Category Archives: Press Releases

RecognizingLaura Lee Jones

 

Laura Lee Jones has over twenty years of experience in the creative industries with a specific focus on gift and craft, fashion and retail.

Laura has worked in various capacities as a designer, design consultant, project manager and entrepreneur. Her knowledge of the creative sector was honed when she worked with JAMPRO -Productivity Centre in the mid-1990s. (The Productivity Centre is now the Jamaica Business Development Corporation, a government agency focused on MSME development).  As part of her entrepreneurial endeavours, Laura developed Studio L Designs the business name under which she manufactures a resort line and offers services in design & execution, product development and design consultancy.

In the last 8 years, Laura has been in the field of education acting as Senior Lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts (School of Visual Arts).  She currently serves as the Acting Head of Department in Applied Arts. She oversees the textiles, jewellery and ceramics departments, and specializes in textile history, design and weaving. Laura is also passionate about business development and entrepreneurship. She is committed to helping her students become important players in the creative industry and more so for them to be sustainable in their creative endeavours.  An alumna of Edna Manley College, Laura wanted to give back to her alma mater and so she joined the college in 2012.

Laura holds a Master of Arts degree in Heritage Studies from the University of the West Indies, Mona and has a very keen interest in cultural development, intangible cultural heritage and world heritage.  She has had active roles and membership in the Archaeological Society of Jamaica and the Craft Council of Jamaica.

Looking ahead, she is considering a PhD and growing the capacity of her own brand. She also wants to become engaged in the development sector.  She credits her success to her passion for her family, the love for her country and her desire to make a difference locally and globally through the work she is engaged in.

Women’s Networking Association Member, Laura Jones, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.
 

RecognizingAndrea Cavallari

 

Andrea Cavallari recently stepped into the role of Director, Emerging Tech Practices Latam at Red Hat, a leading provider of enterprise open source solutions. Passionate about technology, adoption and customer success, she is a certified engineer who has worked in the software sector since graduation from her schooling. In her role, she works to bring, develop and share advanced knowledge and experience about emerging products, while supporting high complexity projects across the region. Her ultimate goal is to improve customer experience in adopting emerging technologies.
 
Having joined the Red Hat team in 2007 as part of Global Support Services group, Andrea most recently had been Senior Manager, Customer Success team in Latin America. She has more than 15 years of experience in her field, and is known for her focus on customer, leadership of high performance technical teams, and ability to connect technical customer’s needs with business goals. She also serves as a trusted coach and mentor to her peers and colleagues.
 
Andrea earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Information System Management from the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie and went on to complete two MBAs, one from the Instituto Brasileiro de Tecnologia Avançada (2007) focused on Information Security and from Fundação Getulio Vargas (2017) related to Business Management. She also undertook executive continuing education at the University of California Irvine focused on Innovation and is certified in Cobit, ISO 27001, ITIL v2, PMP, IELTS, HDI Support Center specialist and as a Red Hat Engineer.
 
In 2015, Andrea was honored with the Red Hat Chairman Award. In addition to the WNA, she is a volunteer of Fundacion Pescar Association. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English, and credits her success to hard work and collaboration.
 
Women’s Networking Association Member Andrea Cavallari can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.

 
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RecognizingKim Singh

 

For over 25+ years, Kim Singh has been a proven leader in global operations, sales and delivery. She’s held many global leadership roles in Client Deliver/Enablement/Relationship and over-all end to end Customer Satisfaction, Sales Leadership and Executive Operation leadership. Current role combines of executive leadership over development and maintenance of client relationships in productivity to empower and increase personnel performance. She is a transformational change expert and uses proven methods to direct execution strategies. Her expertise lies in organizational restructure through identifying the company vision and reassessing company culture, thus improving client relationships and revenue and cost take out and Sales Leadership and execution.
 
Kim has worked as President of Managing+, which again saw her in operational oversight and organizational leadership, restructure, and stability. She has for many years worked with client engagement, sales leadership and operations which encompassed a multitude of business sectors including Government: Public and Private Sector, Retail, Financial, Healthcare and Technology Sector She is a proven Leader, negotiator, analytic, and facilitator. She has worked for many years for IBM as Client Engagement Leader as well as working with Hewlett Packard as Project Portfolio and Relationship Manager. She is also worked in the human resources sector as HR Partner for IBM.

