Action woman Magda Magda Kulakowska has landed her “dream job” at a care organisation.
Magda says her role as the newly-appointed financial controller at Pendine Park, which has seven homes and employs more than 850 people in Wrexham and Caernarfon, is about a lot more than number crunching.
The 41-year-old is already reaping a huge sense of job satisfaction from seeing the “very human” impact of her work.
She said: “There is a genuine determination among everyone at Pendine Park to do the very best they can for the people in our care.
“That spreads throughout every department in the organisation from office-based administrative staff to clinical and care practitioners.
“I feel so much more connected with the people side of the business, the very human orientated impact of every decision we take. That is such a fulfilling position to be in and unlike any of my other roles in the finance sector.”
Magda is now heading up an 11-strong team in Pendine Park’s financial department based at Bromfield House, Wrexham, having previously worked for five years with another Wrexham based company, Disclosure Services, where she was deputy financial controller.
She studied marketing and management in Poland, then gained her accounting qualifications at Coleg Cambria, Wrexham. Following that she went on to study for chartered accreditation in Manchester.
A bicycle loving, paddle boarding adventurer, she said she never calculated on finding a career in North Wales more than 20 years ago when she left school at Szczecin, near the German border in Poland – but now she is here she feels right at home.
“I feel like it was pure luck which brought me to Wales and I am so glad it did,” she said. “It’s not something I ever planned or even figured on but I’ve ended up with a job I love in a land I love.”
Magda and her partner Filip Stecki, who works at Arla Foods in Oswestry, grew up in the same town.
She said: “We are both outdoors types, country lovers. We have a camper van and we love to hop in it and travel around North Wales whenever we can.”
While the nuts and bolts of finance are the same wherever you work, she believes the job at Pendine Park is “intrinsically different”.
Magda added: “Having been into the care homes, chatted to residents first hand, and met the care staff I have come away so in awe of the work they do. That is something which will not leave me and gives me a sense of achieving for others.
“At the heart of every decision we make is the question of how this will impact on the lives of our residents, their carers and families.
“I will every day go home happy if in my new role here I can even in a small way contribute to making people’s lives better. It’s a dream job for me.”
Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft MBE welcomed Magda to the management team.
He said: “Magda’s expertise, knowledge and experience will make a wonderful addition to Pendine.
“I am confident she will provide a strong and reassuring presence at a very important time in the history of our organisation as we recover from the impact of the pandemic and look forward to the future with renewed optimism.
“Her skills and experience will add value to the team and I know we can count on her to manage our financial compliance.”
