To mark International Women’s Day (March 8), we spotlight four women leaders at Yanolja who are shaping the global travel tech industry.

As product builders, team leaders, and pioneers of new markets, they are driving change from their respective roles.
Through this series, we share their honest stories—from the beginnings of their careers to their journeys as women leaders, and the messages they hope to pass on to the next generation.

Meet the leaders who are forging their own paths at Yanolja, where innovative AI technology meets travel.

Meet the Leaders | Yanolja’s Women in Tech

― Mihaela Logofatu, Yanolja Go Global Head of Operations

Where My Journey Began

Where did your career journey begin?

My career started 20 years ago on cruise ships, literally. I wanted to see the world, and travel gave me that. What I didn't expect was how much it would teach me about people, adaptability, and leading in high-pressure environments. From there, I moved into travel tech and never looked back. I built the Romania market almost from scratch with a laptop and a lot of determination, and grew it to over €50M in turnover and a team of around 70 people. That blueprint later expanded across multiple global markets, while I was leading the sales department, which still feels surreal when I think about it.

What were some of the challenges you faced as a female leader in tech, and what unique strengths did you discover within yourself along the way?

The challenges? Being the youngest person in the room, often the only woman, and sometimes both at once. There were moments where I had to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. But those moments also showed me what I'm made of. I discovered that empathy isn't a soft skill, it's a superpower and that hard-work is an incredible ability in high performance environments. It also showed me that the ability to genuinely connect with people, understand what drives them, and create environments where they feel safe to grow, that's what moved mountains for me more than any title or strategy deck ever did. And over time, I stopped measuring my success by my own output and started measuring it by how many leaders I helped build around me.

Why Travel Tech — Why Yanolja

What inspired you to join Yanolja—the intersection of Tech and Travel?

Honestly, tech and travel is the only space where I've ever felt completely at home. Travel taught me humanity, and tech gives me the tools to scale it. When the opportunity came to join YGG GoGlobal, it felt like the natural next step. A global stage, a company that was genuinely evolving, and a real chance to build something meaningful at scale.

What changes or possibilities excite you most about working at Yanolja?

What excites me most right now is transformation, operational transformation, specifically. We're talking about taking a team of hundreds of people across 30+ offices and building something that's not just efficient, but genuinely excellent. Automation, AI, smarter processes, but always with people at the center that hold the relationships in this B2B environment. I genuinely believe technology is an amplifier of good leadership, not a substitute for it. The next decade will be shaped by leaders willing to evolve, and that's exactly the change I'm here to drive.

To the Women Who Lead Next

What is one piece of advice you’d give to future female leaders? You can think of it as something you would say to your younger self.

If you don’t get a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. Seriously. Don't wait for permission to lead. Don't shrink yourself to make others comfortable.
I think about this a lot now that I'm raising two daughters, 7 and 9. I want them to grow up knowing that ambition and kindness aren't opposites, that you can be warm and strong because the world needs more women who are both. My advice to my younger self: YOU CAN be strong and you can be kind! Embrace change and build resilience, be obsessed with details, it will make the difference.

One Word That Defines Me

If you had to define yourself in ‘one word’, what would it be?

“I’m Mihaela, an Empathetic Disruptor. I lead with heart, but I'm not afraid to shake things up.”

👀 LinkedIn Profile | Mihaela Logofatu, Yanolja Go Global Head of Operations