Sabrina Bianchi, academic secretary of the School of Graduate Studies and professional development the School of Communication and Design, has been appointed regional ambassador for South America by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to leading and inspiring women entrepreneurs around the world.
Bianchi has thus joined the leadership group of the WEDO movement, which is active in 144 countries and 110 universities, as well as within the United Nations. Its mission is to empower 4 billion women around the world to serve as catalysts for change and improve the lives of the 250 million girls and young women living in poverty.
WEDO’s LinkedIn post describes Sabrina Bianchi as an active participant “in activities related to the empowerment of women in business and entrepreneurship,” such as organizing WED Uruguay since 2019 through ORT’s School of Communication and Design.
It is a tremendous honor to receive this vote of confidence from this movement to which I am so deeply committed. WEDO is giving me the opportunity to meet incredible people around the world—true role models—from whom I learn and with whom I develop my ideas, dreaming of all we can do together to empower women in the world of business and entrepreneurship.
Sabrina Bianchi
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When did the partnership with WEDO begin?
In 2019, Dr. Cristina Bertolotto, WEDO Uruguay’s ambassador, approached ORT’s School of Communication and Design with the aim of organizing the annual event—held every year on November 19—in collaboration with us.
Cristina is from Salta; she is a doctor and neuroscientist who has been working with stem cells for over 25 years. She moved to the United States to pursue her postdoctoral studies in Los Angeles, and today she is the president of the world’s first telemedicine company.
We quickly brought together national leaders from various organizations and sectors, both affiliated with ORT and from other universities and institutions; this led to dialogues, debates, and very special relationships, which left us particularly eager to continue leading this annual forum for inspiration and reflection.
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Why was there interest in bringing the WEDO slogan to the university?
Gender equality is a matter of the utmost importance in the university’s institutional policy, and—particularly within our fields of communication and design—there are numerous initiatives at both the global and local levels that aim to highlight the gaps and challenges in accessing certain roles and managerial positions, as well as to prevent and address potential acts of discrimination, among other issues. We were very interested in this initiative to support the empowerment of women in the business world, which has a multiplier effect on economic growth and the sustainable development of society and, in turn, challenges many cultural paradigms that have yet to be dismantled.
Furthermore, the cultural and creative industries—in which the School of Communication and Design has been active for 28 years—are currently experiencing a unique window of opportunity for entrepreneurship, driven by the digital transformation. As barriers to entry have dropped significantly, new business opportunities are emerging in the digital sphere and on the global stage, making talent more crucial than ever.
Ultimately, we want to support the empowerment of the creative leaders of the future through academia.
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How did you come to be appointed as a regional ambassador? What does this role entail, and what does it mean within the organization?
In April, the ambassador to Uruguay, Cristina Bertlotto, contacted me to say that she wanted to recommend me to lead the movement in Latin America, based on my work organizing and managing the event in our country over the past three years. I then had a meeting with Wendy Diamond, CEO and founder of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization, to introduce myself and elaborate on my background, as well as a series of meetings with other Latin American ambassadors who have made significant contributions to the movement. I also presented a three-year roadmap for the Latin American ambassadors’ community.
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What are the medium-term challenges in this new role?
We have developed a three-year work plan focused on a series of initiatives aimed at: fostering greater regional cohesion within the movement; developing training and collaborative learning programs in the region with a focus on new business models; expanding the network of ambassadors at the regional level and in a decentralized manner within each country; and improving the quality and quantity of the movement’s institutional partnerships.