Spotlight: Elena Biryukova

Here’s what she said about her career:

Describe your job at Honeywell and why it’s so important.

Our solutions help ensure people come home safe from workplaces to their families. I’m responsible for sales development of our Personal Protection Equipment and I manage a large professional sales team in all parts of Russia and The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). I travel extensively – I’ve been to more than 80 countries – and meet with a variety of end users and distributors for our products.

Describe your career path at Honeywell.

I joined Honeywell in 2012 as a National Product Sales Manager and by early 2013 I was promoted to the role of Key Account Manager responsible for the largest distributors in Russia and CIS. In 2016, I moved into a Territory Sales Manager position with leadership responsibilities. In 2019, I took on a broader position as the Sales Leader for Russia and CIS, managing 15 sales and business development people.

How does Honeywell promote a diverse workplace?

It is important to understand that we are all different in this world. We need to be able to adapt to each other and use our differences to the benefit of the company and our clients. The company has diversity everywhere: business, people, culture, gender, race and outlook.  It is important that a company has leadership diversity, providing equal career opportunities and further business education for everyone. 

How has the company helped you to develop?

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the company’s role in my career development. The influence of internal processes and training, as well as the support of my immediate supervisors, has been the key to my development as a sales leader.  The professional support helps me understand and solve sales and marketing issues in Russia. The broad global expertise of the company helps me widen the horizons of my business education and understand the complexity of integrated business processes.

What do you enjoy most about leading people?

I would describe it like a family. I am sometimes like an elder sister to my sales and development colleagues, offering them guidance and support. I enjoy that I can really help them: We learn from each other and achieve great results as one team.