Five Minutes with Elena Prohaskova

Interview with the Director of JetBrains

What were the main reasons you chose Cyprus for your operations?

Our company was established in 2000 in the Czech Republic capital Prague. Since then, we have expanded all around the globe. We value the possibilities that Cyprus offers to both enterprise and employees. The favourable business climate and the dynamic environment were our two main reasons for choosing Cyprus as a new location. As a company, we strive to create the perfect environment for our employees and, with the sun and the sea here, who could possibly be unhappy in such a climate and beautiful nature?

 

How can Cyprus help JetBrains realise the company’s plans?

Cyprus has already helped us in many ways. We value the international community, the country’s rich history, the wide use of English, great schools and universities. At JetBrains offices around the world, we maintain a high standard of working environment. We can’t make customers happy if our own employees are not happy. Our offices boast gyms, kids’ areas and parking spaces for employees, as well as various entertainment and hobby rooms. We realise that it’s tricky to find an office in Paphos to precisely match our needs and, one day, we may decide to build our own office here. Hopefully, we won’t face a lot of obstacles if we choose to go down this road.

 

Which departments will operate here?

We plan to bring people of various professions and backgrounds here: software developers, graphic designers, marketing specialists and others. The Internet makes our work easy these days. A software developer working from Cyprus can collaborate easily with our teams in Boston or Amsterdam. Our people learned how to work remotely a long time ago. As we expanded, at some point it just wasn’t reasonable to have entire teams or departments located in a single country or even on a single continent. We find it attractive that people today can live and work anywhere. As a company, we help our employees to work efficiently, regardless of where they are based.

 

Do you have further plans for Cyprus at this moment? For example, expanding to other cities? 

Our short-term plan is to open offices in Paphos and Limassol. We are aware of the strong tech community in Limassol and Nicosia and so we hope to join the community in Limassol and build a vibrant tech community in Paphos, to become a so-called gravity point for other tech professionals and students. As for expanding to another cities – as the saying goes, never say never!

 

What role, in your opinion, can Cyprus play in the development of the technology sector?

Cyprus has created a diverse international environment for startups, business entrepreneurs, independent developers and big tech companies. We see this as a unique mix that can drive the technology sector. We appreciate the welcome we have received in Cyprus and we hope to become an integral part of the technology sector here. JetBrains’ motto is “The Drive to Develop!” and Cyprus has everything we need to make every aspect of this come true.

 

Elena Prohaskova Director of JetBrains
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