Her multi-family office is celebrating its tenth anniversary in October and Tatiana couldn’t be more proud. “It’s not easy to survive in this market, never mind thrive in such a masculine environment. The competition is tough. But if you conduct yourself with dignity, seriousness and love the reward will come.”
Tatiana’s biggest reward so far is that the clients she started her company with are still with her. “My values are efficiency, discretion and trust'”
A Monaco resident for the past 23 years, Tatiana is no stranger to sorting out disputes, looking after missing people or dealing with other emergencies. As the former Slovak Honorary Consul in Monaco – from 2015 till 2022 – she dealt with it all, even more, she organised business meetings and exhibitions to help promote her native country, which holds a big place in her heart.
On family travels in China
Her father was a diplomat, enabling the family to travel abroad when it was impossible in former Communist Czechoslovakia. Tatiana spent her early years in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. As a little girl she was fascinated by the animals in the circus she visited and when a teacher in her class back home in Slovakia asked her what she wanted to become when she grew up she said: ‘A lion tamer’ – to roaring laughter from her schoolmates.
As a teenager, while watching then very strictly prohibited Austrian television in Bratislava – in Communist Czechoslovakia only domestic programmes and broadcasts from the Soviet umbrella countries were allowed – she heard French for the very first time. It was Love at first hearing. The programme she was watching with awe was about the Grimaldi family and Monaco. Winding the time machine forward, she would be walking the very same streets with her husband, Stéphane Valeri, representing Monaco at a very high level.
But in 1990 she worked hard to get a place at Slovakia’s first bilingual French-Slovak high school. “It was right after the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia. We were suddenly allowed to study languages and after lots of exams – mostly mapping our aptitude – nobody of us spoke French then, I was number 61 of the 60 students they accepted the very first year. As luck has it, somebody dropped out and I was in!”
Tatiana’s joy and determination were so strong that even when she contracted jaundice and spent the first two months in hospital – she didn’t lose faith. The director of the school told her that she couldn’t come back – a month was too long and she would never catch up with the rest of the class. Not in Tatiana’s world. She figured out that the doctor in the hospital spoke French. Every morning while the doctor examined her she had a list of French words ready to ask him how to pronounce. She did get back to that school and ended up being one of its best graduates.
At the United Nation’s building in New York
With a Master’s degree in Business and International Relations and fluent in French, English and Spanish, she helped to promote the Slovak Pavilion in the Monaco International Exhibition and later accepted an offer to help organise a prestigious international Antiques exhibitions. “Working in Monaco was challenging at first, I was quite lonely. But the beautiful atmosphere, sunshine and the sea made up for it.”
And also love, of course. “I met Stéphane Valeri earlier and I was by his side when Monaco people elected him to become Head of the National Council of Monaco in 2003. He was an exceptionally talented young politician and had every chance to succeed in this role. He really carries Monaco in his heart and with Prince Albert implemented many reasonable social programmes that were necessary for Monaco at that time. He worked so hard. I cherished every single event where I could help him represent Monaco at his side. And also I was helping to develop political and diplomatic relations between Monaco and Slovakia.
“On the occasion of the official visit of SAS Prince Albert II to Slovakia, I gave him a gift, a painting by the Slovak artist Milan Lukac“
“It was a fascinating life on every level. I was meeting with politicians of so many nationalities, I tried very hard to get to know Monegasques, I wanted to be part of them. I was a young, 28 year-old woman and everything I did was with an awareness of the right thing to do. I come from an Evangelical background, my grandfather was an Evangelical priest and my uncle is a Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia. My faith helped me often in dealing with a world that could seem superficial or materialistic. Moral and spiritual values made me firmly stand on the ground.”
Even though the marriage ended in 2010 Tatiana says “Our respect for each other makes us remember only the good times together and there were so many!”
Tatiana Parackova, Honorary Consul of Slovakia in Monaco, SEM Marek Estok, Ambassador of Slovakia in France and Monaco, SEM Michel Roger, Former Minister of State of Monaco, SEM Miroslav Lajcak, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovak Republic at the inaugural evening of the Slovak Consulate in Monaco, September 9, 2015.
Soon after, she accepted an offer from the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs to lead the Slovak Institute in Paris. Tatiana and her team were promoting Slovak culture, education and tourism in France and Monaco. Representing and helping her homeland runs through all of Tatiana’s activities ever since she first arrived in Monaco in 2000 but when she fully returned from Paris in 2013, she brought a business plan. “After all these years in diplomacy and politics so strictly directed from the centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I wanted freedom, to be able to fly and be my only boss. Paris opened new professional dimensions to me and also personal life lessons one has to learn. One will always have Paris, but my heart was calling for Monaco, my home.”
And here and then the Platinum International Multi Family office was established. “I wasn’t afraid of the unknown, I knew Monaco well and I had faith. My will was to continue to act in service and offer assistance for individuals, companies or legal entities and give expert advice and guidance to my clients for a smooth integration into the economic, social and cultural environment of Monaco.”
“A large proportion of my clients are individual clients, many of them are professional tennis players that live in Monaco. I manage all their activities. The second group of clients are business people who want to settle in Monaco with their families, maybe start a company or invest here.”
In the Principality, Tatiana has the reputation of a ‘lion tamer.’
“If she can’t get things sorted then no-one can,” says one of her clients.
Tatiana laughs: “Many times my job begins when the institution says no. I don’t take it for an answer, there must be a solution and to find it is my quest. Life is no long quiet river. And that makes it interesting.”
