to foster competitive solutions and therefore a more flexible, innovative, and intelligent landscape. Along those lines, there is a clear trend around the way we interact with infrastructure through APIs to reduce time and effort to develop new services and capabilities.
How do you approach leadership and management, and what qualities do you think are essential for effective leadership?
What I have observed the most throughout my career, is that empathy is the single most essential trait for a leader; to put it in other words, it is a prerequisite for someone to be an effective leader. I have been navigating interaction with people throughout my career, based on my core beliefs of being honest, respectful, communicative, and unapologetically myself. After the pandemic, for most people, work became more intertwined with personal life due to the establishment of home office. This change was a key challenge for leadership and, I personally believe, it sparked the need to do more and more meaningful effort to connect with people, understand their needs and objectives and support them in leading a meaningful career that brings them closer to personal fulfilment. I always like to say, that a healthy person with normal financial means, tends to spend the largest part of their life, working. Therefore, work must be a constructive part to one’s happiness, fulfillment, and wellbeing. Being a leader, means you play a critical role in shaping that attitude and making it feasible for other people. Day to day work might distract us with operational concerns and priorities, so good leaders are those who naturally remember.
What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion in your field? How important is it to have authentic conversations with leaders, professionals, and changemakers to create more acceptance across the globe?
Diversity in my field is a constant topic of discussion. I worked in an IT team as part of my internship, and I was the third woman to be part of the department. I remember the lack of surprise though, as I was coming from Electrical Engineering school, which is notoriously male dominated. As I said previously, what I find fulfilling in my job, is diversity of knowledge, opinions, ideas, expressions. I think, this is fundamental in every microcosmos of society. Amongst other reasons, I chose to move to London and make it my home, because of how incredibly diverse it is. I respect and applaud the organizations that strive for diversity and inclusion, and the same goes to the individuals, the champions and the allies that are catalysts for change. To make the impact greater and accelerate change, we must have authentic conversations, we must allow every voice and every side of the narrative to be heard. This is another aspect that I recognize with gratitude in my career, I have been part of organizations that were always a safe environment for authentic conversations in these key matters of equal representation on the work force.
Who has been a considerable influence or mentor in your career, and how have they helped shape your professional journey?
I could speak on this for a long time… I am incredibly blessed to have had true mentors in my life and career. I always paid attention to the people I met, and when inspired I found the courage to ask for guidance, feedback, mentoring. Influencers and mentors defined my first post graduate job. To name an example of mentorship, I used to collaborate with colleagues from the R&D department, who helped me transition from academic knowledge to business-relevant knowledge. In addition, during the early days of my career, I had an amazing mentor who pushed me out of my comfort zone, helped me develop my own network, grow my skills, and feel confident to voice my professional opinion in a crowded room of senior leaders. I am ever so grateful. Smaller moments of mentoring in less defined relationships, have also contributed to my professional growth. By this, I refer to those managers and peers that took the opportunity to provide insights and feedback on communication and collaboration. It helped shape and develop my personality. It also helped me get rid of that defensive feeling I naturally had during the first experiences of receiving feedback, early in my career.
What are some of your passions outside of work? What do you like to do in your time off?
I try quite often to travel; this is my biggest passion. I did not travel much with my family as a child or young adult, and since the early days of my independence, it has become a priority for me to see the world. Within the allowance of my job, I also enjoy being a digital nomad from time to time. But as I sadly cannot travel all the time, I keep myself busy with books and movies (cliché it might be) and the last couple of years I started dancing lessons for that midweek endorphin boost. Living in London, I do enjoy international cuisines, and I challenge myself to try as many as possible.
What is your favorite quote?
Do one thing every day that scares you. I’m a firm believer of the importance of being bold and taking risks in life.
What are your long-term career aspirations, and how do you see yourself evolving as a leader over the next five years?
My aspirations are split in two categories; what is it that I want to be doing and how I can do it well. To answer to what, one of my great passions, is the topic of re-industrialization of Europe and acceleration of digital transformation in the area. This agenda is a challenging topic for public and private actors and there is a lot of work to be done to align regulation and technology in a productive way. Telecoms play a pivotal role here. To ensure continuous growth in my career, my primary objective is to remain curious, open to ideas and creative. A key aspect of this is the attitude towards learning, either through courses and seminars or through interaction with people. In a busy work schedule, it is not always easy to maintain curiosity and focus on learning, so my promise to myself is to remain loyal to this goal and always save space in my calendar for a new learning adventure.
If you had to distill your wisdom into one sentence or phrase, what would it be?
It is of the utmost importance to associate work with passion, an aspiration that gives you motivation and gets you going. It doesn’t always come in the beginning of one’s career, that’s why it is important to keep that thought active and keep pursuing options.