A Career Built on Courage, Curiosity and Reinvention - Ewelina Wojtowicz

A conversation with Ewelina Wojtowicz - Head of Finance Specialized Nutrition Benelux - Danone

Ewelina Wojtowicz is a senior finance leader with nearly eight years of experience growing, learning and leading within Danone, supported by a global FMCG background and a proven track record in driving transformation, building strong teams and maximising business opportunities. She began her journey delivering global transformation programs before moving into roles that connected finance, procurement and strategy across multiple markets.

Today, she leads the Finance team for Specialised Nutrition in the Benelux, where she brings together her passion for people, business partnership and purposeful decision-making.

What stands out in Ewelina’s story is how naturally she blends curiosity with courage. She has built her career by saying yes to challenges, stepping into unfamiliar spaces and staying close to the teams she supports. Her leadership is grounded in strategic clarity, empathy, integrity and strong stakeholder partnership, with a deep commitment to developing high-performing teams and using finance as a catalyst for transformation. Alongside her corporate career, she founded NOTTO, a luxury fashion brand that reflects her entrepreneurial mindset and love for design, craftsmanship and creating meaningful experiences.

You’ve built an impressive career across Unilever, Coca-Cola and now Danone. Looking back, what were the key decisions or moments that shaped the professional and leader you’ve become?

"My leadership journey started long before my corporate career. I’ve always been curious and eager to push my own boundaries. “No” was never an answer I accepted easily… My early life experiences taught me independence, adaptability, and that growth happens when you step into the unknown.That mindset has guided me ever since. I always said yes to projects that helped me leapfrog in my capabilities, even if it required extra effort on top of my regular duties.

When I had the opportunity to relocate to a new country, I was among the first to move.  When I felt “stuck” in the big FMCG world, I took a leap into a scale-up environment, where I learned firsthand what agility, ownership, and entrepreneurial mindset truly mean outside of a corporate structure.

Looking back, curiosity, courage, and a willingness to reinvent myself have been the red thread. I’ve always trusted my instinct to move on when I stopped learning. That kept me growing, both as a professional and as a leader."

Alongside your corporate career, you’ve also launched your passion project, NOTTO. How does that reflect another side of you, and what have you learned from balancing both worlds?

"NOTTO reflects a more creative and intuitive side of me. The part that loves building something from scratch and shaping every detail of it. After years in structured corporate environments, I wanted to explore what it means to create something entirely from my own vision and go beyond my financial background. It was about testing myself in a completely news space, to see how far curiosity and creativity could take me, when I had full ownership over every decision.

Balancing both worlds has taught me a lot. In corporate life, I’ve learned discipline, structure, and strategic thinking. Through NOTTO, I’ve learned to trust my intuition more,  to adapt, and to lead from creativity and emotion rather than process. I decided to build many things directly myself, which helped me to learn across fields I am usually not exposed to. It also forced me to plan better and make choices every day on where to focus my energy and time.

It’s also given me a different kind of empathy as a leader. When you build something yourself, you understand every part of the journey - the risk, the excitement, the setbacks. That perspective has made me more grounded in how I lead teams in my corporate role."

Finance is often seen as numbers-driven, but real leadership goes far deeper. What do you believe sits behind the numbers in terms of mindset, values and purpose?

"I’ve always believed that numbers  are the outcome, not the starting point. What truly drives sustainable results is mindset. Curiosity to understand why things happen, empathy to see how decisions impact people and teams, and courage to make choices that balance short-term performance with long-term value.

Values also play a huge role. Integrity, transparency and accountability are my non-negotiables. They build trust which is a foundation of any strong organization. When people trust you, they share information openly, they take ownership and are willing to challenge constructively. And that’s when numbers start to truly reflect the health of the business, not just its performance.

Finally, I see finance as a function that should enable transformation, not just report the results. Our role is to connect business strategy, people and purpose, and to use numbers as a language to tell a story that drives better decisions."

How do you approach connecting financial decisions to the bigger picture, ensuring they support transformation, collaboration, and long-term growth? The role of finance continues to evolve, from traditional reporting to driving strategy, innovation, and sustainability. How do you see this shift shaping the next generation of finance leaders?

I see finance as a driver of transformation, not just a scorekeeper. Every financial decision should serve the business story, linking numbers to purpose and strategy. That’s why I always start with the why: what are we trying to achieve and how can financial choices enable that?

I strongly believe in co-creating with the business, rather than just approving or challenging from the distance, I prefer to sit with commercial or marketing teams to understand their challenges, build trust and make trade-offs consciously and not by default. From my experience, such approach builds ownership on both sides.

And finally, I think great finance leadership is often about courage. Protecting long-term vision when short-term pressure is high. In my opinion, finance should be a connector between strategy and results, and between different business teams.

4a. I think that the next generation of finance leaders will act as business architects who are insight-led, curious and entrepreneurial. They will translate data into stories that influence, stay close to business and operations and lead with integrity and empathy. Finance will no longer just report performance but it will continue shaping it.

What personal principles or habits have been most influential in shaping your mindset as a leader?

There are three key principles that have shaped me most as a leader: curiosity, integrity and empathy.

