Theme: Unlock The Future

If, in the linear conception of time, the future represents what has not yet taken place, in a person’s life the future is something that we can still dream about, imagine, plan, create and innovate.
What idea of the future do women have?
They know that, in order to build the future, we have to take risks, uncover new ground and challenge our limits with force, courage and initiative.
Let’s discover the women who today, in their laboratories, offices, theatres and reception centres, hold the key to “Unlock The Future”.
1. Risking the future
Stories of women who have put themselves on the line without being afraid of making a mistake, with the audacity of someone who knows the value of a lesson to be learned.
2. Unlocking the future
The testimonies of those who were able to take another look at events with fresh eyes, finding the unexpected idea capable of giving new impetus to the future.
3. Dreaming the future
Giving free rein to your imagination in order to explore your potential and transform your vision into reality.

Vodafone Theatre
Via Lorenteggio 240
milan, Lombardia, 20147
Italy

Anna Zanardi

An organisational and change management expert, Anna Zanardi graduated with a degree in Economics and Business in Switzerland, before going on to study Systemic Psychology at Stanford University and obtain a postgraduate degree in Expressive and Artistic Therapies from Harvard, Massachusetts. She is a fluent speaker and writer of German (bilingual), French, English, Spanish and Russian. An Advisor to many boards of directors, Anna works as an executive coach, assisting the CEOs and executive committees of major multinationals as they take the decisions necessary in order to bring about change within their organisations. She also contributes articles on cultural change and complexity to major newspapers and magazines and has written a number of papers on leadership and organisations.

Antonella Mansi

Born in Siena and raised in Maremma, Antonella boasts an impressive curriculum. A major shareholder in the Sol.Mar group, she is the Commercial Director at Nuova Solmine SpA, the leading manufacturer of sulphuric acid and oleum in Italy and the Mediterranean. In 2012, she took on a national role as vice president of Confindustria for Organisation. She was Chairwoman of Banca Federico del Vecchio, before moving on to chair the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation, where she has overseen the bank’s turnaround. Already a director of SOL SpA, since November 2014 she has also been an independent director at Alitalia and a member of the Advisory Board of British Telecom Italia. In 2009, she was awarded the title of Cavaliere al merito della Repubblica Italiana by the country’s President, Giorgio Napolitano, and in 2014 received the Mela d’oro prize for management from the Bellisario Foundation.

Chiara Bisconti

Chiara Bisconti is married with 3 children. She has always lived in Milan where, since 2006, she is HR Director at Sanpellegrino SpA, part of the Nestlè Waters Italy group. She also heads the Gender Balance project, with the aim of promoting women within the Nestlè group. A Bocconi graduate, she began working in human resources after many years in the business world. Having joined the Nestlè group in 1991, Bisconti held a series of key positions in sales, trade marketing and control. In 1999, she moved to Purina, a group company and a leader in the pet care sector. Then, in 2005, she joined Sanpellegrino to work in human resources, becoming HR Director in 2006. She has always been committed to promoting a culture based around equal opportunities and the application of gender policies that meet the needs of women, focusing on issues relating to flexible working and the work-life balance and fairly applying a merit-based approach to management.

Chiara Burberi

Born, raised and “badly educated” in Milan since 1967! Everyone has their own idea of Chiara…given that this 47-year old, with a first-class degree in Economics from the Bocconi University, a teacher at the same university, and then a consultant and manager at McKinsey and Unicredit, two children and a brilliant career in management, gave up fame, fortune and her professional ambitions to found a start-up, Redooc.com. Redooc.com is an online education platform, specialising in STEM (the acronym for Science, Tech, Engineering and Maths). The website has rethought the way that we teach the sciences, adopting the language and technology used by young people, with the aim of getting them excited about these subjects, which will play such an important role in our future.

Claudia Mazzucato

Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, where she graduated in Law in 1993, with a thesis entitled “Alternatives to the criminal trial: making peace”. Since then, she has dedicated much of her research and her time as a volunteer working in the criminal sector to the discovery of new forms of justice: where “justice” no longer means responding to the harm caused by crime with the harm caused by punishment – a punishment that is, moreover, often pointless and counterproductive -, but encouraging restorative commitments for the future and the reestablishment of ties between offenders and the rest of society. Based at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, where she teaches criminal justice and juvenile law, she is a member of the Scientific Committee set up by the Catholic University’s “Federico Stella” Research Centre to conduct research into Criminal Justice and Criminal Policies.

