I think this is the first time my writing comes two months after the interview itself. There are, of course, many reasons, summer included but I have also been waiting for the right mood, the right stars, because this conversation was so extraordinary and I want all of you to be part of it.

So today, on Estonia’s Restoration of Independence Day, I feel I’m finally in exactly the right mood to take on this inspiring challenge and portray Chloe to you.

First of all, I have to say that I’m a happy person myself. I smile a lot and tend to share positivity. But Chloe… I can’t even describe how much more of all of that she is.

Honestly, you can feel when she enters a room. It fills with sunshine and stars, sun and moon, flowers and trees, everything at once.

And after hearing her story and understanding where she comes from, I’m not surprised at all.

Chloe grew up in a family of five children. Her father is a doctor, her mother a pharmacist. Both studied abroad, and all five children were encouraged to discover the world and find their own happy place.

And this is exactly what Chloe has been doing ever since. And she’s been so damn good at it.

Sometimes other people see our superpowers first

Surprisingly, Chloe tells me that she didn’t always really know she had this contagious, magnetic energy. She has only recently started recognising it herself, largely through the eyes of other people.

One piece of feedback she cherishes especially came from Efi (make sure you read Snappi Journal #7!) whom Chloe considers an absolute role model. Efi was one of the women to reflect this quality back to her.

Sometimes, it seems, we need other people to wake us up to what has always been there.

Chloe strikes me as one of those mature old souls who can trust the moment and go with the flow. But underneath that lightness is enormous boldness and a very hands-on attitude and I suspect some of it came directly from home.

At eight years old, she was already helping her mother collect medicines to be sent to Uganda. Her father travelled there twice a year to offer his medical services and help people, and Chloe accompanied him a couple of times.

Just think about that childhood.

But Chloe is also honest enough to see the other side of it. When your parents are deeply occupied with helping other people and other children, as a small child you may inevitably wonder: Aren’t we enough?

She thinks this may also have contributed to the enormous drive she developed to achieve something on her own.

Perhaps our greatest strengths rarely come from one simple place.

Fifteen years away and the road back

Chloe’s journey eventually took her to London and Amsterdam, where she spent 15 years before returning to Greece and joining Snappi.

But wait until you hear about her education.

Chloe studied Philosophy and Social Studies at the University of Crete and later earned a master’s degree in history of art at the University of London.

Now I’m jealous.

What a background.

And doesn’t it almost seem as if she somehow knew in advance that these would become superpowers in the AI era?

As AI increasingly helps us with routine and technological tasks, we need humans who can think for themselves, make decisions, connect seemingly unrelated things, and see different perspectives.

I think that’s one reason Chloe thrives at Snappi.

She’s quick. Solution-oriented. Smart. Witty. And such a positive person that everyone wants to be around her.

When I ask what her own superpowers are, she’s genuinely modest about it. Again, I detect some Estonian traits here. 🙂

She thinks for a moment.

“Sometimes you have to be woken up by others to see it. I don’t have any fear. I think I’ll figure things out. I’ll find the right person who knows the answer. I’m good at connecting people and uplifting the energy. I approach every challenge in life as an opportunity. Now that I’m a little older, I feel that whatever comes, I can manage it.”

There it is.

Whatever comes, I can manage it.

Making other people’s lives easier

It might seem almost accidental that someone with Chloe’s background started her career in Customer Support.

I don’t think it was accidental at all.

Because another thread runs through Chloe’s entire story: she wants to make other people’s lives easier.

It was there at Booking.com.

And it’s what she’s doing at Snappi today.

Chloe describes Snappi very simply: either you love it or you hate it. A fintech environment isn’t for everyone.

When I ask my legendary spontaneous question—What is Snappi in one word?—she answers immediately:

Creativity.

Interestingly, Efi used exactly the same word.

I consider this a very good sign.

Previously, Chloe says, she might have chosen innovative. But now, as Snappi approaches its first anniversary on September 8, she is confident that creativity describes it better.

Because we use our own people’s minds and creativity to figure things out in the best possible way.

Of Snappi’s five values, the one Chloe identifies with most strongly is results-driven. But even that, for her, comes back to people.

We don’t have endless bureaucracy. Things get done quickly. And that comes from the environment and the people we’ve created around us.

No 9-to-5 life, thank you

It also feels as though Chloe has naturally grown towards the role she has today as Head of PMO at Snappi.

And oh my God, the number of projects we’re running simultaneously…

Looking back at her career, Chloe somehow always attracted the most challenging and demanding roles since Booking.com and Palo Alto Networks afterwards. Or perhaps they attracted her.

Either way, she admits that a conventional 9-to-5 job was probably never going to be enough for her.

So she kept rolling and rolling.

Along the way came extensive training and leadership programmes through Booking.com’s own university, huge workloads, lots of fun, lifelong friendships she still treasures today, and opportunities that opened door after door.

One thing she particularly loved about living and working in Amsterdam was the feeling that everybody could be successful and appreciated, whether you were a banker, civil servant, plumber, or cleaner.

She misses that in Greece.

There are still prejudices and stereotypes attached to certain professions.

I’m completely with Chloe on this one. I feel exactly the same about Estonia.

And then she stopped climbing

Eventually, Chloe realised something.

Climbing can become a trap.

Climbing, climbing, climbing.

At some point, she wanted to pause and look at life from another perspective.

She had always dreamed of returning to Greece. By then her and her husband had two children, and Chloe wanted them to experience the source of energy she herself had grown up with.

So she started looking for jobs in Greece.

And there it was.

Snappi.

She saw the post, contacted connections who happened to work here, and the rest is history.

There she is now.

OUR CHLOE.

“Drive can bring you anywhere you want. I understood it really late. Before, I let things go and karma take me anywhere.”

But Chloe’s bond with Snappi is deeply personal, and she knows it isn’t the same for everybody.

“Snappi is the place that brought me back to where my energy originates from. It was the perfect bridge for me.”

Even the fact that English is part of everyday life at Snappi matters to her. The life she built abroad hasn’t disappeared; she carries it with her while simultaneously being home.

And perhaps the most important thing of all is that Snappi’s hybrid way of working allows her to work from her birthplace, Rethymno.

That means immensely much to her.

And unsurprisingly, when I ask Chloe for her favourite place anywhere in Greece, there is no competition.

Rethymno.

Home.

The place where her energy originates.

From banking nightmare to empowering tool

When we finally talk about what Chloe wishes Snappi could become for Greek people, her answer brings everything together.

She doesn’t want people to experience Snappi as a nightmare—which, she says, is still how many Greeks experience banking.

Greece has been through a lot.

Instead, she wants Snappi to become an inspiration for people to improve their financial lives.

“I honestly want people to see Snappi as an empowering tool and as part of their lives.”

I love this.

Not a bank people have to deal with.

A tool that helps them live.

And perhaps this is where Chloe’s personal story and the Snappi story meet most beautifully.

She spent years climbing, achieving, moving, learning, managing complexity and discovering what she was capable of.

And eventually she came home.

Not because she stopped being ambitious.

Perhaps because her definition of ambition changed.

By the end of our conversation, Chloe tells me what “living the dream” means to her:

“My dream is to feel complete and happy with whatever is around me—and not to want more. Sometimes reaching your dream can be the reverse.”

I think about this sentence long after our conversation ends.

Perhaps living the dream isn’t always about getting somewhere else.

Sometimes it’s recognising that you’ve already arrived.

The interviews are written by Piret Reinson, Snappi’s Director of Corporate Communications, originally from Tallinn, Estonia. So don’t be surprised if you spot a few Estonian hints here and there.