BIOGRAPHY

I was fortunate to grow up in an international setting. The diversity of accents, habits and cultures around me both fascinated and confused me; with the curiosity of the child I used to enquire as to the roots of the many misunderstandings, often uncovering the unconscious biases and deep fears that tend to hinder empathy and acceptance. It was the beginning of a lifelong dedication to bringing the difficult and often unspoken issues out in the open and getting to understand each other.

After gaining a Master of Science in Industrial Chemistry in Genova, and a few Sales&Marketing internships (Insurance Sales; Advertising Agency Account), I joined Procter & Gamble Italy as Technical Brand Manager: I fell in love with the culture and stayed on for almost 15 years, throughout an international career that took me around the globe, and gave me the opportunity to learn, grow and use my skills at best.  Throughout increasingly more strategic and global Product and Market Development responsibilities, and various expatriate assignments (US, Germany, Belgium), I was able to nurture my abilities to challenge the status quo, engage teams and drive continuous improvement, while gradually (and painfully) learning to tame my impatience and to listen more than to explain. From that period I am equally proud of the innovations we took to the market (Folgers R&G in the Bottle; Splendid Decaffe and Spelndid new Line, Valensina Line, eco-friendly Dash and Ariel) as of the people that did it together with me.

When my 2 Italo-Norwegian children reached school age, I decided to move the family to Norway and joined Norsk Hydro, where I continued an international career (staying with the chemical Yara side after their demerging from the energy and metal divisions of Hydro). Moving from Consumer Goods to B2B was exciting and gave me the opportunity to direct my focus towards more commercial roles, albeit always with Innovation as common denominator.  Working in International Business Development, Sales, Marketing and General Management, I was involved in developing market alliances leading to joint technological breakthrough’s (in Food Processing, Cold Chain protection and Environmental Transport), driving the innovation agenda via lobbying in Europe and partnering with African Governments to support the Green Africa Revolution, as well as growing organizations and profitable markets under my P&L responsibility throughout further expatriate assignments in France and Africa (T/O ca. 500 million US $).

Throughout my corporate career I was also privileged to benefit from extensive training that further opened my perspective and self-awareness (e.g. International Management, IMD Lausanne; Managing by Leading, Ashridge Business School).   As I was progressing in my management career I was also becoming increasingly aware of the need for trust-based confident and courageous leadership in the modern complex and global business arena: as a result, I continued to invest and focus on leadership and neuroscience studies, until I finally decided to leave the corporate arena and set up business on my own, with the aim of helping organizations develop the kind of leadership that can bring engaged people to co-create extraordinary results. I co-founded Grooa in October 2010, with start of business in January 2011.

Today Grooa is a thriving boutique consultancy headquartered in Norway, with offices in Netherland (Eindhoven region), where we are building a learning center for conducting workshops in a green-nature environment; and with a network of multilingual consultants spread around Europe that allow us to serve our international Clients with consistent and coherent quality.

When I am not travelling to work with my Clients, I share my time between my Norwegian home, my Dutch husband’s home in Netherland and visiting my kids, family and friends “around the world”.