Cristina Bowerman

Cristina Nunez

Born in Spain in 1962, Cristina Nunez began taking photographic self-portraits in 1988, as a way of overcoming issues of self-esteem that had led her into drug addiction during her teenage years. In 1994, after six years of self-portraits, she became a resilient artist whose work is regularly published and shown in museums and galleries around the world. In 2005, she founded The Self-Portrait Experience method, which she has since taught throughout the world, in museums and galleries, universities, prisons and rehabilitation centres, and in companies, so that people can learn to transform their emotions and pain into photographic works of art.

Evelyne Sarah Afaawua

Evelyne is 27 and a global citizen. Born in France, she spent 4 years in Ghana, but actually grew up in Italy. Having graduated from high school with top marks in business studies and foreign languages, she went on to take a degree in International Economics and Management from the Bocconi University. Since January 2014, she has run a blog, Nappytalia, which makes is easy to find out everything you ever wanted to know about Afro hair and the history of this complicated hair, but also encourages people to see and be aware of the intrinsic beauty of black skin, advising against the use of skin-whitening and hair straightening creams. A student, worker, social motivator and Facebook addict since January 2014, she loves her Afro and her black skin, adores my north Milan accent and would die for a plate of lasagne. She is both Ghanaian and Italian to the same degree. Without any of this, it just wouldn’t be Evelyne!

Francesca Rizzi

For 15 years she cultivated a passion for issues relating to welfare and social innovation, alongside a carrier with McKinsey as a business consultant. Then, she took a gamble on being able to combine these two worlds: helping companies to make a profit, whilst at the same time benefitting the people who work for them. She is now founder and CEO of Jointly, Il Welfare condiviso, the first Italian start-up created to apply the sharing economy model to organisational welfare. Jointly is committed to promoting the development of welfare policies that help people to live and work better. She lives a sort of acrobatic existence, dividing her time between two daughters, a husband and a thousand and one interests in everything that feeds the mind, body and spirit.

Gaia Elisa Rossi

Gaia Elisa Rossi was born in Turin on 9 August 2001. Her parents, lovers of magic, used to rehearse their shows in the family’s living room, whilst Gaia watched from a big box of tricks that made her think she had the best seat in the theatre. As a little girl, her mother introduced her to literature, with which she fell in love immediately. However, her big passion remained magic, which she began practising when she was still very young. Having been lucky enough to have worked with many leading artists, Gaia made rapid progress and, despite her young age, found that she preferred the company of people a little older than her. She uses social media with ease and recently, as the number of her followers has increased, she is sorry not to have enough time to respond to them all. Since she became a professional magician, Gaia has seen where this love of hers can take her: to discover the world and have amazing new experiences, as if by… magic!

Ilaria Capua

After a degree in Veterinary Science from Perugia University, followed by postgraduate study in Pisa and a PhD from Padua University, Ilaria spent a large part of her career in virology working in a number of overseas laboratories. She is best known for her work on influenza viruses and above all avian flu. In 2006, Ilaria published the virus’s genetic sequence for the first time ever, giving rise to so-called “open source science”. As a result, Seed magazine named her as one of its “revolutionary minds” and she was ranked as one of the 50 top scientists by Scientific American. She swapped her career as a virologist for politics in 2013, when she was elected a member of Parliament with Scelta Civica, as the party’s spokesperson for Research and Culture. Ilaria is married to Richard and has an 11 years old daughter.

Marta Raimondi & Niccolò Semenzato

50 years old between them, Niccolo’ Semenzato is part-Venetian and part-American, having completed his education at University College London, obtaining a master’s degree in Economic Policy, whilst Marta Raimondi studied Management at the Bocconi University in Milan, after a spending a short time in China. They were both recruited as a result of the Vodafone Discover programme and, above all, share a passion for music, cultivated since childhood.

Valeria Cagnina

At just 14 years old, Valeria Cagnina is Italy’s youngest Digital Champion. The award was presented to her by Riccardo Luna – appointed the country’s European Digital Champion – during CodeIT Roma, where Valeria presented her first robot, created with Arduino. A fan of Arduino, 3D printing and rhythmic gymnastics, Valeria still manages to find time to work as an entertainer at the Oratory and runs computer courses for pensioners and Scratch and Scratch Jr courses for kids. Finally, Valeria loves travelling, as you can see from her blog, “Il Mondo di Valeria”, which won her the title of Youngest Travel Blogger in Italy!