2021-11-16
Approx 2 min reading time
Foto: Business Sweden
As a Consultant at Business Sweden’s Casablanca office, Nathalie Thiel has the international career she always dreamt of.
When Nathalie Thiel graduated from Stockholm School of Economics, she knew she wanted to work abroad and have an international career. Joining Business Sweden thus was a natural choice, and after half a year in Beijing, she is now placed at the office in Casablanca, Morocco.
Nathalie Thiel
Title: Consultant at Business Sweden
Education: Master of Science in Business & Management at Stockholm School of Economics, graduated in 2018.
What is your favorite spot in Casablanca? “I would say the Corniche which is a promenade that runs along the coast of Casablanca. It is one of the loveliest places in the city as you can enjoy a beautiful panorama view overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I tend to do a lot of outdoor activities there such as surfing, yoga, running and bicycling. It feels luxurious to be able to access the seaside and beaches so easily – in the middle of a large city!”
– I started my Business Sweden journey through the Talent Accelerator, Global Trainee program, where you automatically get placements at two different offices over the course of 12 months. My first placement was in Beijing, followed by Casablanca. The office in Casablanca covers 25 emerging markets in North and West Africa, and I enjoyed it so much here that I decided to continue being based in Morocco after the Trainee Program concluded. It’s an interesting region to work in since it constantly offers new challenges but is also a region where Business Sweden’s work is impactful for Swedish companies.
– It’s a great mix of different projects that I am involved in, and no day looks the same in terms of work tasks. But my main mission is to help Swedish companies to navigate and grow in this highly complex region. In one day I can help a start-up to find a partner in Ghana, followed by positioning a large company in an infrastructure project in Cameroon and then preparing a high-level conference in Nigeria together with the Embassy of Sweden. Having these kinds of very diverse tasks, meeting various stakeholders and clients, makes work interesting and stimulating. Since you are always working with different stakeholders such as Ministries, Embassies, institutions, companies of various sizes and sectors, you rapidly grow your own network.
– Today we are seven people working in the Casablanca hub, and we have a great mix of different backgrounds and nationalities. I believe that diversified teams are the future. Especially in our line of complex work, it is very important, since we then have different skills that complement each other. We work closely together with the teams based in our sister offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Johannesburg, South Africa, to cover activities and projects on the African continent. What unites us all is the drive to make a difference for Swedish companies, and of course also for the region and continent. To give you an example of an impactful project: we are working with Swedish companies and Team Sweden to help in establishing a public transport system in Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African country Burkina Faso, that hosts more than 2.5 million inhabitants. There is no public transport system there today, so this project is strategic and beneficial to the city and country, as well as for Sweden.
– All offices at Business Sweden are closely connected, and there is always a global perspective. In that sense, I have 350 colleagues. The culture here is very open and you are encouraged to collaborate with other offices as well as to rotate to new markets to bring knowledge from one office to another. With Business Sweden you can keep exploring and pursuing a career abroad whilst still being closely connected to Sweden!
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