Christian and Verena are from Austria, living and working in Montreal since 2022. It's their second time being an ICC in Canada. Both times they made the move because of a once in a lifetime opportunity for Christian to represent Austria and the Abis group at ICAO (International civil aviation organization), an UN specialized agency for aviation. Verena's and Christian's professional background are in the field of air and space and they worked in Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Vorarlberg. Not always in the same place they had a commuting flexpat life for 8 years, before they decided to make Montreal their joint home once again.
Key Takeaways:
- Your expat dual careers can take you to new locations and different locations in flexible ways you could not have anticipated.
- Address your situation with your organisations at significant times and as early as possible.
- Organisations needs to manage dual careers and care for the management of their employee's personal situation in a professional way.
- Have a plan, communicate very early, have a plan for what is to happen after the assignment (repatriation is hard), be in constant contact with your organisation, be prepared to serve yourself.
- Individuals, organisations and labour markets can benefit if the topic of dual careers is better managed and sustainable HR policies are implemented.
A little more about our guests:
Verena studied law at the University of Innsbruck and has been working in the public sector since 2003. Initially in aviation, she moved to the Technology and Innovation Section in 2017, where she worked in the area of Space affairs as a senior policy officer. In 2019 Verena moved to Brussels to work at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU as Attachée for Space, Technology and Innovation and since October 2022 she lives and works in Montreal, Canada, working remotely for the BMK in the area of Aviation and Space Technologies.
Due to these career transitions Verena experienced the different facets of expat life, starting her first time living and working abroad in 2009 following her partner to Canada, after which she repatriated for 5 years to Austria before expatriating once again towards Brussels for 3 years, having a "flexpat"-dual career setup commuting between Vienna as the homebase, Brussels and Paris, where her husband worked. In 2022 they decided to make a joint move once again back to Montreal where Verena and her husband currently live and work.
Her focus lies in networking and advocating for new HR-policies in order to untap the full potential of dual car(e)ers. It is her passion to support expats during their transition phases (outgoing or incoming) and she has already successfully set up non-profit organizations for expats in Canada and Austria (MTL and VIE LESA, XIPAT).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verena-heingaertner/
Website: www.xipat.at
Christian Schleifer-Heingärtner started his aviation career over 33 years ago as Avionics Maintenance Engineer. And since 2022 he is the Austrian Representative on the Council of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), a specialised United Nations organisation based in Montreal,Quebec. He has already been on an assignment to ICAO from 2009 to 2013, which was the first time ever to take on an assignment abroad serving as an Air navigation commissioner (ANC) and later on president of the ANC, where he was responsible for developing Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in the fieldof Air Navigation and Safety. Before relocating to Canada, Christian was an expat in Paris/France from 2014 to 2022, where he acted as the Director General and CEO of EUROCAE, a leading international Standard Developing Organisation (SDO), specialised in high quality and safety critical aviation standards.
Prior to his posting at ICAO in 2009, Christian was in charge of Aircraft and Equipment Certification,Airworthiness and Operational Requirements at the Austrian Civil Aviation Authority (Austro Control).
After his return from ICAO 2013, he was involved in the strategic development of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) part of Austro Control, contributing to the European and Global Air Navigation modernisation programmes, but he left Austria after this short repatriation period and joined EUROCAE in Paris.
In support of the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP), Christian initiated the establishment of a department for Aviation Electronics (Avionic) at Vienna´s Donaustadt-Akademie. He is also an academic lecturer for Aviation at the Joanneum, University of Applied Science in Graz/Austria.
Christian has a background in Electronic Engineering and holds a Commercial Pilot License (CPL),actively flying single and multi-engine aircrafts. Beside his technical and operational aviationbackground, he holds a Global Executive MBA in Economics from the University of Minnesota andthe Vienna University. He complemented his education with several management trainings at MIT,Mc Gill and other Universities.
www.linkedin.com/in/schleiferchristian