I BRING ENERGY INTO ORGANISATIONS
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Picture: We laugh in a production
Because I have great respect for the people I work with, we regularly create an amazing atmosphere together.
I was asked why I share personal things on this website and why it does not look as clean, black and white and perfectly curated as one might expect from a senior executive. Fair question. Professional visibility today seems to be expected to look polished and ideally work within an eight second attention span. I see it differently. If you trust me with complex transformations or significant responsibility, you should know who you are actually dealing with. Because personality is not separate from professional competence. It is part of my impact. I bring a lot of energy into my work. Not as a show, but as a genuine force for moving things forward. And that energy spreads. Over many years, I have repeatedly built and led teams that did more than simply function. They were energized: eager to develop, united by a common mission, with pace, creativity and a real determination to achieve something together. Many of my best results were created exactly this way. That is why I show myself here. Not everything. But enough for you to get a sense of how I work and what happens when I become part of an organization. Part of that is my range. I feel equally comfortable in a demanding board meeting and walking through a production site talking to employees. I do not just advise. I take responsibility and stand behind the results. And I genuinely enjoy working with people. I am serious about the work, but everyday life can still be human, energetic and fun. You will not find moments like that in a transformation handbook. But they connect people, create energy and stay with you. My work reaches deep into organizations: into structures, leadership, technology, culture and the professional reality of people. Expertise alone is not enough for that. It takes experience, judgement, courage, integrity and the ability to get people moving towards something. I connect Human Resources, Human Resonance, technology, employment law and organizational psychology. Not theoretically, but through many years of real responsibility and very different experiences. Transformation rarely follows a textbook. I have learned to operate as confidently in an executive setting as in the engine room of an organization, to navigate complexity, create direction and connect strategy, people and execution until energy turns into movement, and movement into results. Setbacks have made me more humble, but not more conformist. And they have not taken away one thing: my energy and my joy in moving things forward together with others. That is why you will find more than professional topics here. You will find personal insights, real experiences and the occasional grey hair instead of retouched AI images presenting me as the perfect executive. If you trust me with responsibility for an organization and its people, you should know more about me than my professional profile. And the same applies the other way around: I want to know who I am sharing responsibility with. Because sustainable collaboration does not begin with a perfect façade. It begins with trust, shared energy and the determination to make things happen. That is why this website is more personal. And that is why it is allowed to take a little more than eight seconds. Die Frage ist berechtigt. Professionelle Sichtbarkeit scheint heute möglichst glatt sein zu müssen und idealerweise in acht Sekunden zu funktionieren. Ich sehe das anders. Wer mir komplexe Transformationen oder weitreichende Verantwortung überträgt, sollte wissen, mit wem er es wirklich zu tun hat. Denn Persönlichkeit ist für mich nicht etwas, das neben der fachlichen Kompetenz steht. Sie ist Teil meiner Wirkung. Ich bringe sehr viel Energie in meine Arbeit. Nicht als Show, sondern als echte Kraft, Dinge voranzubringen. Diese Energie überträgt sich auf Menschen. Über viele Jahre habe ich immer wieder Teams aufgebaut und geführt, die nicht nur funktioniert haben, sondern energized waren: mit Lust auf Entwicklung, gemeinsamer Mission, Tempo, Kreativität und dem Willen, gemeinsam etwas zu erreichen. So sind viele meiner besten Ergebnisse entstanden. Deshalb zeige ich mich hier. Nicht alles. Aber genug, damit Sie ein Gefühl dafür bekommen, wie ich arbeite und was mit mir in einer Organisation passiert. Dazu gehört meine Bandbreite. Ich bewege mich im anspruchsvollen Board Meeting genauso