Our True Green Awards celebrate and recognize individuals and teams who live our shared values through their work and actions. We are proud to work alongside and celebrate these recipients who make a positive impact on our riders, cities and company culture.

Meet Stan Ivanov, Senior Operations Manager in Berlin, Germany and the latest recipient of our True Green Award.

We connected with Stan to learn more about how he found motivation in his career at Lime.

Why did you join Lime?

We will all be better off if our cities have somewhat fewer cars. This vision was motivating my work in different roles in sustainable mobility over the last 8 years. When Lime approached me with the opportunity to lead one of their biggest global operations, I saw it as a place where I could make the biggest contribution towards this vision.

What do you love most about your job?

The collaborative and fun spirit of so many great and diverse talents working on a common goal is something that keeps me going every day. Besides, it is very satisfying to see car parking change into parking for e-bikes and e-scooters, as well as to read the results of independent research studies demonstrating that 25% of Lime trips replace trips that would otherwise have been done with a car.

How do you use Lime to explore or get around your city?

It’s critical for me to stay in touch with the service I am responsible for delivering to Berliners. So, I use Lime’s vehicles more or less every day. In combination with the Berlin public transit service “BVG” it’s often the fastest way to move around – beating taxi or car sharing. I also have a habit of checking on our vehicles when passing them on the streets – quickly looking at technical conditions and whether they are parked correctly. This habit – even if it slows me down – helps to come up with initiatives on improving the service further.

What are you most proud of accomplishing so far?

I’m proud of supporting the Berlin operations team in a way that allowed us to deliver better business results year on year, while helping multiple persons grow – and have fun in the process. I’m also proud that with the cross-functional effort, we managed to send a few hundred bikes to several NGOs in Ukraine in 2022.

What excites you about Lime’s future?

In my hometown, I witnessed a change from being the only person to park a bike near my university in 2007 to leading the successful campaign for constructing the first 14 km of bike lanes in the city center with thousands of supporters in 2017. And there is so much more room to grow for micromobility in most cities around the world by replacing car trips and complementing public transit. As the culture and infrastructure gradually change, demand for micromobility is increasing and Lime is set to capture a big part of this demand.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received here?

I have two examples

1. After few years of focusing on work a bit too much, I started to do more sports due to a nudge to pick up badminton from a regional general manager. Playing with colleagues after work helped maintain good balance in a busy summer of 2022.

2. In contrast to my previous positions I was overloaded with emails from all kinds of external and internal stakeholders from day 1 and needed to level up my organization skills. A book recommendation by Lime's COO, Woody Hartman, helped me revamp my relationships with Gmail and ensure I maintain inbox 0 at all times, never missing anything mission critical. Seemingly a small thing, it was pivotal to feel in control. If I got you interested – the approach is summed up in a post “How to use Gmail more efficiently” by Andreas Klinger.

Any advice for someone who wants to work at Lime?

If you want to contribute to a more sustainable future or just fall in love with Lime for any other reason, but don’t know where to start – consider applying to local operations roles. Many people underestimate their chances to succeed as they think their background is not suitable – not related to management or operations. In fact, whether you majored in social studies, managed rental apartments or worked in a bank – local ops can be a great starting or turning point in your career. Working on Lime operations in a specific city or region you will get exposure to most areas of business while learning to ground your thinking with real life profit and loss metrics. It’s also a fast learning environment, since you can quickly get the amount of ownership you rarely get in other companies.

Interested in joining Lime? Explore open opportunities on our careers page.