From Kevin: Maria was part of the Autoneum family. She was one of the very early coaches of ILP (International Learning Program) and then took over full leadership of this training program (and later also for HPL – High Performance Leadership). We know that she loved Autoneum, our global teams and spirit, and we loved her. She was an extraordinary person; I am deeply moved by losing her. We as a company and I personally profited enormously from her enthusiasm, creativity, ideas and long-term engagement. HPL and ILP will continue to be part of the leadership curriculum at Autoneum, and will be continued & further developed with her spirit in mind. We send our deepest condolences.
Many of our global colleagues had remained in contact with Maria during the last years. Some of them wanted to express their feelings and condolences as well:
UK: I am shocked since I recently received training from her and after that training we stayed in contact over the phone and even via Whatsapp. If possible, I would appreciate it if the family would know that Maria will always be in my mind. Besides being my coach, for me, she was a confidence person. I could discuss anything with her, personal or professional. She always had time and always listened. She left a strong impact on me and will be a part of my way of working as it is today.
Switzerland: I am deeply saddened to hear this news, I have fond memories of the time I spent as both participant and coach on the ILP program. Maria was at the heart of the program and her enthusiasm and knowledge were responsible in no small part for the success of the program. I will remember the very personal interest Maria took in each of the participants and he ability to remain positive, energetic and enthusiastic at all times. I remain very much impressed with the way in which Maria interacted not only over the duration of the course but also in the years afterwards with me and all the ILP participants, it is very sad that there will be no more unexpected reunions in the canteen and no more little pearls of wisdom to be passed on in the future. Please pass on my heartfelt condolences to her family.
Italy: This is sad news. I got in touch with Maria very shortly, during the first week of my HPL and for me it was a very enriching experience. A person who knew, in all situations, how to go to the heart of things, and you noticed that because she was always able to ask the right questions. Thanks for conveying also my condolences to her family.
Switzerland: This is a very sad news indeed. It is not a common thing to develop such a trust and appreciation with a person external to our company. She has really been the exception. She has taught me things on myself and on the way I can improve in my profession and I will always remember her. Please pass my condolence message to her family.
France: It’s a really sad news. Let me send the condolences in the name of all ILP 2008 members. Maria was really engaged and the soul of the ILP. For sure she will rest in peace.
South Africa: Very sad news indeed. Please pass my condolences to Maria’s family. I met her the first time in 2001, at the ILP, and remained in contact over the years. Always a pleasure meeting Maria, full of quiet energy, knowledgeable, caring. Like many, I count myself blessed to have met (and learnt from) her. Maria, you will be sorely missed. RIP.
UK: I am truly sorry to hear this terrible news. Maria was a fantastic person, full of energy and somebody who clearly loved connecting with people. I will always look on my ILP experience with Maria as one of the highlights of my career at Autoneum. Maria’s enthusiasm, insight and passion was felt by the whole of our group and made the experience one that everybody will always remember.
China: What a sad news! Although I was not coached by her directly, but on my first day at HPL, I was stuck by one thought, and she asked one powerful question, and let me have a long thinking. Just by that, I was deeply impressed about her. It is really a big surprise for me to hear that she passed away, because I always saw full energy in her. Wish her all the best in heaven!
Switzerland: I’m truly shocked by the news. I really appreciated Maria for her professionalism and more importantly for her human qualities, this is a very sad day.
Switzerland: It is very sad to hear the news about Maria. I very much enjoyed working with Maria. She could really help everyone to develop by her supportive and positive way of working with people. Please extend my condolences to her family.
France: Very sad news indeed. I had some mail exchange beginning of this year for new year greetings, she told me that she felt better than last autumn, but finally it came. Maria has been a meaningful encounter to me within last year, I enjoyed a lot her positive mindset and her capacity to make you think differently. Can you offer from me my most sincere condolences to her family.
USA: I am so, so, sorry to hear of this loss! From the moment I met Maria, I was forever changed as a person! She had a natural ability to make the most difficult things seem easy, to challenge you as an individual and to brighten up a room from the second she walked in the door! She challenged me to look within myself, to have the courage to take the path less traveled and helped me to grow as a person, a colleague and a friend! She knew just the right time to send a cheerful note to the team, and always reminded us that we were not forgotten, and that she was thinking about us! I even shared some personal concerns with Maria, and she took the time, months after the discussion, to send a note to ask about what we had discussed and to make sure everything was going okay! She will be missed, not only by me, but I am sure by all the lives that she has touched. I know that I am a better person today because of her! I will miss her deeply, I will cherish all the time that I had with her, and I will try my best to make sure that I continue to be the person she saw in me!! I offer my heartfelt and sincere condolences to her family, and offer my thoughts and prayers to them. I pray that they have the strength to get through this difficult time, and for the hope that the legacy of the amazing person Maria was lives within all of us!
China: I am so sad to hear it. I met Maria in 1997 in the first ILP and have received a lot of support from her since then. I still remember many scenes when we were together. Please pass my condolence to her colleagues and family. We will remember Maria in our heart.
China: Maria is not only a coach, but a close friend, who encourage and light up my life. What she showed to me, is the balance of work and life, the passion for career, the enthusiasm for fighting forward, the courage towards anything, the importance of family, meanwhile elegantly enjoy the beauty of life.I feel so incomplete to lose her, her husband and two daughters should suffer more. She will be there in my life, with her smile.
Poland: I don’t know the word which can describe what I feel now, but I am sure that a part of her will stay forever with me. She had ability to changed people for the better. “Let us love people now they leave us so fast, the shoes remain empty and the phone rings on, what’s unimportant drags on like a cow, the meaningful sudden takes us by surprise, the silence that follows so normal it’s hideous, like chastity born most simply from despair, when we think of someone who’s been taken from us…” (Father Jan Twardowski)
China: I feel so sorry about Ms. Maria Jicheva, whom I really respect from your description on her. I wish her got peace in Heaven. I wish her family brave and become strong, to face the future.
Switzerland: with Maria we lose a brilliant, caring and smart professional, a truly wonderful person. My heartfelt condolences go to the family.
Switzerland: I was very sad to hear this news. I didn’t know that she was ill, and saw her in the canteen only a few weeks ago, when she appeared to be her normal self. Doing the ILP program with her 10 years ago (!) was really a great experience. Especially I appreciated her input and ideas, as she was a very open-minded and thoughtful person. Since then I only saw her and said hello from time to time when she came over to the company to train other people. I was shocked to hear that she is gone so long before her time. My condolences to her family and loved ones.
Switzerland: Dear Maria, I will miss your smiles, your constant positive attitude and the sense of calm that you could communicate in all situations. I have learnt a lot during the ILP training and among all coaches you clearly stood out as the most special one! I also remember when we met together with my wife in London and had a walk and lunch in a surprisingly beautiful and warm day. I even think it was mentioned later in the news that it was the hottest day recorded in London for many years 🙂 We both had a very international life experience and that, I think was the common denominator that made us connect in such a short time. I hope that where you are now, you will be blessed with more sunshine and more positive surprises than ever.