selbstverständlich wie beim Rundgang durch die Produktion im Gespräch mit Mitarbeitern. Ich berate nicht nur. Ich übernehme Verantwortung und stehe für Ergebnisse ein. Und ich arbeite ausgesprochen gerne mit Menschen. Ich bin ernst in der Sache, aber der Alltag darf menschlich, lebendig und auch lustig sein. Beim Bild oben hatten wir gerade etwas sehr Formelles und Wichtiges erfolgreich abgeschlossen. Danach haben wir einfach kroatisches Kolo getanzt. Solche Momente stehen in keinem Transformationshandbuch. Aber sie verbinden Menschen, schaffen Energie und bleiben. Meine Arbeit greift tief in Organisationen ein: in Strukturen, Führung, Technologie, Kultur und die berufliche Realität von Menschen. Dafür reicht Fachwissen allein nicht. Es braucht Erfahrung, Urteilskraft, Mut, Haltung und die Fähigkeit, Menschen für etwas in Bewegung zu bringen. Ich verbinde Human Resources, Human Resonance, Technologie, Arbeitsrecht und Organisationspsychologie. Nicht theoretisch, sondern gewachsen aus vielen Jahren realer Verantwortung und sehr unterschiedlichen Erfahrungen. Transformation folgt selten einem Lehrbuch. Ich habe gelernt, mich im Executive Setting genauso sicher zu bewegen wie im Maschinenraum einer Organisation, Komplexität auszuhalten, Orientierung zu schaffen und Strategie, Menschen und Umsetzung so lange miteinander zu verbinden, bis daraus Energie, Bewegung und schließlich Ergebnisse entstehen. Rückschläge haben mich dabei demütiger gemacht, aber nicht angepasster. Und sie haben mir eines nicht genommen: meine Energie und meine Freude daran, gemeinsam mit anderen etwas zu bewegen. Deshalb finden Sie hier nicht nur Fachthemen, sondern auch persönliche Einblicke, echte Erfahrungen und das eine oder andere graue Haar statt retuschierter AI Bilder, die mich als perfekte Topmanagerin inszenieren. Wer mir Verantwortung für eine Organisation und ihre Menschen überträgt, sollte mehr von mir kennen als mein Profil. Und umgekehrt möchte auch ich wissen, mit wem ich Verantwortung teile. Denn nachhaltige Zusammenarbeit beginnt für mich nicht mit einer perfekten Fassade. Sie beginnt mit Vertrauen, gemeinsamer Energie und dem Willen, etwas zu bewegen. Deshalb ist diese Website persönlicher. Und deshalb darf sie auch etwas mehr als acht Sekunden Zeit beanspruchen.
INCLUDING A MATURE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE SENDS AN IMPORTANT SIGNAL TODAY
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Pictured: With company car number eight.
We women don’t talk about cars. We drive them.
We get down to business quickly. That’s why you need us.
Besides, THE future sounds female, doesn’t it? 😉
How often is a strong female perspective missing in top management? Very often. Why does it matter? Because a different perspective adds new dimensions to decision making. And because women often bring something deeply creative to the table. Give us something and we develop it further. We build, shape, connect and often create more from what we are entrusted with. Why would any business voluntarily choose to miss out on that? I bring that talent too. I want to think, shape and have a voice without having to hide my femininity or my joy in what I do just to appear important. I can be feminine and very clear at the same time. Approachable and decisive. I can enjoy my work and still make difficult decisions. And I make an impact. If that is what you are looking for, you will get it with me. If it is not, you probably should not hire me.
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Professional expertise creates confidence.

Pictured: As a guest on “Wirtschaftstreff Bayern”
You can only face the media with confidence when you truly know what you are talking about. Because you never know exactly what will happen once the cameras are rolling.
I know that I know nothing. Ultimately, that is how it is. We all live in different realities, perceive things differently and try to navigate as well as we can within the boundaries we are given. Still, I have always tried to get to the bottom of things. To truly understand them, examine them and recognize the connections. And when I do not know something, I say so. Then I bring in people who know more than I do. Because expertise, to me, is not about storing and reproducing as much information as possible. Knowledge is available everywhere today. What matters is the ability to see the bigger picture. To recognize connections, bring different perspectives together and develop a well considered point of view on the issues of our time. That I can do.
