Julianna Gulden, Senior Manager for Global Communications at Graphisoft

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, my childhood was similar to that of the other kids of Hungarian refugees: Hungarian school on Monday nights, Hungarian scouts on Friday nights, and Hungarian folk dance lessons somewhere between the two.

After graduating from Cleveland’s John Carroll University in 1986, I headed to Washington, DC where I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve as a White House intern in the Office of Public Liaison. Fascinating jobs at the Republican National Committee, Bush-Quayle ’88 campaign, and the State Department followed.

In 1991, I, along with many others of Hungarian origin, traveled to Budapest to witness firsthand the historic end of Communism in Eastern Europe. The original plan was to stay for two years, return to the States, and leverage the international experience. However, as the saying goes, ‘life got in the way’ and I ended up spending 27 years — half my life — in Europe.

I joined the world’s leading PR agency at the time, Burson-Marsteller, in Budapest as a freelancer, rising through the ranks to become Managing Director in 1995. The opportunity to purchase the local office came in 1998, and we continued to lead the pack as we had done for many years. I went back to freelancing in 2002, managing a small but stable portfolio of clients ranging from architectural software to pharmaceuticals.

In 2018, after 27 years abroad — and 32 years away from Cleveland — I returned to my hometown and continued my freelance work, expanding my client base to include US businesses.  One of my oldest clients, Graphisoft, offered me a full-time position in early 2020, which I gladly accepted.  Today, I am Senior Manager for Global Communications at Graphisoft — the first Hungarian start-up — which develops Building Information Modeling software for architecture.