Monika Lemajic, the 74th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has some serious credentials.

Last year, Monika was listed at 13th in the Top 100 Women in Shipping for 2019 ranking – the only Australian to make the list.

Earlier this year, Monika finished in the top five in the international Student of the Year award for MBA students. This award is run by the Association of MBAs, which represents more than 250 business schools in dozens of countries – which means Monika was competing against thousands of incredibly smart, ambitious MBA students.

Monika works as a project manager in the shipping industry. Right now, she’s managing the refurbishment of a vessel. At other times, she oversees change management projects – making a shipyard more efficient, for example.

Monika is a deep thinker with a highly technical mind. When she sees something, she wants to understand the factors that caused it; and then she wants to understand the factors that caused those factors; and then the factors that caused the factors that caused the factors.

As a result, Monika says, her curious mind can take her wandering along all sorts of paths.