Jana Siber is a Group CEO for BES Group, a company providing risk management services for systems and operations to over 35,000 global customers. With an initial background in consulting, Jana developed an expertise in leading several companies in public transportation, energy, and engineering. Between work and leisure, Jana has visited nearly one hundred countries and enjoys traveling with her family. Jana has been a Member of C200 since 2025.
Eva Glassman: You recently started a new role as a Group CEO for BES Group. What’s something new about this role you’re looking forward to exploring?
Jana Siber: I am very excited about my new role. While I am very familiar with transformations of businesses with large frontline workforces, this is the first time I am facing this challenge within a private-equity owned business, which brings a whole set of new types of stakeholders as well as a much faster-paced dynamics.
EG: What has your career journey been like?
JS: I grew up in the Czech Republic, then came to the UK in my early twenties to study English and ended up staying to study Psychology at Oxford. When I was at university, I picked up a leaflet about management consulting, and I thought this was a fantastic opportunity for someone who doesn’t really know what they want to be.
When I graduated, I started my career as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture before going back to school to get my MBA at London Business School. Coming out of business school, I decided to go back to consulting and joined Bain, where I spent the next eight years.
After Bain, I joined Avis Budget Group—initially as a commercial strategy director and then going on to manage the franchise network of Avis Budget, initially EMEA. Eventually, I added Asia Pacific as well as Latin America to the company portfolio.
After about five years of managing the global franchise network, which is largely a commercial role, I really wanted to have full P&L responsibility. So, I joined Arriva, which is a UK-based public transport company with a heavy European presence. I became a Managing Director of Mainland Europe with a portfolio of fourteen countries. I started building on the skillset of managing large, frontline dispersed workforces.
This theme continued into my next job before my current role, which was Managing Director for British Gas Services. British Gas is the largest provider of heating solutions and services, with a workforce about 15,000—about half of which are gas engineers who install and provide maintenance and servicing for boilers, heat pumps, and other specialized equipment.
I came into British Gas about four years ago, and my remit was to fix the business; it was losing money, employee engagement was low, and customer complains very high. It took me just over three years to turn the business around both operationally and commercially. By the time I was ready for my next challenge, the business was profitable and growing again.
EG: You mentioned earlier that you didn’t know what you wanted to do for your career when you studied at Oxford. What are some lessons you learned throughout your career that helped you determine your career trajectory?
JS: I really had no clue what I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to go into business, but as a psychology grad, you don’t really know what business is. What attracted me to management consulting is that you don’t need to decide what you want to be; you work on different projects with different companies in different industries. I enjoyed getting in-depth experience in various, disparate areas of business.
I went back to school for my MBA, because I had a much better idea of what business is and wanted a more holistic view of how it is actually run. In particular, I was curious about the financial side and the impact you can have as a P&L manager.
During my MBA, I became torn between staying in consulting or going into industry. What I liked about consulting is that you get right in the room with the CEO talking global strategy; meanwhile, if I were to go into industry, I didn’t want to start quite low down in the organization.
My decision to go into industry happened during my eight years with Bain after my MBA. I realized that the larger the team, the longer the project—I enjoyed the work even more. I could see the impact I was making. It was a sure sign that I wanted to own a piece of business, to see and manage the results—not just implement the strategies.
Over the years, I became aware of my strengths: the combination of strategic thinking and people management. It wasn’t a sudden revelation but a slow discovery over the years. It helped me navigate which way I wanted to go.
Once I went into industry, I very quickly gathered I wanted to work in a CEO role. I asked myself: What does a good CEO need to have as a toolkit? From there, I selected roles that helped me develop that toolkit.
For example, managing hundreds of franchises across the world at Avis gave me a fantastic commercial toolkit. I learned how to deal with different cultures and influence organizations that didn’t necessarily report to me. While it was great strategic and commercial experience, I still felt lacking in operations, which is why I eventually left to join Arriva as Managing Director. There, I grew and managed a portfolio of fourteen Mainland European countries while looking at capital allocation and pressure testing strategies. On the people management side, I was building and swapping teams in various countries.
At this point, the last bit of experience I felt I needed was closeness to the frontline and to operations. That’s why my role at British Gas was so interesting to me; it allowed me to showcase my skills in strategic visions, people management, and execution.
EG: It’s refreshing to hear that there wasn’t a single moment in your career journey where you figured everything out. Learning what you want along the way, over a long period of time, is probably more common than we think—and something we should praise and encourage more.
JS: My daughter is at university at the moment, and she doesn’t know what she wants to be—and that’s absolutely okay. I always tell her that it’s okay to just try things; it doesn’t mean that you will end up doing it forever, but you won’t know whether it’s for you if you don’t try. While there are a few people who are fortunate enough to know what they wanted to be since they were nine, they’re in the minority.
EG: How did you become a C200 Member? What drew you to the organization?
JS: A CEO friend of mine and I were out to lunch with another colleague of ours, and we were talking about the different professional networks which we were a part of. This colleague mentioned C200, and I was immediately interested in terms of it being a group specifically for P&L leaders.
It’s a very specific experience to be a woman in a P&L ownership position, so I’m very eager to connect with more of these women. A lot of other networks I’ve been a member of also include functional leaders or skew heavily toward a particular industry or position. C200 has Members across a diverse range of industries and very specific criteria for P&L responsibility.
Let’s face it: being a CEO is a lonely job. You’ve got a team, but as the most senior person in the company, it’s quite difficult to find peers. Having networks where you can meet others is really important for that reason; however, many of these networks are overrun by men. While I’m happy being part of these networks, it’s important for women leaders to have dedicated spaces to connect as well.