Curiosity has always been my starting point. As I mentioned before, I like to understand why things happen, why people make certain decisions, why results look the way they do, what sits behind the data. It keeps me open-minded and helps me connect numbers to overall business priorities and people behind it.

Integrity is something I truly don’t compromise on. I believe in being transparent, even when the truth is uncomfortable, and in taking ownership when things don’t go as planned. It builds trust, which for me is the foundation of any strong team, relationship or organization.

And empathy has probably been my biggest teacher and key principle. My corporate career and building something on my own taught me how deeply people are affected by their work. The excitement, the pressure, the headwins. As a leader I try to bring that understanding into how I support and challenge my teams.

For me leadership is not about control. It’s about connection, empowerment and helping others grow into their best potential.

You’ve worked across diverse teams and cultures. How do you adapt your leadership approach to bring out the best in people wherever you go?

"What helps me most is that I lead through empathy. I first listen and learn. To understand how people are wired, what drives them and what holds them back. I have learned that leadership could look differently across cultures, but people respond to authenticity and respect, wherever you go.

Working in international teams taught me to slow down and to create space for different voices to be heard. I take time to learn the context, understand the unspoken dynamics and the way people communicate and make decisions. I always try to create connections and space for real collaboration.

Something I’ve always enjoyed is bringing different strengths together and helping teams see how complimentary they can be. When you know how to blend those differences, that’s where the real magic happens. Trust is being build, collaboration flows and people perform at their best because they feel they belong."

Every career has its challenges. Can you share a moment that tested your resilience and what it taught you about yourself or your leadership?

"A moment that truly tested my resilience, came during a period of intense transition. My team was under-staffed, responsibilities were growing and so was the pressure. We were losing talent faster than I could replace it. I tried to fill gaps, taking over more operational tasks, trying to hold everything together.

Slowly, without even noticing, I started to lead from a place of pressure, rather than purpose. I became more controlling, more in the details and more convinced that “it is quicker if I just do it myself”. It was the opposite of the leader I used to be and the leader I inspired to become.

What that period thought me, was that resilience isn’t measured by how much you can personally carry. It’s measured by your own ability to provide clarity, empower others and hold the team steady without losing yourself. I realized that my job was not to absorb the chaos, but to transform it. To rebuild the trust, redistribute ownership and remind people in my team about the true value they create.

This moment truly reminded me that strength in leadership is not about doing more. It’s about enabling others to rise with you."

As a woman in finance, what has your experience been like navigating senior leadership spaces? What role has mentorship or sponsorship played in your journey, and how can leaders today support greater inclusion in finance?

"Navigating senior leadership as a woman in finance has been a journey of finding and owning my voice. Early in my career, I sometimes tried to adapt to the environment around me. Over time, I learned that my strength lies in staying true to myself by bringing a different kind of leadership. One that’s collaborative, more intuitive and people-focused while still driving performance and results.

In my experience, what makes a real difference is sponsorship, not just mentorship. My best bosses didn’t just advise me, they trusted me, advocated for me and opened doors. But I also had to learn how to ask for that support, how to make my voice matter, which doesn’t always come naturally for women.

I believe every finance leader has a role in inclusion: to spot talent, give people a voice, and back them visibly. Inclusion is not about programs or KPIs. It’s about everyday choices and the dialogue we create on both sides."

Looking back on your journey, what does success mean to you today, both professionally and personally?

"The meaning of success changed a lot for me over the years. When I was younger, it was mainly about progression, my next role, the next challenge, the next achievement. Today, it is much more about impact and alignment. Doing work that matters, leading in a way that inspires others, and most importantly, staying true to myself.

I feel successful when I manage to build teams that trust me, when I deliver results and outcomes that I am proud of and when I create environment where people can feel they can truly grow. It is also very much about balance, clarity and having the freedom to choose how I spend my time and energy."

If we meet again in five years, what story do you hope you’ll be telling about your journey?

"The meaning of success changed a lot for me over the years. When I was younger, it was mainly about progression, my next role, the next challenge, the next achievement. Today, it is much more about impact and alignment. Doing work that matters, leading in a way that inspires others, and most importantly, staying true to myself.

I feel successful when I manage to build teams that trust me, when I deliver results and outcomes that I am proud of and when I create environment where people can feel they can truly grow. It is also very much about balance, clarity and having the freedom to choose how I spend my time and energy."

 If you could share one “Precision Perspective” a lesson, insight or guiding belief that others could carry into their own careers, what would it be?

"I really love the quote that says “Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear”. This sentence truly captures every major turning point in my journey. Stepping into unfamiliar, moving on when I didn’t see the growth, changing countries and later, taking the leap to create my own business from nothing but an idea.

I have learned that growth rarely comes from certainty. It usually shows as discomfort, risk and even a quiet instinct that pulls us forward. And if you listen closely, it’s often pointing you in the direction you’ve meant to go.

For me the key lesson was, that courage is not the absence of fear. It is about doing it anyway, trusting that you’ll figure it out. Which most often, we do."

---

Ewelina’s journey demonstrates that meaningful leadership is built at the intersection of courage, curiosity and purpose. Whether shaping business strategy, empowering teams or creating a brand born from her own creativity, she continues to show what’s possible when growth is pursued with intention. Her story is still unfolding, and it’s clear she’s only just getting started.