My Story
Cristina Muntean here.
From a small village in Transylvania, Romania, to where I am today, I bring you stories of resilience, a passionate love affair with human potential, and a raw dedication to what is real and true.
My core values are integrity, freedom, and partnership. I believe in strategic thinking, co-creation, and good power – our human capacity to lead while having a positive impact on our world.
Welcome to my page!
What You Should Know About Me
We Are Our Story
Every leader is shaped by their origin story. So am I.
I was born during a fiery winter in 1981 in a small village in Transylvania, Romania. I came into this world at a moment when my country was plunging into the darkest, last years of communism.
With two hours of electricity per night, I grew up listening to my grandfather’s stories. I learned how to read and write by candlelight. I discovered chocolate only when I turned eight and the first truck with humanitarian help reached our village after the Revolution of December 1989.
All these experiences shaped who I am, what I honor, and whom I serve today.
What You Can Expect From Me
A fierce dedication to what is real and true; no deception, no fluff. I call this integrity.
An even fiercer dedication to learning by being curious, courageous, and open minded. This is what helped me escape poverty and grow into a global entrepreneur, founder and CEO, and community leader. I call this freedom.
Last but not least, you can expect to be able to rely on me with your life. I call this partnership.
If we decide to work together, I will bring all I have to the table and I will go with you in the trenches of whatever wars you are fighting. I do this because I believe firmly that our greatest purpose in life is to give the world what we missed when we needed it the most.
Along the way, I had to walk alone many times. So you don’t have to.
On a Mission to Triple the Number of Women CEOs
I believe our world has reached the end of the endless growth mindset that has dominated our public discourse for the last century.
As opposed to our current wasteful, predatory, and ultimately, devastating approach to resources, I believe we should be shifting into a resource-nurturing model of thinking and being that requires a different mindset and a different style of leadership. I call this good power.
By nature and nurture, women are in pole position to embrace good power and to serve this greater, long-term sustainable transformation that our world needs right now.
This is why I put my life behind the mission of increasing the number of women CEOs in corporate organizations across Europe and around the world. This way, I am hoping to bring my small two cents to the greater positive transformation necessary in our world.
I hope to contribute to the greater good through my personal experience, individual executive development work, strategic people development via VORNICA®, my company, and through our digital learning portal, THE VORNICA ACADEMY®.
Strategic Career Management for Senior Women Leaders
WHOM DO I SERVE?
My work is dedicated to senior women leaders:
- Women CEOs – the top leaders who strive to succeed in their role, be meaningfully visible, create good results beyond profit, and make a positive impact in the world.
- Women founders & CEOs – the mighty entrepreneurs who are leaving corporate to start their own businesses.
- Women in the C-Suite – smart and talented women leaders who need support navigating succession pains or taking their next career step.
- Women in C-1 – the vice presidents, heads of departments, large projects and teams – in other words the backbone of each company who strive to grow in their careers and into their full leadership potential.
I serve these senior women leaders via individual 1:1 executive coaching and mentoring, or in group and team development settings.
Do I support women only?
Not at all. I am more than happy to support male leaders who also strive to bring more good power into the world.
Whoever you are – if you resonate with my values and the idea of good power, please don’t be a stranger. Reach out with trust and…
THE PROBLEMS I ADDRESS – AND SOLVE
What Doesn’t Let My Clients Sleep at Night?
I started working with Cristina in a period of multiple changes in my work and private life. I needed to identify my values and key priorities. With Cristina I was visiting different areas of my work and private life step by step. During our sessions we discussed topics ranging from business, philanthropy, and my personal life. I was able to name and describe the challenges and consequently decide for my concrete steps and actions. Cristina is able to help with a wide scope of questions starting with personal daily routines to hiring strategies, PR and communication, target setting, embracing diversity etc. With her great questions she helped me find my own answers. Cristina is more than a coach; she is a psychologist, a communication specialist, a lifestyle advisor, and a friend.
When clients — present, former, and future CEOs — come to me, they are typically challenged by one of these issues:
How to Master Strategic Communications
AI has brought a new layer of complexity and challenge to strategic communications for leaders. From personal branding to storytelling, from media relations to crisis communications, clients engage me to sharpen their communication edge and navigate their roles successfully.
How to Grow in Their Careers
Not only companies have become incredibly complex – our career paths have become more complex, too. Taking the wrong turn in your career could derail you for years - or even decades. I support clients gain critical distance and make the best decisions for their careers and lives.
How to Succeed Outstandingly in New Senior Roles
My clients who are about to be promoted into a new role want to get it right from the start. Together, we prepare for mastering all aspects of executive onboarding – from business strategy to communications, stakeholder management, and, ultimately, their success on the job.
How to Exit Corporate and Start Their Own Business
I support women leaders who strive to leave corporate and start successfully on their own. Here, my 15+ years of entrepreneurial experience comes in handy for any woman at the beginning of her journey.
