Behind giftmall’s expansion across Europe is a leadership team that is, in large part, female. As the company marks over a decade of growth, four women – spanning its C-suite and department heads – share what it means to lead in the corporate incentives space: the real challenges, the support that made a difference, and the advice they’d give to anyone starting out.
Kate Prokhatska, Co-founder & CEO at giftmall
For over 13 years, Kate has been developing giftmall as a company that helps businesses solve all their corporate incentive needs – from gift cards to automated rewards solutions. Under her leadership, the company has entered the European market and now provides corporate clients with access to over 3,000 brands in 45 countries.
What was it like for you in the incentives business?
My background is in business economics – a useful foundation, but not a direction. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to build. I only knew it had to be something real: a product or service I could genuinely shape.
The idea for giftmall emerged while I was working at a startup in the gift card space. I kept seeing the same gap: large companies needed scalable ways to reward their people, and gift cards were the obvious, but underserved, answer. We launched in 2013. Thirteen years later, we’re still building.
Did you face any challenges along the way and receive support from women?
Yes, and more valuable than I expected. Colleagues, friends, fellow entrepreneurs – many of them founders and CEOs – shared their stories with real candour: the calls they got right, the ones they’d redo and the lessons that only come from living through it. But the most important thing wasn’t the information. It was feeling seen. Watching women build strong companies without losing themselves in the process – that stays with you.
Are there women’s communities you’re part of or draw inspiration from?
Community is something I take seriously. I’m part of several professional and entrepreneurial networks with strong women at the helm – places where you can speak honestly, share what’s working and what isn’t and get real support. What inspires me most are international communities of female founders building global businesses. They make one thing clear: there’s no ceiling. There’s just the next level.
What would you say to a woman thinking about starting her own business?
- First of all, start with honesty: is this genuinely what you want — or are you chasing an idea of success that belongs to someone else? If it’s your dream, don’t wait. Just begin.
- Ask for help. Seek out people with more experience and let them in. It shortens the learning curve and opens doors you didn’t know existed.
- And most importantly, choose your people carefully. Find those who share your values and your hunger. Teams built on that foundation are the ones that last.
Angelina Ivanova, Chief Revenue Officer at giftmall
Angelina accompanies clients from the initial contact through the launch of solutions for corporate gifting, promotional campaigns and programmes to engage employees, customers and partners.
What does leadership actually demand of you, and where does the support come from?
The hardest moments are the ones where the team looks to you for steadiness, and you are still in the process. For me, being a leader means building a path where there wasn’t one just a moment ago. It’s a daily balancing between the right to feel human and the responsibility to be a steady rock. Real strength is about showing up clear-headed and open-minded when things go south and making sure your team knows you’ll face anything together.
At giftmall, support comes through honesty, and honesty is something we actually practise. In our internal sessions, we go beyond metrics: we talk about what’s genuinely hard, give direct feedback and sit with the things we’d rather avoid. That kind of openness isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what keeps you from feeling alone in the work.
What would you tell a woman who wants to lead in sales?
- Make the numbers yours. In sales, data is authority. The person who knows the figures best commands the room.
- Stop doing everything yourself. Surround yourself with people who push for more, then build the conditions for them to thrive. That’s when real scale begins.
- Hear what’s not being said. The best salespeople understand the problem beneath the problem. That instinct – cultivated, not accidental – is what sets you apart.
Viktoriia Ovcharenko, Chief Partnership Officer at giftmall
Viktoriia is responsible for managing the development of the giftmall catalogue in Ukraine, Poland and Spain, significantly expanding the company’s partner network with local and international brands.
What challenges come with this role, and has support made a difference?
Partnership development in the incentives space means operating across a wide range of maturity levels – from global players with complex technical requirements to local brands building their programmes from the ground up. Every partnership is a different puzzle. Over time, I’ve stopped framing that as a challenge. It’s the engine: the thing that keeps the team sharp, the processes honest and the relationships genuine.
The community at giftmall is one of the main reasons I’d recommend working here. It’s not a formal structure – it’s something you feel. Colleagues who share perspective when you’re stuck, who give you confidence before a difficult decision, who root for you without making it competitive. I try to create that same environment for my own team.
What would you tell women aiming to lead in procurement or partnerships?
- The best piece of advice I ever received: don’t discount your expertise. Procurement and partnerships demand constant negotiation. Confidence in your decisions is what drives your success.
- Stay in the room. You’ll encounter moments where your voice isn’t taken as seriously as it should be. Those moments are where your reputation is actually built.
- You cannot lead by keeping everyone happy. The role requires decisions that are right, not popular. Make peace with that.
- And above all, invest in long-term relationships. In partnerships, trust built over time consistently outweighs any single negotiation.
Diana Arutiunian, Head of Brand & Communications at giftmall
Diana is responsible for Brand and Communications in the team, covering brand strategy and communications. She builds brand presence across the company’s key markets in Europe.
What does leadership actually demand of you, and where does the support come from?
There’s an idea from Mercedes-Benz’s ‘Be One of Many’ campaign that I keep coming back to: true strength isn’t in being the only one or standing apart. It’s in being one of many strong women. That resonates deeply with my own experience.
The hardest part of leadership is the moments when you feel alone in it. Without the right people around you, like a team that has your back or mentors who push your thinking, any challenge feels heavier than it actually is. With them, things that seemed impossible just take time.
At giftmall, that support is real and you feel it. The teams here fit together like pieces of a jigsaw – everyone invested in the whole, not just their part. And beyond the company, I’m genuinely grateful to the female leaders who’ve shown up at different points in my career: Heads, CCOs and CMOs who helped me refine how I work, back my team and stay open.
What would you tell women who want to lead in brand and communications?
- Build strategic thinking before anything else. Brand and communications are still too often treated as window dressing. They’re not. The real leverage comes from understanding the business, the audience and the market deeply enough to read data, form hypotheses and defend decisions with evidence rather than gut feel. Earn your place at the table where strategy is made. Then take it.
- Be One of many. The most powerful leaders are the ones who are part of something. Find your strong female community: colleagues, mentors and people who challenge and inspire you. Share what you know, ask what you don’t and support others genuinely. Trust that it will come back around.