Vantage Voices: Marina Grebenkova, Chief Data Officer

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, young Marina Grebenkova shed the notion that her future was fixed in place. She would no longer meet the expectations of a patriarchal culture. No longer would she be confined by the boundaries of State. No longer would her prospects be limited. The scales fell from her eyes. Marina’s horizons suddenly expanded to meet her own ambitions.

Running through Marina’s life is a common thread: courage. As a teen, she traveled 3000 miles from her mountainous home in the southern Russian Federation to the Republic of Ireland. She would study in Letterkenny, County Donegal and ultimately, cross the Republic’s border to earn her Masters in Computing and Information Systems from Ulster University in Belfast. She’d stay on the island for 20 years.