Maya Madanska talks about hitchhiking in Mexico, and yes, Corporate Governance and Compliance, legal advice in mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and other forms of corporate restructuring on a local and cross-border basis

Can you share something interesting about yourself or your career?

I once sort of hitchhiked in Mexico.

How did it all start?

It all started in 2012. I had just graduated from Law School and I was thinking about the next step in my career. I knew I wanted to work at an international firm that would allow me to be involved in advisory projects, hopefully in those areas of law which I found most interesting. At that point I already had a number of friends working in Big Four companies and based on their feedback I had the feeling that this was the place for me – a large organization, full of young people, working in multidisciplinary teams.

I checked the KPMG website and saw that they had an open position for a lawyer. Although the position required more experience than I had at that time, I decided to apply anyway, hoping that they will keep my CV in their database and use it in case a more junior job position opens. I was surprised when, a couple of days later, I was invited to their office to take the entry tests. Soon after, I was invited to a job interview. I was so nervous, I don’t actually remember most of it, but what I remember was that I liked everything – the people, the office, the attitude.

I was offered the position of Legal Assistant, as this was the position matching the experience I had at that time. I did not hesitate at all and took the job and this is how my journey in the firm began.

On my first day, I was extremely nervous as I had never worked in such a large organization. Now that I think about it, if I had known how welcoming the atmosphere is and how nice everyone is, I definitely would not have worried that much.

I did not expect to be included in any big projects at first. I was surprised when quite the opposite happened and I was soon included in the teams working on two big projects. This immediately made me feel included and gave me a great deal of motivation to prove that I deserved the trust I have been given.

How did you get to where you are?

I started as part of the Employment Law team, where I spent a year working on a huge project, involving around 3,000 employees. This was an amazing bootcamp for me. A year after, I was assigned to the Corporate and M&A team and I’ve been a part of it ever since. Working in the field of Corporate and M&A would never leave you bored, to say the least. We provide a full range of services to our clients on a daily basis – from Corporate Governance and Compliance, to Legal Advice in mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and other forms of corporate restructuring on a local and cross-border basis. We work on various M&A assignments that include Legal Due Diligence and Transaction Assistance (both on the buy-side and on the sell-side).

During the past seven years I’ve been involved in many projects, some of them quite challenging. There were times when I did not believe I could handle a certain task due to its complexity or deadline. Strangely enough, these were the times I felt most motivated, not only to help the client, but also to prove to myself that I deserve to be where I am. Looking back, I am proud to say that there hasn’t been an issue our team has not resolved, always within the deadline 😊.

After going through a few different positions, in 2018 I joined the management team and was assigned my new role of Corporate Compliance Leader.

There were a lot of circumstances that brought me to where I am today. If I have to sum it all up, I would say “be consistent”. Consistency is the key to everything in life.

What energizes you at work?

The fact that I am lucky enough to do what I love, surrounded with the most amazing people. You will be surprised what you can accomplish when the right people are beside you.

What does your favorite Sunday morning look like?

Yoga, pancakes and good coffee.

Three values that are important to you?

Family, gratitude, kindness.

Three words that describe your working day?

Teamwork, fun, hard work.

What about that Mexico story?

It was actually not as scary as it sounds, but it was still quite an adventure. We were visiting Ik-Kil Cenote and somehow missed the bus we came with which was supposed to take us to the next location – Chichen Itza. We did not have any contact details of our guide or the agency (it was all in our backpacks in the bus), so we did the only thing we could think of – we went on the road and eventually stopped and got on another tour bus, which luckily for us was going to the same destination. We even made it on time for lunch and by the time the mariachi show started we had forgotten all about it!