Alexandra Hendrickson serves as Executive Vice President in DHR International's Shanghai office, helping clients hire highly-qualified leaders for today's international marketplace. DHR International is the fifth largest retained executive search firm in the United States and has over 50 locations worldwide.
For four years prior to moving to Shanghai in January 2009, Alexandra conducted search at DHR International's office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Before joining DHR International, Alexandra was an executive at PPG Industries, Inc. in the Industrial and Automotive Coatings divisions. As General Manager, OneSourceCoatings.com, she built and operated PPG Industries' first and only e-commerce business. Alexandra also held positions as PPG's Director, Marketing and New Business Development, Automotive Coatings, in Troy, Michigan, and Director, Marketing and Business Development, Industrial Coatings Europe in Paris, France where she was responsible for new business development and marketing for Industrial Coatings for all of Europe.
Earlier, Alexandra held senior executive posts in the Card Division of American Express Company in New York City. As Director, Airline Marketing, she managed American Express Card marketing relationships with airlines worldwide and met annual business volume and share goals for the $12 billion business.
Alexandra was also previously a commercial lending officer at Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) in New York where she built relationships with Fortune 500 corporations, insurance companies and banks and managed a $600 million portfolio of loans.
Alexandra has an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a BA in Economics and History from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Expat Women's Interview with Alexandra
Expat Women: Alexandra, your biography reads like a leapfrogging account of one fantastic position after another. Please share with us some insight into how some of these opportunities presented themselves and how you ended up in Shanghai today.
Alexandra:I have a fascination with emerging-from-Communism countries, so in 1991 when friends invited me to help them start a business in Budapest, Hungary, right after the Berlin Wall came down, I went. I helped my friends start the Budapest Business Journal – the first English-language business newspaper in Central Europe. It was an immediate success.
Then I was hired to manage a privatization assistance portfolio for USAID at the US Embassy in Budapest. I managed $21 million of taxpayer dollars to help the Hungarian Privatization Agencies restructure companies and banks in order to sell them.
After almost five years in Budapest, I was hired by PPG Industries, a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of glass, chemicals and coatings to help it evaluate acquisition and joint venture opportunities in Central Europe. During my first PPG assignment as Director of Business Development in Europe (based in Paris), I helped PPG negotiate a joint venture with a company in Slovenia that is still going strong.
In 2000, PPG transferred me from Paris to Detroit, Michigan where I was Director Marketing and Business Development for Automotive Coatings. PPG later relocated me to Pittsburgh.
I joined DHR International five years ago in its Pittsburgh office. DHR may not be as well known as some of its larger competitors (like Korn Ferry) but that is because we are much newer. Founded in 1991, DHR has grown very fast.
In 2007-2008, I filled five positions for Mandarin speakers – three in the United States and two I referred to DHR's office in Shanghai. As a result of filling these searches, I developed a good relationship with the Shanghai office. They invited me to come and work here last year. I did not wait to be asked twice! My business was pretty slow in the United States during the Global Financial Crisis and this seemed like a fantastic opportunity.
Expat Women: What do you consider to be your greatest career highlights and why?
Alexandra: My greatest career highlights have been starting new businesses. At American Express Company, I led several successful business start-ups for programs that enhanced the American Express Card.
Starting the Budapest Business Journal in Hungary was also unforgettable. We worked 24 hours a day and slept on the floor of the office. But after six months, our subscribers included the World Bank, the EBRD, Goldman Sachs in London and New York. Everyone wanted to be in on the privatization action in Hungary but no one wanted to learn the language. Everyone read the Budapest Business Journal to get the inside story.
Expat Women: What would you class as your biggest career challenges and how did you overcome them?
Alexandra: When I moved with DHR International to Shanghai from Pittsburgh, I knew no one, nothing, no place and could not speak the language. It was not clear I could succeed here.