To the Jichev family,

I had the immense pleasure of meeting Maria the very first time some years ago in London during one of the Learning programs McKinsey was holding for its managers. Maria was one of the Incite faculty and we made an immediate connection. She asked if we could have dinner one night while I was in town, as she wanted to get to know me better and talk about cultural diversity, a topic about which we were both quite passionate. Four hours later, we said our good-bye for the night, and I left marveling at our experience.

Maria was a lady who seemed fully engaged in a vibrant dialogue on all sorts of topics, both professional and personal. She was always in the spirit of learning, exploring ideas, understanding what was important in your life. At one training session, I brought my 88 year-old Dad along, and the three of us enjoyed a special breakfast together. After that, she would always ask about him, as Maria really cared deeply about the full spectrum of my life.

Over the years, at every program in Europe when we worked together, she and I would find time to go out for a bit of personal time. Sometimes we would just sit and catch up over a glass of wine; other times we would partake in some ‘retail therapy’, looking for that special item of jewelry, clothing or footwear:-) that would serve as a reminder of our time together. At one spot in Cologne, we found a necklace we both loved and decided it would be good ‘karma’ if we each purchased the same item. Every time I wear it, I smile thinking of her. When she came to my hometown in Boston, we would always find time to connect, the last time I chose a beautiful stately, elegant, classy spot at the Copley Plaza which seemed only fitting for her!