Kim has an extensive educational background having completed her master’s in Business Management with a focus on 2 MBA’s in Big Data and Business Intelligence and Business Administration. She took many courses through the IBM Academy, including Emerging Global Leadership Management, Project and Program Financial Management, and Worldwide HR. Client First and also Six Sigma process certification.

Kim is looking forward to networking and connecting with other likeminded professionals, and to gaining the recognition and credibility of being a member and looking to at opportunity to embark on the next chapter of her career

Women’s Networking Association Member, Kim Singh, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.
 

RecognizingFrancina Zapata

 

As Partner of DHOZ Consulting, Francina Zapata provides her clients with viable legal solutions that not only meet their needs, but offer personalized assistance to them with professional and human quality. She oversees legal matters across real estate, corporate and commercial law, foreign investments, and business structuring, and has been practicing law for over 21 years.

Having gotten her start in the field working in civil law and contracting, Francina previously served as Branch Manager of Stewart Title Dominicana, and Associate Attorney of DMK Abogados-Central Law. She has also taught law at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and was Internal Lawyer of Foreign Negotiation of the Ministry of Commerce, as well as Associate Lawyer of Zapata, Taveras & Asociados.

Fluent in English and Spanish, Francina is committed to bringing diversity into the real estate investment sector. She offers counsel to tourism industry partners, and has collaborated on many published articles on regulatory and legal affairs in Mercado Magazine..

Francina completed her Doctor of Law Degree from The Universidad Iberoamericana in 1996, and holds a master’s degree in Law (LLM) from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a member of the Bar Association of The Dominican Republic and a member of The Civil and Commercial Law Entrepreneurs Association in The Dominican Republic.

Women’s Networking Association Member Francina Zapata can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.
 
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RecognizingMarcela Lacerda

 

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Marcela Lacerda is a seasoned Marketing Executive.  She has over 18 years in her field, and always managed a team of very diverse professionals from different cultures and parts of the world.  She also has a very strong international experience having lived in the USA twice in her live and worked in that country once.  Since travelling and getting to know new countries and cultures has always been her passion, she developed a unique and rare style of leadership, that nowadays is known as Servant Leadership.  Basically, what this means is that Marcela is the type of leader that believes that supporting s and enabling her team is the best way for a business to succeed and keep on succeeding.   She believes in reaching the goal with people and not through people or despite people.

Marcela finished her high school in Rockford – Illinois and absolutely fell in love with the American culture.  She went back to Brazil, Graduated in Communication Studies, took an MBA in Marketing and a second one in Retail.  Lifelong learner and curious professional, she also attended Kellogg for a Branding specialization and then to MIT for a digital business strategy.

She also has a very diverse and complete professional experience.  Although she graduated in Communication Studies, Marcela started her professional career on the Sales Support team of a telecom start up.  Moved up to one of the largest Mobile companies in Brazil as a Retail Sales coordinator.  After a short while, was invited to help start the same area at a different Telecom Company, this time as the National Retail Manager.  She then got again invited to join the team of the second largest home appliances retail at the time in Brazil starting as Regional Trade Marketing Manager.  There she experienced different roles such as New Business Manager, time where she opened 42 stores of the companies sub-brand in 3 months.  She was responsible for the entire project.  That led her to join the Marketing team as the Marketing Manager responsible for a budget of over $200MM.  Budget that in local currency was one of the most relevant amounts in the country at the time. After a new experience in retail. Marcela joined a mobile manufacturer where she succeeds to the point of winning the company their first Effie awards and sky rocketing Brand awareness on the time frame she directed the Marketing team in Brazil.  With that trajectory, she was invited to run the Marketing team for this same mobile company as the Regional Director for North America where she spent 3 years.  Living and working in a different country made sense after she separated from her 8 yearlong husband.  A different scenario was all she needed at the time.

Marcela came back to Brazil with a sense of completion and hob well done in the US and started to look for something different to do where her leadership style could contribute and help the younger generation succeed and be happy. She started at International School this 2019 eager to learn more about the education business and to help others try to understand their own passion and path. Putting Marketing and English together is almost like a dream come true for this brave executive that, through her professional life, discovered that she was not only great in Marketing, but she also loved it.  Also, she found out how to be a calm problem solver that has her teams back and helps them find the answers needed for whatever issue they have.

Great and empathetic speaker, she is now also teaching and lecturing for young professionals on how to take better advantaged of their potential even when the situation is not so great. Being able to share knowledge with anyone has, in a way, always been a passion.

Women’s Networking Association Member, Marcela Lacerda, can be found on the Association Directory, where she is looking forward to networking with you.