My first clients were my wonderful loyal Pittsburgh clients who needed to hire managers in Asia. I have also succeeded by building and expanding my other business networks. For example I was president of the Wharton Club of Western Pennsylvania, so here I have organized events and found new opportunities to network with the Shanghai Wharton Alumni. I also was involved in some civic activities in Pittsburgh. In Shanghai, I have just been invited to join the Pennsylvania-China Business Council sponsored by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. By building on my existing US networks, I re-built my client base here and overcame the challenge of moving to Shanghai.
Expat Women: How do you compare working in Hungary versus working in China?
Alexandra: I lived in Budapest, Hungary, from 1992 to 1997. In some ways, my experiences in China are similar. For example, Hungary and China share a preoccupation with bureaucracy, paperwork and stamps (or "chops" as they are called in China). This seems to be a legacy of Communism.
When I arrived in Hungary in 1992, all the women were wearing the exact same grey coats and all the men wore the same green suits. There was nothing in the stores. All the store windows featured old pipe fittings and second-hand appliances – nothing you would ever want to buy. You could not buy cheese, foreign perfumes or Western appliances. There were few English speakers, no useful directories in English, barely working phones, not much. The Westerners all went to Vienna to shop. We called it "sanity leave". By 1997 when I left, everyone was driving BMWs and talking on cell phones. And now Hungarian woman have the reputation of being exquisitely chic. The dreary grey coats are long gone.
I came to Shanghai in 2009 with the idea that it would be exactly like Budapest in 1992. I packed my Swiss Army Knife and was prepared to "make do" just like then. But Shanghai has been transformed since 1995. I feel that I am living in a sophisticated global city. It is just like New York or Paris – just much, much bigger. Unlike Hungary in 1992, China still has a Communist government. But Hungary in 1992 felt much more "foreign", exotic, remote and closed.
Expat Women: Alexandra, what would be your top five tips for women looking for executive positions abroad.
Alexandra:
1.
The best strategy you can adopt is to be posted by your own company to an international assignment. When you are relocated by your employer, all of your major expenses (including moving costs, housing, children's education and tax equalization) should be covered by your employer. Also you will need the support of your company to obtain work and residency visas, particularly in a country like China where the visa application process is long, tedious and mysterious.
2.
Companies are most likely to send their business leaders (as opposed to staff leaders), so position yourself in the business management career path. Skills and experience in sales, business development, product management, finance and supply chain are most valuable to companies that are growing internationally. Companies are most likely to send people who have been with them a long time, know the brand and the business.
3.
In order to win an international assignment with your company, you should let your management know that you are interested. Express your enthusiasm for an international assignment loudly and regularly.
4.
If you work for a large company, get to know the international business heads. Look for opportunities to work with them. For example, do you need to prepare a global sales proposal for one of your clients? Use this opportunity to involve your colleagues in your international offices. It might be time-consuming and slow things down but it is worthwhile in the long run. Your foreign office colleagues will get to know you and trust you. When it is time for them to advocate someone to be relocated from head office, they will often think of you first. This is exactly how I got from Pittsburgh to Shanghai with DHR International.
5.
Learn a language, preferably one spoken by a lot of people, such as Spanish or Chinese. Take advantage of any opportunity you have to study abroad. This will allow you to meet people who share your passion and who may have opportunities for you later.
Expat Women: Finally, please share with us your impressions this year of the World Expo 2010 City: Shanghai.
Alexandra:The Shanghai Expo is a fantastic, unique event. I encourage everyone to see this astonishing, huge exhibition before it closes at the end of October. It is one-stop tourism. You can visit the entire world here on the banks of the Huangpu River.
In terms of the economic environment, manufacturing is driving Shanghai's economy now, however, the Chinese government has set a goal for Shanghai to become a future global financial center. I notice that when the Chinese government makes a public commitment, they make good on it, so I expect that, in the next ten years, China will reform its currency and Shanghai will become a major financial center as well as manufacturing hub. This will create even more opportunities for expatriate women interested in working in China.
Expat Women: Alexandra, thank you very much for sharing your expat and career experiences. We congratulate you on your career achievements and wish your Shanghai assignment all the very best!