DIFFERENT IN MY THINKING.
GROUNDED IN MY ACTIONS.
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Pictured: The team T shirt after our Workday implementation.
At the time, we achieved something incredible with this project.
Most of us know what life is like. Sometimes things go up, sometimes they go down. I have enjoyed every high, I admit. And I have felt every fall and used it to learn. Today, I know how much work some successes really take. A complex digital transformation, for example, demands a lot from a project sponsor. In the Steering Committee, budgets need to be defended, escalations resolved and Greenfield approaches are somehow expected to come at zero cost. Back at your desk, reality is waiting. Team members drop out, data issues need to be managed and consultants want to bill more than originally planned. And still, the project has to move forward. As a senior executive in a mid sized company, you become very familiar with this balancing act between big strategy and very practical reality. It makes you humble. Grounded. And eventually, pretty good at making things actually work.
Where I work, things get innovative.
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Pictured.: A gift from the Executive Board
And when everything goes well, even the Executive Board can get a little playful and give me something like this for my company car. And of course, I say thank you properly, with a funny photo. 😍 Feel free to laugh with me!
Innovation Can Be a Little Crazy Sometimes. Innovation, to me, means taking paths that not everyone else is taking yet. Connecting things that may not seem to belong together at first. Thinking outside the box and giving intuition some room instead of relying solely on Excel sheets and numbers. Involving others. Experimenting. Being creative. This way of thinking has taken me pretty far. Time and again, I have initiated and delivered projects and ideas that were ahead of their time. Part of why this worked was that my managers were willing to go along with some of my slightly “crazy” ideas. Perhaps occasionally because I eventually wore them down with my arguments. 😊 In return, there was a deal from my side: however unconventional the idea, the execution had to be methodical, transparent and professional. And if someone trusted me enough to take that path, they deserved something in return. I repaid that trust with results. It is as simple as that for me.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE:
OPEN MINDSET, EDUCATION AND METHODOLOGY
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LLL. Lifelong Learning. For Real. I have genuinely made lifelong learning one of my principles. To be fair, I have no great desire to complete another full degree. But I never stop learning. For example, when I had to regularly charge my Tesla company car for a while, I simply used the waiting time for further education. That is how I completed my “Culture of Health” certificate from Harvard University along the way. Over the years, many other qualifications followed: Data Protection Officer through the IHK, vocational trainer certification, training in working with Works Councils, as well as qualifications in complex project management and various methodologies. Of course, you do not need a certificate for everything. But knowledge helps. It has helped me, for example, to navigate demanding Works Council and collective bargaining negotiations with greater understanding and professionalism. And right now, I am learning something new again. Because I do not want to let the world move forward without me. For me, learning is about more than professional knowledge. It also means staying open enough to change your mind when you have learned something new. Through education, experience or sometimes simply through a good conversation with another person. That is exactly what I try to model in organizations: If you want to develop others, you should never stop developing yourself.
HANDS-ON, LIVED
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ROLLING-UP MY SLEEVES? I AM IN.
I want to help organizations succeed. But I also have a genuine interest in people - in their working reality, their potential and what they need to perform at their best.
That is why I have always kept my feet on the street. In every organization I have worked for, I have spent time not only in the boardroom, but also on the shop floor, out in the field with sales teams or, when the job called for it, in a TV studio.
For me, understanding an organization means being where the work actually happens.
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10 REASONS TO HAVE DARKA IN THE ROOM
A GIVER BY NATURE
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Pictured: A gift to my team
At the beginning of each year, I put an annual guide on my team’s desks. That year, we had a transformation ahead of us, so I wrapped Ritter Sport chocolate bars in our transformation motto.
I Am a Giver by Nature. I have never been someone who holds back knowledge, time or energy. When I commit to a role, a company or people, I usually invest more than what is strictly required. That is not always noticed or appreciated. Often it is. But that is not really why I do it. Going the extra mile has never been about money for me. It comes from within. When I take on a commitment, I am truly in it. With energy, dedication and the determination to achieve something together. I share what I know, support others and stay with it, even when things get difficult. And when we pick up a ball together, we will do quite a lot to make sure it eventually lands in the basket.
