James Cvetkovski

Background

About James Cvetkovski

I grew up in a family of high-achievers. My father, an emigrant of then-Yugoslavia, instilled me with a very high level of personal expectation; the way a good European father does. He himself came to Australia with nothing and built his way into Government-level consultancy. So that's where the bar was set for me. It's a bit of a curse, but I'm interested in bloody-well everything. Once something takes my interest, I'm hellbent on figuring out how it works, and how it else it can work. I guess it was fitting for a curious brain to find its way into a science degree. I thrived in that environment, soaking up as much understanding of the mechanics that sustain life as I could. Thankfully, I came out of that rabbithole with a greater appreciation for what it is to be human, and found myself drawn towards working with people more than with pipettes. While I enjoyed the knowledge, working behind a lab bench was not for me. My next move into Clinical Research saw me working at bedside with trial participants. A high-pressure environment that demanded razor-sharp time management and personal accountability stepped things up a notch. I honed my skills in quality control, process improvement, and people-management, thriving under the pump. What captured me most about this role was the communication and leadership needed to excel. Following my departure from Clinical Research, I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in the President Ivanov School of Leadership in 2017 in Ohrid, Macedonia. In it, 40 young participants learnt from some of the world's top minds how to lead the world into the next chapters. Surrounded by like-minded doers and changers, I knew I was in the right environment. From this point, I am now seeking leadership and management experience to further my aspirations in global leadership. I intend to undertake my MBA in 2019 in line with my goals. In my downtime, I'm a musician, occasional writer for Medium, and amateur Euro-history buff.