EG: Were you able to connect with women throughout your career journey, or were many of your mentors men? In general, what was your experience like as a woman going up the career ladder?
JS: I didn’t have a formal woman mentor at any stage in my career. When I needed to figure certain things out, I would talk to peers or to my male mentors. I didn’t have a problem with talking to men going through similar experiences as me.
Generally speaking, management consulting has been quite ahead of the curve when it comes to gender diversity. When I joined Bain in 2005, there were 350 people at the company; while there were some women there, there wasn’t a woman partner at that point. I joined when my daughter was six months old, but I didn’t want people to know I had a baby; I feared they would look at me differently. I thought it would be better if they didn’t know, in part because I didn’t see many women with kids across that office.
However, fast-forward eight years, we had a large number of women partners, and many of our employees—men and women—were taking various part-time options to be with their families. It’s become so much better. It’s been quite interesting to watch that journey and how attitudes have changed in such a relatively short time.
When I talk to people now, I tell them that I was very much in my head about sharing whether I had a child when I first joined Bain as an MBA grad. I had my second child about four years into my time at Bain, and everyone was incredibly supportive when I went on maternity leave. Whether you decide to have kids and step back from your career, decide not to have kids, choose to work part-time or full-time—there are so many different models for women in the workplace, and it helps to see senior leaders exemplifying them.
I haven’t found a model that works 100% perfectly; there are always pros and cons to everything. For example, my part-time friends and colleagues tend to feel that they are ‘missing out’ on the job progression, the full-timers I know struggle more with the work-life balance and missing out on family life. Whatever you decide, having a support group of friends with similar issues always helps. Being able to talk with each other doesn’t fix any problems, but we all navigate things a bit easier knowing we aren’t alone.
Now, I always advise my mentees to just be kind to yourself. It’s tough, especially if you decide to go down the route of having children. Whatever route you decide, you will never feel like you’re winning—but you actually are. Many, many years later, you’ll see it. Don’t put yourself under too much pressure.
Having role models ahead of you in the company, women that you could see yourself being in a few years, is quite useful and helpful. Because I’ve been in traditionally male-dominated industries, I haven’t had that experience. There haven’t been many women I could look up to, which is why I sought out networks of friends and peers. They filled that gap, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out. However, looking back, it would have been nice to see someone at my company ahead of me who looked like me.
EG: What does being a “woman in business” mean to you? How do you apply that thinking to what you do and how you lead others?
JS: I like to think of myself first as a really good business leader. Then, I think of myself as a woman. However, that’s not how you get perceived; there will be a lot of perceptions and prejudices from others to deal with. As a woman in a very male-dominated industry such as public transport, car rentals, and gas engineering, you experience pros and cons. At first, people definitely looked and me and thought, “What does she know about buses and trains? About boilers?” You have to prove yourself a little bit more than the men, and that’s still the reality today.
However, because women generally have always had to prove ourselves more, we tend to be more capable. In many of my jobs, I’ve had some incredibly rewarding experiences where I can just say, “Yes, I’ve cracked it. Look, I did that.” It’s going to take many years before we really get rid of the differences in how women are perceived compared to men. There’s always an element of feeling like you have to be better than your male peers—just to be considered equally capable.
EG: When you aren’t busy at work, how do you like to spend your free time?
JS: My older child, a twenty-year old daughter, is at university, so I always enjoy when she comes to visit, or I visit her. My younger one, a son, is sixteen and still at that silent grunting stage! I try to be there as much as I can and not impose too many rules and regulations on him. We all still enjoy traveling together. Every year, we go somewhere different—just the three of us.
We also love to ski—although my partner is South African and not very much into skiing. We do a lot of hiking in the summers, especially in the different countries we’ve traveled to.
I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve traveled the world extensively, especially when I was in my global role at Avis. I don’t know how many countries I’ve been to, but I would imagine the number is nearing one hundred. I’ve gotten to go places normal tourists don’t get to see. If I were to return to a country I loved, I would go back to Japan. I love the juxtaposition of their ultra-modern cities with the rich history and tradition of their land and culture.
Having slightly older children means I actually have a lot of time for myself. I like to keep fit and belong to a rowing club, which is a lot of fun. It helps me stay active, but it’s also social. I also run—very slowly and infrequently—but I try to keep the cardio going. About a year ago, I got into resistance training as well.
EG: Besides what you mentioned about being kind to yourself, what advice do you have for aspiring women business leaders to advance their careers?
JS: The most valuable piece of advice I was given as a young woman is, when you are presented with an offer or task, always say yes and worry about it later. Your immediate thought will probably be, “I’m not sure if I can do this.” Ignore it and say yes. Take it. Panic about it later. The odds are; you’ll realize you can actually do it.
In general, women tend to play the cautious side. We tend to think analytically and explore why we aren’t the right person for the task. If you don’t have the confidence, “fake it ‘till you make it” really works—it’s the only way we can get on a level playing field with our male counterparts.
EG: “Fake it ‘till you make it” is something I’ve heard so many times before—but clearly, not enough of us are doing it if we’re still talking about it. You have to start doing the things you want to do, because otherwise, you’ll always be waiting to start.
JS: As women, we are often very capable, but don’t have the confidence or come across as having it. When I started just saying yes—not letting myself begin to doubt or question—I proved to myself again and again that I can do more than I ever thought. Always leading with, “Yes, absolutely, I can do this,” even if you don’t believe it in the moment, is actually really helpful.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.