AN EFFECTIVE LEADER IN EVERY CONTEXT
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Pictured:
My team thinks of me
When my team makes something for me, I sometimes have to hold back a few princess tears... 🥹👑
Leadership Has Always Fascinated Me. But not as a theory. I have had bosses from whom I learned absolutely nothing. And I have had others from whom I learned a great deal. I always wanted to belong to the second group. Even during my studies, I began exploring leadership systematically. My MBA dissertation focused on leading virtual teams in combination with extensive business travel. At the time, this was still a rather unusual topic. When remote work suddenly became part of everyday life during Covid, I published an early guide on LinkedIn about effective leadership and collaboration in video calls. In the last 19 years I have led many teams, nationally and globally. One thing has always mattered deeply to me: helping others become stronger. I have never held back knowledge. I shared it, developed people and gave them responsibility. Perhaps also because I received very little support myself and consciously wanted to lead differently. My teams recognized that. And they supported me in my role as a leader, something that makes me both proud and grateful. Over the years, this has developed into substantial leadership experience. I have designed and implemented leadership concepts several times and supported leadership development across organizations. I am familiar with more than a dozen diagnostic tools, many of which I have completed myself to understand their quality and impact. I also know 360 degree feedback and its effects in organizations from practical experience. But leadership, to me, is about much more than models and tools. People need orientation. Especially when things get difficult. In my leadership roles, I have provided that orientation: to my own teams, to employees in difficult situations, to colleagues, to my managers and sometimes to an entire organization. And I never expect from others what I am not prepared to demonstrate myself. Most recently, I also had the opportunity to contribute my perspective on integrative leadership internationally, with my own contribution to David Liddle’s book People & Culture. That is why leadership, to me, is not a method. It is a mindset, a responsibility and the ability to make others stronger.
Pictured below:
I think of my team
For my teams, no effort is ever too much. Here is one example: an English tea setting to make us all a little more “international” and motivate everyone to improve their English. 😊

100% COMMITED & PRESENT
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Pictured: In the personnel record archive
Digitizing personnel files is not as simple as it may seem. And when it comes down to it, you need to know how to roll up your sleeves and get things done.
Man muss wissen, was im Feld passiert. Ich habe die Erfahrung gemacht, dass man eine People Funktion nicht wirklich gut ausüben kann, wenn man sich nicht ehrlich für die Menschen und ihre Realität interessiert. Natürlich ist es immer ein Spagat zwischen den Interessen des Business und denen der Mitarbeiter. Meine Aufgabe habe ich dabei immer auch als Übersetzungsaufgabe zwischen diesen beiden Welten verstanden. Manchmal überwiegt am Ende das Mitarbeiterinteresse, manchmal das Businessinteresse. So ist es. Gute Personalarbeit bedeutet für mich nicht, grundsätzlich auf einer Seite zu stehen. Sie bedeutet, beide Seiten zu verstehen und verantwortungsvoll abzuwägen. Dafür muss ich wissen, was tatsächlich passiert. Was im Feld funktioniert, was die Menschen beschäftigt und wo es wirklich drückt. Denn nur wenn ich die Realität kenne, kann ich beurteilen, wofür es sich lohnt, sich einzusetzen.
I CAN WORK INTERNATIONALLY.
AND REGIONALLY TOO.
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Pictured left:
European Championship
Pictured right:
Business dinner in China
Pictured right:
Global Experience. Grounded Perspective.
I am originally from Croatia and spent many years travelling across a large part of the world for work. And if you have survived a business dinner in China, I think you can survive almost anything. 😊
Today, I can work internationally and I am highly flexible. But I no longer need to be constantly on the road.
I find it just as exciting to solve complex challenges somewhere in the world as I do to make something work pragmatically in a small village closer to home.
