by Gini Dupasquier,  PWA Professional Development Director & Mentoring Program Leader 

 The 2013 edition of the PWA mentoring Program is now up and running. The Program received huge interest and this year it will involve a record number of 106 women divided into 53 mentor-mentee pairs.

On May 6^th we held a special evening dedicated to our Mentors, with the goal of sharing best practices and useful hints on how to manage the mentoring relationship. With the help of Valerie Ryder, an experienced professional, we discussed what the most important skills a Mentor should have. We then learned from the direct experience of three Mentors from last year and how they helped their Mentees define and break down their goals. Many thanks to the excellent contribution of Annarosa Borzacchiello, Liana Dugaro and Andrea Cairella.

On May 15^th, we held the official kickoff workshop involving all participants. That was the occasion for the pairs to meet for the first time, break the ice and start their relationships. Over the next 6 months, from May to December, they will meet to work on professional development objectives defined during the workshop.

Are you wondering how the pairs were matched?
The job of matching was long and carefully thought out. In March each applicant sent us her CV and the application form, indicating the specific areas in which she desired the support of a mentor: the more details provided, the more likely we were to find a good match with a mentor with the competencies and / or professional background particularly suitable to that specific mentee. Similarly, mentors sent us their experience and their strong areas in which they felt they could contribute.

We read and re-read all the CVs, forms and information and slowly the individual pairs came to light.  When we were undecided between two mentees with similar requests, the mentee with seniority in PWA membership had priority.

When mentee requests were a bit vague, if possible we asked for more details in person, in other cases we applied a little common sense and creativity. At the end of this process, we are satisfied with the matches; the ball is now in the participants’ court.
In addition to compatibility “on paper”, chemistry and openness will now make a huge difference…

Good luck to all Mentors and Mentees!

For any query please don’t hesitate to contact any of us at the Mentoring Team: myself or Karolina Wrobel or Valeria Cardillo Piccolino at the usual address: professional@pwa-milan-org

Find here  the invitation for the presentation and discussion of the book, “L’ospite d’onore lava i piatti.”

All professional women welcome whether members or guests
Wednesday, 19 June 2013, 7-9.30 p.m.
PWA presents a Panel Discussion:
“Reinventing Yourself”

Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves…” ~ Germaine Greer

When you take away all the excuses and limitations, who is it that you would really like to be? We’ve arrived at our current situations by various paths that depended in varying degrees on choices we made when we were younger (education, family, geography to name a few), opportunities that presented themselves to us and commitment and drive that we dedicated to attaining our goals. Sometimes our current situations are exactly what we’ve strived for while other times it becomes clear that a change is desired or necessary.

Join us to hear the stories of 4 PWA members who made the decision – and took action – to reinvent themselves and their professional lives.

NH Hotel President, Largo Augusto 10 (MM San Babila, Duomo)

Networking Cocktail: 7 – 8 pm Presentation 8 – 9:30 pm

Entrance free for members, 25 euro for guests, payable in cash at the event.

Members and guest, please register in the calendar section of EPWN.

For more information, send an email to speakers@pwa-milan.org

Catriona Wallis

Beatrice Vozzi

Roberta Mell

Francesca Mastrogiacomi

Meet the Panel:

Francesca Mastrogiacomi
Senior Project Manager, EMEA Sales Support – Strategy & Operations at Google, Francesca first started making friends with search engines when she joined the launch of an E-commerce start-up specializing in food and wine from her native Marches region. Putting her study of languages to the unorthodox usage of identifying keywords for user searches, she soon attracted the attention of Google Italy which recruited Francesca to share her online marketing and analysis skills to help other businesses build successful web-based advertising campaigns.

Francesca has held various roles in Google’s Sales and Country Operations, currently specializing in improving the customer experience for both those searching as well as those looking to be found.
Recently qualified as a Certified Business Coach, Francesca uses this expertise both in her role inside Google as well as with private clients, focusing on team coaching, women’s leadership, and support for both expats and start-ups.

After completing her undergraduate studies at Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Francesca earned a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Communications from Università Cattolica in Milan. She has several publications on adult education and new methodologies in teaching foreign languages. In addition to her mother tongue, Italian, Francesca is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Roberta Mell
Roberta has a Masters degree in Italian Gastronomy from the Università degli Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenza. She has traveled extensively througout Italy studying every region’s specialties and character.
She is the owner of Antichè Varieta del Mondo, growing heirloom tomatoes and vegetables for market. She works as a travel concierge for Emilia Romagna and several other regions in Italy.

In America, Roberta developed and launched POPCORN TV, a revolutionary DVD on Demand service that combines DVD street date with the convenience and immediacy of Video on Demand. Prior to POPCORN, Roberta served as Executive Vice President, Marketing for the Fox network. For her efforts she received the Brand Builder Award from Multichannel News, Campaigns of Distinction Award from Television Week and was included in Hollywood Reporters Top 100 Women in Hollywood. Prior to joining Fox, Roberta was Senior Vice President of Marketing for HBO. Her work has been recognized with two Emmy awards, a Clio, and an Effie. During her tenure at HBO, she also received Cable Marketer of the Year, Sopranos Media Plan of the Year and was named Entertainment Marketer of the Year by Ad Age. She holds an MBA from the New York University, Leonard School of Business.

