Mihita Cvitanovic Podobnik

Chief People Officer

United Kingdom

About

I am a strategist and business leader who thrives at the intersection of technology, people, and transformation. With an engineering foundation and consulting background, I bring both the technical depth to understand complex systems and the business acumen to translate strategy into execution. At IFS, I work alongside the CEO and executive team to define and deliver strategy, solve complex challenges, and create long-term value for shareholders - always ensuring that technology and people transformation go hand in hand. Previously at PwC, I advised clients on digital strategy, operating model transformation, the implementation of new business models, and change management. I also served as Chief of Staff to the PwC UK & EMEA CTO, where I was responsible for driving technology, people, and growth strategy for a 500+ person team across regions. I thrive in multicultural and diverse environments, having worked across Europe, Asia, and the US with a wide range of organizations - from startups to large multinationals - at different stages of growth. My career has been focused on technology and telecommunications, and I bring perspectives shaped by working with many of the world’s leading global companies. Rooted in engineering, I have built a career at the crossroads of strategy and transformation, enabling organizations to achieve sustainable impact at scale.

Experience

  • IFS (3 yrs 2 mos)
    • Chief People Officer
      Sep 2025 - Present · 11 mos

    • Chief of Staff
      Jan 2024 - Sep 2025 · 1 yr 9 mos

    • VP Strategy & Planning, Global Customer Services
      Jun 2023 - Dec 2023 · 7 mos

  • Strategy& ()
    • Senior Manager
      Jul 2019 - Jun 2023 · 4 yrs

    • Manager
      Jul 2017 - Jun 2019 · 2 yrs

      Digital transformation - Led to-be process design for order to bill value chain for a global mobile satellite communication company as part of their IT digital landscape transformation - Applied agile methodology to design to-be processes, roles and responsibilities - Identified a number of opportunities for process and operating model improvement, leading to improved user experience Operational efficiency & KPI setting - Performed activity-based costing across the B2B organisation as part of financial strategy for the UK largest cable operator - Identified key cost drivers by analysing customer, sales, financial and network data - Resulted in introduction of KPI monitoring and 10-20% operational savings per team IT & Finance transformation - Managed network asset data management workstream of a large IT, finance and network transformation project to implement asset lifecycle management tool for the largest India’s telecoms operator - Resulted in optimisation of operational efficiency in asset utilisation, asset control and monitoring with commercial, tax and financial benefits

    • Senior Associate
      Jul 2015 - Jun 2017 · 2 yrs

  • Research Intern at EPFL
    Jul 2011 - Aug 2011 · 2 mos

    As a research intern at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, partnered with other engineers to develop software for architects to help them design and visualise complicated free-form buildings. Thought herself C++ programming language while working under time pressure with minimal supervision.