I like both. The big world and the very real world on the ground.
I BRING A SORTED, GROUNDED AND HUMBLE MINDSET
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THE MARQUARDT MANIFESTO
1. People Management creates business value.
2. Leadership starts with character.
3. Corporate culture exists to enable performance.
4. Performance and well-being belong together.
5. Psychological safety enables people to take ownership.
6. Complexity must be turned into clarity.
7. Transformation succeeds through people.
8. Technology should empower people, not replace them.
9. Integrity builds trust. Trust drives performance.
10. True leadership leaves organizations stronger than it found them.

PROUD TO BE: A “MANIFESTATION MOUSE” 🐭✨
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I create value by making things happen.
Whenever I take responsibility for people and organisational performance, I create value, accelerate progress, and deliver measurable results. As a business-oriented Chief Human Resources Officer and People Executive, I combine strategic leadership with operational excellence across the entire employee lifecycle. I help organisations grow, transform, and strengthen their performance by aligning people, strategy, and business objectives. My ambition is simple: to leave every organisation stronger than I found it. I am both a builder and an enabler. I create what does not yet exist. I turn complexity into clarity. I approach challenges with courage, pragmatism, and a strong focus on execution. Executive recruiters often look for measurable achievements: what someone has built, led, transformed, implemented, improved, or delivered. My career cannot be summarised by a single project or one headline achievement. It is defined by a consistent track record of creating value across a wide range of organisations, industries, and transformation journeys. My strength lies in quickly understanding how organisations work, earning trust, and moving people, structures, and processes in the right direction. That is why I created the Project Track Record section—to provide tangible evidence of the transformations I have led, the results achieved, and the international breadth of my experience. Throughout my career, I have built organisations, implemented global systems, developed leaders, and enabled sustainable growth across multiple industries. My focus has always remained the same: to build stronger organisations by strengthening their people, leadership, structures, processes, and culture.
I create impact through modern leadership.
The Journey Behind My Leadership Leadership did not happen to me. I built it—deliberately. Every career decision, every role, every challenge, and every transformation became part of a much larger journey: understanding how organisations work, how people grow, and what it truly takes to create sustainable business success. To understand business beyond Human Resources, I completed an MBA and expanded my perspective from functional expertise to strategic leadership. It remains one of the most transformative experiences of my professional life. To master methods, tools, and execution, I spent several years in consulting. Working across industries, organisations, and leadership teams taught me that every company is unique—but the underlying leadership challenges are remarkably similar. Throughout my career, I consciously sought experiences that would broaden my perspective on leadership, organisational transformation, technology, culture, governance, and business performance. Learning has never been something I pursued only when required. It has become part of how I lead. Over nearly three decades, I have led organisations through growth, transformation, restructuring, digitalisation, and cultural change. I have built functions, implemented global systems, developed leaders, and supported businesses in complex international environments. Technical expertise alone, however, has never been enough. Leadership requires character. The ability to remain grounded while navigating uncertainty. To make difficult decisions without losing empathy. To create clarity where others see complexity. To stay true to your values while helping organisations evolve. This perspective was not developed in classrooms. It was shaped by experience. Growing up with limited resources taught me resilience long before I entered the corporate world. It taught me to embrace uncertainty, to stay pragmatic, to persevere through difficult periods, and to appreciate progress that is built over time rather than achieved overnight. These experiences continue to influence the way I lead today. My leadership is built on trust, accountability, adaptability, fairness, and long-term value creation. Just as important is the development of others. For me, leadership means creating the conditions in which people can grow beyond what they believed possible. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of developing leaders, opening new career paths, and helping individuals discover strengths they did not yet recognise in themselves. I believe organisations become stronger when their people become stronger. That has been the guiding principle behind my work for almost three decades. If one day I look back on my career, I hope I will not measure it only by the positions I held or the transformations I delivered. I hope I can say that I left organisations stronger than I found them—and that I contributed, in my own way, to creating better places to work for the people within them. Because in the end, leadership is not measured by authority. It is measured by the positive impact we leave behind.