It is quite heartbreaking for me to imagine the world without her special gifts — ones that remain close to my heart are her compassion, purpose and love of life. Even when she was struggling with her illness, she always remained positive, exploring new ways of healing… always focused on others and committed to her life’s work. I hope in your time of grief, you carry with you the clarity of Maria as a one-of-a-kind grand lady who made a huge difference in the lives of so many. May her spirit live on in all of us.

With my deep condolences,

Barbara Stern

(McKinsey & Company)

Dearest Denny, Gigi, and Andrey,
You’re right, Denny, in what you wrote on your mum’s beautiful tribute page. Words aren’t enough, they don’t fit and mean what they need to, in times like these…when I want to reach out and offer some small measure of comfort, but am instead struggling, too, to squeeze this wordless, silent fog of sadness into some form of conventional sentence.
I have only known Maria relatively briefly, for these past 8 years, with long periods inbetween without seeing each other, yet I remember clear as day the very first moment I met her in the Coghill and Beery offices, and she introduced herself. I remember the first car ride down the M40 to deliver our Tesco workshop, coming by your house early in the morning to pick her up. Watching her deliver, so effortlessly, connecting ideas and people seamlessly, with such unbridled intelligence, force of character, and great charm. In the greatest of admiration then, and still now, through these last painful years and months, even weeks, when we last exchanged text messages, when she was not feeling well enough to deliver the talk she had committed to, when we met at Mosimann’s to rekindle work talk when she explained the foundation of ULead to me, the firm hopes we both held of seizing the pleasure of working together again… that iron determination, that immense capability, that rich sense of humour, subtlety and tact, and profound compassion and care for everyone around her, yes, that was your mum for me. But you know that already – she is your mum! And your wife! How much more you must have seen that, every day, and therefore must you be feeling that much more grief at your loss.
In the face of that awful finality, which awaits us all one way or the other… we celebrate, or rather, I mustn’t presume; I celebrate, I would like to offer some small but heartfelt witness of the greatness that was Maria, the life that she was, that she made and that she led, and which, despite the Pain of her physical absence, lives on, every single day that the three of you still live, and the many, many of us who still live, and remember her and hold her in our thoughts and hearts with admiration, affection, and gratitude. She has given me so much inspiration in our relatively brief friendship, and I will forever be glad that I could have her as my friend.
I cannot tell you how much it meant to Philipp and me that Andrey, you and Maria made it to join us on the 21st of March. That radiance, strength, watching both of you dance to the band’s music, seeing her deep in conversation with our other friends, or just quietly, contentedly taking in the atmosphere of it all. I know what an effort it must have been for her to come, and her smile! I drank in the sight of it all evening, and it will be how I will hold her in my memory.
I leave you with a few mementos from that evening, in the hope that it will come to bring you some joy and solace, too, after the darkness has passed.
With love and my deepest condolences,

Elaine

Dear Denny, Gigi and Andrey,
I was so deeply saddened when I heard about Maria’s passing. It seems surreal to me, as I’m sure it has been to you. I don’t think I got a chance to see her since her diagnosis. The last image I have is of her with her characteristic radiant smile, boundless vigor, and truly infectious positive energy. Looking through your memorial website gives me comfort that she fought to uphold those lovely qualities up until the very end.
I think back to all the times we spent together as two families, and how she was always the one to make us laugh, to suggest a new travel adventure, to bring out a delicious surprise dessert after we all thought she was done stuffing us with other delicious food, or to take us for a evening walk along the Thames, sometimes for no other reason than simply to breathe in life and enjoy it for all its worth.
I will always remember the warmth that you emanated as a family, always laughing together, celebrating the small moments. I can only hope that this positive family spirit remains even after the loss of one of its brightest stars.
I wish I had gotten the chance to see you all together one last time. Life is unfairly short sometimes, but if there ever was anyone who can continue to live through all the people she touched, that person is Maria.
We will all miss her dearly.
Sending all my love, sadness, and support your way. I hope I will get to see you all again in due time.
-Nick