Paperjam: Please, introduce yourself.

Virginia Strong: My name is Virginia. I’m originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but I’ve lived all over the world, from Malaysia to Australia, New Zealand, Spain, London, Vietnam and Luxembourg. I came to Luxembourg in March of 2019 for Amazon. I was at their London office and coming out here every week, staying at the Novotel, walking down the hill along the Alzette and past Melusina to the offices in Clausen. And so instead of flying here every week, I was like… this is a great place to move. I had two young kids, so I thought: hey, let’s move to Luxembourg.

And what were your first impressions during those visits?

Like I said, I would walk through Grund and Clausen… so my impression of Luxembourg was that it’s a cute European snow globe that you shake up. Except there’s no snow. But that’s how I always describe it. It’s like a beautiful little city in a snow globe. And whether it’s Melusina or going to a wine festival in Remich you have that cute, beautiful Europeanness. And that’s what I saw every time I travelled here. This was when the Amazon offices were in Clausen, not Kirchberg… so I didn’t get that kind of corporate vibe.

Could you elaborate on “cute Europeanness”?

Sure… you have the grand ducal palace, right? You have guards out front. You have the fact that the palace is next to several bars. Well, one of the first times I was there drinking we all had to pick up our chairs and move so the grand duke could drive down the street to get home. That would never happen in London.

Or, you know, the cobblestone streets… looking out over Clausen and the Grund when you’re on the casemates… going to a wine bar tucked up some alley… it’s lovely. When it’s sunny, that is. My kids call Luxembourg “Rainbourg,” if you want to talk about weather.

I don’t! Anyway… you’ve lived in a lot of places: how does Luxembourg compare from, say, a workplace culture perspective?

I think work culture in Luxembourg offers a good work/life balance. People work hard during the week but the weekends are very free. I really like that. And it’s fantastic in terms of the multicultural personalities. In terms of talent, when you’re hiring, Luxembourg is able to attract a lot of talent--and then because it’s small it’s able to retain a lot of that talent. I’ve got a startup, Partao, and it’s been fantastic to pull on those resources to help build out the company. We’ve been able to hire some phenomenal talent in Luxembourg because of the rich resources it brings in the multicultural side.

Oh? You more commonly hear the opposite: people bemoan how Luxembourg doesn’t attract people for particular work purposes.

I think it depends on which stage in life you’re in. Luxembourg’s sweet spot is parents with young kids. I could go on about the merits of living in Merl. We have a fantastic local community within the city. I walk my kids to school and I know all the other parents walking down the street. So you have a feeling you don’t have in many other bigger cities. And I like that, the quaint side. And I think what it does for talent is that people from all over the world come here with young children, and because Luxembourg is so great with kids it keeps that talent here. So that’s if you hire people, let’s say, from 30 to 45 years old. That’s where the wealth of talent is. But, yes, if you’re trying to hire a sales director, Luxembourg isn’t the best place to go because the Luxembourg market is not a dream location.

Do you have startup experience outside Luxembourg? How does it compare?

Yes. There was a startup that I helped bring to Europe, but there it was all VC, all institutional money. There was no government help, full stop. It’s the same in the US and the UK. In Malaysia, everything is outside the government… everything’s a bit more in the grey. Here you do it with the Chamber of Commerce, pro-Luxembourg, whereas everywhere else you do it pro-capitalists, pro-yourself. It’s a lift-all-boats approach in Luxembourg.

But the opportunity for startups is phenomenal. Partao is involved in the Fit4 Start programme here, we’re just finishing our application for the Young Innovators Fund, we have a local VC sponsoring us (Mangrove). The support we’ve had, both from the corporate side and the Chamber of Commerce, Luxinnovation, Pulse… it’s a helping hand we definitely would not have had in any other country, especially from the government side.

It’s a lot of fun setting up a startup in Luxembourg. Really enjoying it.

Luxembourg is great with kids, you said. Could you expand on that?

Sure. As an American, the advantage of living in Europe is that my kids get languages, something I never had growing up. So when I came over, I chucked them both into a French crèche. (We couldn’t get into the Luxembourgish crèches, of course, because we didn’t apply five years in advance!) So my youngest learned French before English. Then they went to the local school where they both learned Luxembourgish. They speak Luxembourg with all of their friends. They actually speak it to each other at home. And I’m like, “Well, I’m learning Luxembourgish.” And they’re like, “Then we’ll speak French to each other. And if you learn that then we’ll switch to German. And if you learn that you’ll have already forgotten English!” It’s cute. And I love that they have that confidence, and that they’re better than me already.

But, more generally, even though you have people from all over the place in Luxembourg, everyone has similar values in terms of how they want to raise their kids. And that’s been a pleasure, to have your kids in school with other parents that are involved and teachers that are involved. Everyone has been very welcoming. Of course you have expats who are looking for friends, versus Luxembourgers who aren’t, necessarily, but everyone has been extremely welcoming. The teachers were great at helping us. Moving here was--I wouldn’t say seamless, because of course it was up and down--but it was as seamless as possible. Luxembourg is probably the best place in the world to integrate.

And how about the nuts and bolts of moving to Luxembourg?

I had a fantastic relocation agent, so it went very smoothly in terms of finding a place. What I would recommend, however, to anyone moving here is to make sure to change your driver’s licence in time [editor’s note: for drivers with licences from a non-EU country, Luxembourg allows you to convert it to a local one within one year after you move here]. It was during covid and the office was closed and I wasn’t able to hand it in. I fought the law on this one… and the law won.

Oh no… so you had to take the test again?

Yes--I mean, I still have to. However, I must say, instead of doing that and buying another car, I have a bike that I love riding around. And the public transportation is free and very easy. If the kids end up with a birthday party somewhere, you know, a 40-minute drive away, then… there are plenty of other kids in the neighbourhood going.

You get by without a car?

I bus or bike to work, everything else is in walking distance… it’s easy. I’m trying to do it. Going on five years of not driving. So we’ll see.

All right. And has anything surprised you about everyday life here?

Mowing your grass on Sunday. I did not know about this law until my neighbours screamed at me that I wasn’t allowed to mow my grass on Sundays!