Monika Matuszewska | Award-Winning Transformational Coach | Helping Leaders Navigate the Intersection of Purpose & Performance | Career Mentor | Founder of LaMatu
Who Is Monika Matuszewska?
Monika Matuszewska is an award-winning certified professional coach and the founder of LaMatu, an Amsterdam-based practice dedicated to humanizing high performance for international professionals and entrepreneurs. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience, including 16 years in senior digital leadership roles for global giants like L’Oréal, Philips, Nikon, IBM and IKEA, she specializes in the intersection of professional ambition and personal presence. A true polyglot and “citizen of the world,” Monika holds four Master’s degrees and has worked with individuals from over 80 nationalities, utilizing a holistic approach to help clients navigate complex career transitions and redefine their leadership through the lens of their core values.
For nearly two decades, Monika Matuszewska operated at the high-stakes summit of global commerce, driving digital transformation and marketing strategies for the world’s most iconic brands. Yet, the true turning point of her career did not occur in a boardroom at L’Oréal or during a strategic rollout at Philips. It happened in the quiet realization that while she was exceptionally skilled at building brands, her deepest calling lay in building people.
Monika’s journey is a testament to the power of “presence,” which is the ability to slow down in a fast-moving world and listen to the underlying narratives that shape our lives. Today, as the founder of the award-winning coaching practice LaMatu, she bridges the gap between professional ambition and personal fulfillment, helping leaders navigate complexity without losing their essence.
A Linguistic and Global Blueprint
Monika’s path was paved with a unique combination of analytical rigor and a fascination with human expression. Her academic foundation was dual-track: she earned an MA cum laude in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warsaw while simultaneously pursuing an MSc in Management and Marketing and International Economic Relations from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics and earning another Master’s degree from CEMS in International Management. This rare intersection of language and business would become the hallmark of her professional identity.
Navigating the Corporate Heights
Her early influences were shaped by a series of defining “moments of trust.” Throughout her formative professional years, she was entrusted with opportunities across countries, industries, and functions where senior leaders recognized capabilities in her that she had not yet fully claimed for herself. Being seen in that way left a lasting imprint. Those experiences did more than accelerate her advancement; they shaped her leadership philosophy. They instilled a deep conviction that growth flourishes in environments where feedback is thoughtful, expectations are clear, and people are encouraged to stretch beyond what they believe is possible. That early exposure to mentorship became a cornerstone of how she would later support others.
Monika’s professional ascent was marked by a steady climb through some of the most complex organizational structures in global business. At Philips, she managed large-scale digital marketing initiatives at the global headquarters, operating at the intersection of strategy, technology, and brand stewardship. She later led customer experience design for Nikon Europe, refining how innovation translated into meaningful engagement across diverse markets. At L’Oréal Professional Products Division, she drove digital transformation initiatives that required both operational precision and cultural sensitivity. Each role expanded her scope, sharpened her strategic thinking, and reinforced her ability to lead within high-performance environments.
Moving between organizations proved to be one of the most accelerated learning curves of her career. Transitions across international consulting, marketing, and digital leadership demanded more than technical competence; they required continuous recalibration of presence, decision-making style, and communication approach. She had to quickly decode distinct organizational cultures, stakeholder dynamics, and performance expectations, often while delivering increasingly complex mandates. With every move, the assignments grew larger and the stakes higher. Yet it was precisely this rhythm of adaptation that strengthened her capacity to lead with clarity under pressure while remaining attentive to the human dimension behind every strategic objective.
Throughout these sixteen years in the corporate trenches, Monika became an expert in managing multi-functional teams and complex projects, earning certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP)® and an Agile Practitioner (ACP)®. However, as she ascended higher, she began to notice a growing tension between pace and presence. In environments where performance targets often overshadowed human experience, Monika found herself increasingly drawn to the human interactions behind the digital interfaces.
“What signaled the shift for me was an increasing tension between pace and presence. Operating in continuous delivery mode left little room for the kind of reflection, dialogue, and individual support that I knew made the biggest difference to people’s growth.”
― Monika Matuszewska
This internal inquiry led her to pursue extensive training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and professional coaching. She realized that her corporate background provided her with a unique “insider” perspective. She understood the pressure of the yearly appraisal and the weight of high-level responsibility, allowing her to speak the language of executives while offering a path toward holistic wellbeing. Her clients often describe her as a bridge-builder between their personal
and professional domains.
Humanizing the Professional Sphere
In 2022, Monika founded LaMatu in Amsterdam, a practice that has since supported hundreds of clients from over 80 different nationalities. Her impact was recognized almost immediately. She was named the “Most Transformational Coach in Amsterdam” of the year 2023. In 2024 her company received the award for “Most Transformational Corporate Coaching Company in Western Europe”, and most recently she’s been recognised as “Best Career Mentor for Women in Tech”.
Monika’s coaching philosophy is distinguished by its holistic and multilingual nature. Fluent in Polish, English, Spanish, German, and Dutch, she utilizes her linguistic sensitivity to hear what is not being said, particularly the metaphors and speech patterns that reveal limiting beliefs. Her work is grounded in the belief that leadership is shaped not only by strategy and competence, but by the stories individuals carry about success, authority, and belonging.
Her impact extends beyond one-on-one sessions. As a mentor for organizations like Femme Palette, The Female Factor, and Momentum Fast Track, Monika is a committed advocate for female leadership and entrepreneurship. She helps international professionals recognize that their uniqueness is often their greatest strength, equipping them to navigate cultural expectations and lead with clarity, confidence, and authenticity.
A Legacy of Resilience
Looking ahead, Monika Matuszewska envisions a professional world where coaching is not a luxury for the elite, but a standard pillar of career development. Her goal is to leave behind a culture where ambition, talent, growth potential, and integrity are in full alignment.
In times of complexity and constant change, employees don’t just need management strategies or productivity tools; they need someone who sees them, who can help them make sense of their experiences, name what they are navigating, and reflect back their strengths with honesty and care. For Monika, that is the true essence of coaching and mentoring.
“Success, authority, even balance are not universal concepts. They are shaped by culture and language. When leaders become aware of the invisible scripts guiding them, they can choose consciously how they want to lead and who they want to become.”
― Monika Matuszewska
She hopes that her clients will carry forward a deeper sense of confidence, discernment, and responsibility, not only for their own careers, but for those who come after them.
If her work has helped individuals slow down enough to listen to themselves, make braver and more values-aligned decisions, and then become mentors in their own right, that would be the most meaningful legacy. Ultimately, she would like her clients to reemerge as more resilient professionals who succeed in their careers without losing themselves, and who take inspired action where their ambition, talent, growth potential, and integrity are in full alignment.
Editorial Note
Monika Matuszewska’s journey from digital leadership to transformational coaching serves as a powerful reminder that our professional titles are merely the surface of our potential. By integrating her corporate expertise with deep human empathy, she has created a blueprint for modern leadership that prioritizes the person behind the performance. For those navigating the complexities of career and identity, Monika’s story is a call to align your ambition with your deepest values.