Beatrice Vozzi
Degree in Physics, exposed to French and Italian culture, Beatrice fluently speaks four languages. Most of her career was in IT and Automotive fields between Italy, France and Spain.
She was named Director of Car Logistics for Citroen in Milan and now handles Change Management and Best Practices for the PSA Peugeot Citroen Group still based in Milan.

She is specialised in planning and organising but also in problem solving; this because she has two young daughters aged 4 and 7. Her dream is to go back to Rome, her native town.

Catriona Wallis
Catriona is the founder of Colto OÜ, a startup developing mobile game Apps for kids to learn new words in different languages by having fun playing digital race games. Colto’s objective is to create games that are so absorbing for kids, they don’t even know they’re learning.

Recently Colto won Seed Investment from GameFounders & an invitation to attend their prestigious acceleration program for gaming startups in Estonia. Catriona & her co-founders have been based in Tallinn for the 3 month program, undergoing intensive mentoring with gaming gurus from leading companies such as Facebook, Zynga (CityVille/FarmVille) & Rovio (Angry Birds). The mentors share expertise on optimising the quality of games & learning about best practice business models & strategy. In May, startups travel to Europe & Silicon Valley, US pitching to investors in order to secure Round A investment.

Catriona lives in Varese, Italy is married to an Italian and has 2 sons and a chocolate labrador.

A presentation of Lella Golfo’s book,  “Ad alta quota. Storia di una donna libera” will take place on Monday, 27 May.

Details:

27 Maggio ore 18.00
Circolo della Stampa
Sala degli Specchi
Corso Venezia, 48

See the invitation here. 

PWA member and  Editor-in-chief of Il Sole 24 Ore Rapporti24 Laura La Posta will be featured at the next American Business Lunch Milan.

Details:

Networking aperitivo 12.30 | Lunch 1 pm | Presentation 1.45 – 2 pm

Hotel Boscolo Milano,  Corso Matteotti, 4 (MM San Babila, MM Duomo)

Cost: € 30, to be paid at the door by cash, debit or credit card.

Register for the lunch at AmericanBusinessGroup.org

Questions? Email Maria Lassila at info@AmericanBusinessGroup.org 

By Jiska van der Kooij, Speaker Event Director PWA

On the 17th of April we had Rita Polarolo, Venture Capital Fund Manager of Principia SGR as our speaker. Rita worked with the most important players in the Seed & Early Stage Investment in Italy, from Innogest to Piemontech and TTVenture. She was an Investment Analyst and Project Manager at Innogest and Piemontech, funds active in seed and early-stage investments in ICT, Cleantech and Biotech. Today she is a Fund Manager of Principia SGR: she runs and selects the dealflow, she takes care of the investment process, from structuring the analysis of the business plan and the company valuation, to the negotiation and preparation of investment contracts. Rita sits on the board of 4 startups. She has a master degree in Business Administration.

‘The elusive dream of entrepreneurs, both aspiring and established: investment by a venture capitalist.’

Venture capitalists look at thousands of potential investment opportunities every year – how do you become part of the tiny percentage that succeeds? What are your first steps? How do you create a convincing presentation? How do you set yourself apart from the pack?

Rita told us about:

• key elements for a persuasive proposition
• the difference the right attitude makes
• components of a winning team
• traits of success stories
• opportunities and challenges unique to women

For those who couldn’t join the event  you can read the presentation of Rita Polarolo here.

Thank you so much Rita for your inspiring and stimulating talk!

‘We Italians understand that our situation is critical. Growth is finally being discussed as our country’s real priority. We cannot, however, delude ourselves that a few governmental acts can magically resolve all of our problems. Italy has not grown in 20 years. The current state of affairs calls for a transformation of a magnitude never before seen here.

In the last few months, all of us Italians have come to understand that the plight of our country is serious and that we must work together to dig ourselves out of this crisis. We still refuse to accept, however, that in order to resolve “the Italian situation” it’s not enough to cut spending and raise taxes.

To save ourselves and ensure a future for our children, growth is vital. Without development we will never regain the faith of the international markets, reduce the public debt and the resulting financial pressure, or create new jobs. In order for this to happen, we must rid ourselves of old prejudices (beginning with myths like “small is better”) and resistance to true competition. We must overcome the traditional immobility of Italian society and embrace the “culture of of growth.” We need a revolution based on meritocracy and respect for the rules: not just because it’s the right thing morally, but because it’s the right thing for everyone’

In February this year Roger Abravanel, author, blogger and social activist was our speaker and presented his book: Meritocracy and rules to ensure we have a future: Italy, grow or find the door!

We were very pleased to have Roger as our speaker and it was a great and engaging evening.
For those who were not there or those who like to go over the presentation again:  You can (re)read the power-point presentation of this interesting and informative evening here.
Thank you so much Roger!

Deutsche Bank invites you to the exhibition “Realta’ come verita’ sognata,” by Francesco Siclari, open from May 16 to June 10. Find exhibition information here and the May 16 inauguration event invitation here.

“Women on boards: governance and performance”

Read the article co-authored by Manuela Cavallo, PWA member and Partner at Portolano Cavallo Studio Legale.