How to Leave a Legacy
This topic emerges in two situations – when the client has already built a solid legacy in the organization they are about to leave and they want to secure a brilliant succession that would preserve their legacy, or when a former CEO wants to use their name, network, power, and influence to continue driving positive transformation in the world after exiting corporate.
Why I Am the Right Executive Coach For You
Versatility Über Alles
Every single service I have ever developed is firmly grounded either in my personal work and life experience, or in the vast experience of over 500 1:1 clients – present, former, and future CEOs.
Strategic Communications
My experience as a former business journalist comes to serve clients best when you need to prepare for a tough presentation, Q&A, panel discussion, or media interview.
- Be authentic on any stage.
- Prepare for your next high-impact talk.
- Master storytelling, investor relations, and media interviews.
- Navigate and de-risk crisis communications.
- Be authentic on any stage.
Emotional Intelligence
Our communication is nothing but embodied emotional intelligence. This is why my robust qualification in emotional intelligence can serve you best when emotions threaten to get the best of you.
- Expand your self-awareness and self-regulation.
- Bring empathy into your communication and leadership.
- Enhance your understanding of social dynamics in groups and teams.
- Nurture humanity in yourself and others in the age of AI.
- Expand your self-awareness and self-regulation.
Systemic Leadership
Leaders don’t act in a vacuum. My job is to help clients see the intricacies of their teams, organizations, and stakeholder systems coming together, and the impact of your decisions on the entire whole.
- Develop your systemic thinking.
- Master intricate stakeholder management.
- Keep your head above the water to make better decisions.
- Drive positive impact beyond your organization.
- Develop your systemic thinking.
Purpose Beyond Profit
Profit is the hallmark of a healthy organization; profit obtained ethically and put to the service of nurturing the organization and its stakeholders long-term is even better. This is how you create a long-lasting legacy.
- Manage shareholder relationships.
- Communicate transformation.
- Be a role model of integrity and values.
- Create a sustainable legacy.
You, the Brand – Personal Branding for Career Growth
PUBLISHED BOOK AUTHOR – IN MY 4TH LANGUAGE
In November 2018, I published my first book You, the Brand – Personal Branding for Career Growth. I wrote this book directly in Czech, my fourth language. To this day, I am deeply touched and incredibly proud of this success.
More to follow.
Take a Look at My Credentials
How I Became a People Developer
Certified and Accredited Mentor and Coach
I am an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF) on track to my Professional Certified Coach (PCC) recognition. I am also a Senior Practitioner with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and a former member of the EMCC global center of excellence in mentoring.
Multiply Certified Enneagram Professional
Since January 2010, when I first came in contact with the Enneagram, I fell in love with this complex and robust system of people development. I became a certified individual and team coach, consultant, and trainer with the Enneagram. I am also a life-long certified professional in the Narrative Tradition by Enneagram Worldwide (Helen Palmer), and an individual and team coach and consultant with the Enneagram as certified by The Enneagram in Business (Ginger Lapid Bogda). Equally, I am a certified and accredited member of the International Enneagram Association (IEA).
Systemic Dynamics and the Power of TED*
Besides the Enneagram, my second leg of thought leadership rests on systemic intelligence. I am a multiply certified systemic practitioner with a focus on systemic team coaching (Prof. Peter Hawkings) and systemic dynamics in organizations (Jan Jacob Stam, Jan Bilý). Equally, I am a licensed practitioner of The Empowerment Dynamic (TED*), a powerful people development framework created by David Emerald and Donna Zajonc.
How My Former Media Experience Serves Clients Today
Choosing What Must Endure
One of the most challenging decisions leaders must make is choosing between what they must transform and what must endure in an organization – and in their lives.
I, too, had to make this decision.
When Czech Business Weekly, the only English language business magazine in the Czech Republic, was closed in April 2010 and I lost my job as its deputy editor in chief, I thought my world had ended.
I was a journalist through and through. When I entered the profession, I thought the only way out would be when I died. Alas, life had other plans.
My saving grace after our layoff was that, as a business reporter, I had worked extensively with CEOs and C-Suite executives to help them craft media stories.
This is how CEOs – and subsequently women CEOs – became my main focus. Immediately after losing my job, I started offering media training and crisis communication services to my former sources – CEOs and their executive teams.
The rest is history.
I will never be able to express enough gratitude for my journalistic roots. Today, I use my journalistic skills to conduct CEO interviews, facilitate panel discussions, speak, prepare executives for difficult situations, and to write my books. I also continue training senior leaders in strategic media relations and crisis communications.
We never really lose anything; however, if we choose wisely between what we must transform and what must endure, we might just end up on the right side of history.
Download My Credentials
Get to Know Me Better
Speaker Profile
I elevate your audiences with my no-nonsense, real, raw, intense and passionate approach to the topics I deliver on stage. Expect a lot of energy, gesticulation, and audience engagement. Note: Your photographers will have a field day catching me in a steady position 😊
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Let's Talk
If you are a senior woman leader striving to boost your strategic communication skills, grow in your career, nail your executive onboarding, succeed in your new senior role, or exit corporate - I would love to get to know you. Book a call with me personally and let’s talk.
