Kristel Leif
KRISTEL LEIF on haridusprojekti Solaride tegevjuht ning on olnud eelnevalt seotud ka pangandussektoriga, kus ta töötas 10 aastat müügi- ja turundusvaldkonnas ning juhtis erinevaid meeskondi. Ta on lõpetanud Tartu Ülikoolis ajaloo bakalaureuseõppe ning omandanud magistrikraadi Tallinna Ülikoolis organisatsioonikäitumise erialal.
Solaride kujutab endast interdistsiplinaarset ja ülipraktilist probleemõppe projekti, mille raames valmis 2021. aastal Baltikumi esimene päikeseauto. Kolme aasta jooksul on projektiga seotud olnud üle 300 noore ning Kristeli sõnul arendataksegi päikeseautot just selleks, et inimesi arendada. Seetõttu tegeleb Solaride praktilise õppe kõrvalt ka Solaride Akadeemia koolitus- ja mentorprogrammi ülesehitamise ja elluviimisega. Solaride’il on peagi valmimas ka järgmise generatsiooni masin, millega plaanitakse oktoobris võistelda maailma tippülikoolidega Austraalias toimuval päikeseautode maailmameistrivõistlustel Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Kristel ise on Solaride’i projektiga seotud olnud 2020. aasta algusest, mil alustas seal tööd turundusmentorina ja aitas Solaride’i brändi üles ehitada.
Lisaks sellele on Kristel ka 4-aastase Jete ema ning peab seetõttu suureks väljakutseks leida tasakaal isikliku- ja pereelu ning Solaride’i vahel. Kristel armastab ka väga lugeda ning usub, et äri- ja eneseabiraamatute kõrval on oluline lugeda ka ilukirjandust, sest see arendab loovust, silmaringi ning keeleoskust, millest neil noortel, kes valdavalt ainult ärimaailmast kõnelevatele raamatutele keskenduvad, sageli vajaka jääb. Ise kirjeldab Kristel ennast võimaluste otsija, innovaatori ja kujundajana ehk teisisõnu, inimesena, keda sütitab võimalus luua midagi uut ja enneolematut ning teha asju varasemast teisiti. “Seda võimalust on Solaride mulle aastate jooksul kuhjaga pakkunud,” ütleb ta.
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KRISTEL LEIF is the CEO of the educational project Solaride and has a decade-long experience in the banking sector where she worked in the sales and marketing department and led different teams. She has a bachelor’s degree in history (University of Tartu) and a master’s degree in organisational behavior (Tallinn University).
Solaride is an interdisciplinary education and cooperation project which developed and built in 2021 the first solar car in the Baltic states. Since 2020, more than 300 students have been involved with the project and Kristel states that for Solaride the development of a solar car is, in its essence, also a tool for developing future talents and popularising technology education. For that reason, Solaride has a goal of creating a unique learning platform “Solaride Academy”. Furthermore, Solaride plans to build a next-generation solar car that would compete against the other solar cars constructed by the world's top universities in October 2023 in Australia Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Kristel has been a member of the Solaride team since the beginning of 2020 when she started working there as a marketing mentor and helped to develop the project’s brand.
In addition, Kristel is also a mother to a 4-year-old Jete and thus challenges herself to find a healthy balance between her personal and family life and Solaride. She also loves to read and believes that besides reading books about business and self-help it is also important to read fiction because the latter cultivates creativity, general knowledge, and language skills, which those young people who only focus on business handbooks are often in great need of. Kristel sees herself as a seeker of opportunities, an innovator, and a designer or in other words, as a person who is excited to create something new and do things differently than they have been done before. “Solaride has offered me loads of these kinds of opportunities in the previous years,” she states.