I create value by reading the context, understanding the dynamics, and transforming them into better outcomes.
Progress rarely beginns with comfort. It begins with honesty. My Leadership Philosophy I believe sustainable business performance begins where people feel safe, respected, and able to realise their full potential. That may sound obvious. In reality, it often is not. The most difficult leadership moments are rarely about strategy or technology. They arise when organisations must confront uncomfortable truths—about culture, behaviour, decision-making, or leadership itself. These conversations require courage. Because those who challenge the status quo often place themselves at personal risk. Progress rarely begins with comfort. It begins with honesty. That is why psychological safety is not, in my view, a "soft" topic. It is one of the strongest predictors of performance, innovation, trust, and long-term organisational success. People contribute their best ideas only when they feel respected. They take ownership only when they trust their leaders. They stay only when they believe their contribution truly matters. I believe in organisations with clear leadership, clear accountability, and clear expectations. Hierarchy itself is not the problem. The real question is how leadership is exercised within that hierarchy. Leadership should create clarity—not fear. Direction—not dependency. Accountability—not politics. Where needed, I see my role as creating understanding, translating perspectives, and helping organisations navigate difficult conversations with honesty and respect. Because sustainable performance and human wellbeing are not competing priorities. They reinforce one another. As technology and artificial intelligence continue to reshape organisations, the human dimension of leadership becomes even more important. Empathy. Judgement. Integrity. Trust. These qualities cannot be automated. They remain the foundation of great leadership. I believe leaders earn their influence through competence, integrity, and the way they treat people—not simply through hierarchy or position. Those are the leaders who inspire me. As a Chief Human Resources Officer, I see my responsibility as helping organisations navigate complexity, building trust, creating clarity, and having the courage to address uncomfortable realities when necessary. Because despite every technological advancement, organisations remain deeply human systems. And that is precisely where exceptional leadership creates the greatest difference.
CLARITY THROUGH AN HONEST REALITY CHECK
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MY EXPERIENCE
Making complexity manageable.
Turning transformation into measurable results.
Influencing at executive and board level.
Bridging business performance and human potential.
Leading through uncertainty and change.
MYEXPERTISE
HR-TECHNOLOGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION:
Smart connection of people, processes and technology .
ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION:
Realigning organizations and enhancing organizational performance
GLOBAL HR OPERATING MODELS & SCALE:
Scale international structures.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP & BOARD ADVISORY:
Guide & support organizations in every phase.
CULTURE EFFECTIVENESS:
Establishing leadership and culture as powerful business enablers.
SKILLS & STRENGTHS
Recognizing patterns in complex environments.
Exercising sound judgement in high-stakes situations.
Thriving in ambiguity and uncertainty.
Connecting people, technology and business execution.
Having the courage to challenge the status quo and address uncomfortable truths.
5 VALUES THAT GUIDE ME
INTEGRITY
Doing what is right, not what is easy.
COURAGE
Addressing difficult realities rather than avoiding them.
PERFORMANCE
Prioritizing measurable impact over appearances and symbolism.
FAIRNESS
Balancing business decisions with respect for human dignity.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Taking ownership of outcomes and actively shaping the future.
PERSONAL INSIGHTS
I challenge assumptions through curiosity, critical thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Fairness, responsibility and dignity form the foundation of my decisions and actions.
I value independent thinking and principled judgement, even when it means taking an unconventional path.
I believe high performance and humanity are strongest when they coexist.
I see challenges not as setbacks, but as opportunities for growth, learning and transformation.
HOW I LEAD
I provide clarity in complexity and direction in uncertainty.
I foster accountability by empowering people to take ownership.
I value substance over symbolism and outcomes over appearances.
In times of transformation, I prioritize honesty, courage and decisive action over political convenience.
I lead with integrity, guided by a strong moral compass and a clear sense of responsibility
