Welcome to Combient Foundry, Kalinda Xie!
Arttu Närhi
Kalinda Xie joined our Business Development team in January. We sat down with her to talk about her background and what got her to join the team.
It has been a busy start at Foundry for Kalinda. She jumped on board right before the first global cycle of the year was launched. Moreover, the local cycle in China was wrapping up, and Kalinda found herself deeply involved in that too.
“I was able to dive straight into the new opportunities from Autoliv, whilst hosting Value Proposition Days with the KONE team in China,” she recalls her first few weeks on the job. “I’m thrilled with the level of responsibility and trust the team placed in me from such an early stage.”
The start of it all was busy but hardly unwelcoming. Kalinda feels she was part of the team right from the word go. “The team has welcomed me with open arms!” she exclaims.
Before Foundry, Kalinda worked in strategy consulting and TMT investment banking in London. It’s there where she discovered her passion for technology. She then came across Combient Foundry and was impressed by what the team had accomplished in the few years since launch. “I am excited with new ideas whilst also getting a kick out of following through and building something interesting from the scratch,” Kalinda says. She is currently pursuing a degree in computer science.
Kalinda chose to join Foundry because she found herself drawn to the pragmatic approach the team uses.
“I want to be part of enabling critical transformations with the venture client approach,” she says. “Partnering Foundry companies with the best startup solutions efficiently, and facilitating the progress into real production, is a great way of speeding up industry transformations.”
It’s been a fast start, with plenty of responsibility in an extremely interesting area. Kalinda has settled into her new work comfortably and her favorite features of the position are easy to spot.
“I’m amazed by the depth of understanding our team has of the Foundry companies needs,” she says. “As well as the breadth of exposure to the startups and technologies out there. Working at Foundry is every bit like I imagined it to be.”