Maria Karlubikova, Slovakia
A Genuine Guardian Angel to Future Female Entrepreneurs
Maria Karlubikova founded a building company (Klartec Ltd) in Slovakia, at the age when people might think more about preparing for their retirement, rather than developing a concept for the prospective entrepreneur, on how to successfully run their own company. Maria was approaching her 47th birthday when she started her own business in 1999. She rallied against the stereotype where females might be expected to slow down, and turn their hands to more domestic roles, such as looking after grandchildren, or, taking up a hobby.
Nowadays, at the age of 59, Maria Karlubikova provides free business seminars with the primary aim to integrate at least 10 percent of all women participants to the entrepreneurial world.
In 2011 Maria joined the program Guardian Angels for Female Entrepreneurs, and was selected up by the Committee to become one of 16 business mentors from among 45 candidates. Furthermore, in the same year, she was recognised for her various contributions, as E-Woman 2011, for the online project www.terrabella.sk.
Maria remains very active involved in civic matters where local industry is concerned, as reflected in her role as member of the civic organization TCP (Top Women Entrepreneurs Centre). From this involvement, she became the Founder and President of the Regional TCP Branch in Trnava, where she further broadened her business outside Slovakia. Maria strongly supports the development of women in industry, and provides assistance for small business start-ups within regional TCP (EU Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors).
Relevant Information
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organisations of women’s associations in the European Union (EU), and it has member organisations in all 27 Member States of the EU and in 3 candidate countries. The EWL aims at promoting women’s rights and equality between women and men in the European Union. EWL is active in different areas such as women’s economic and social position, women in decision-making, violence against women, women’s diversity, etc. EWL works mainly with the institutions of the European Union: the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers.
