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Women's leadership skills: María Beunza

Blanca Ezponda Sanz, 2nd year student of Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), presents the first colloquium of the cycle "Leadership skills for women", an initiative that she has promoted together with her colleagues Eva Infante and Ana Paula López. The first guest speaker was María Beunza, partner of Happeninn, consultancy service innovation for companies, who promoted among the attendees the concern and confidence in ourselves.
 

Last Friday took place the first talk of the Women's Leadership Skills cycle that, together with my colleagues, Ana Paula López and Eva Infante, we have been organising with great affection over the last few months. The goal of these talks consists of a conversation between student body and a series of women leaders in different fields of work, bringing their experiences and professional career and staff closer to the attendees.

Our first guest speaker was María Beunza, partner at Happeninn, an innovation consultancy for companies. She began her talk by asking questions such as: What is leadership? If a leader is a person capable of carrying out an idea and mobilising people to carry it out, as some of those present answered, then could we say that Hitler was a leader? Who do you consider to be female leaders today?

After posing this series of questions and capturing the attention of student body, Beunza began to tell us about her career staff and her professional career from the time she was a university student until the present day. His interest in innovation began at a very young age. In the last year of high school, she decided, together with twenty other friends, to rent a cafeteria in Pamplona during the Sanfermines. To this first adventure, or as she herself said, first ventureHe is accompanied by others: his trip to Paris while studying Business Administration, his internship in Barcelona and his three-year stay in Argentina.

After many years of work experience in various companies around the world, he returned to Pamplona where he worked in public companies and later created Happennin. Some time later, her eagerness to try new things led her to enter the world of human applications of artificial intelligence. Finally, she founded Innovactoras, an initiative that seeks to give relevance to female innovation referents, in areas such as science, technology, mathematics, arts, which she refers to as stam, in a close way.

During the conversation between those present and our guest, the former asked why Innovactoras was created. Maria pointed out that it was very important to give value to those female innovation leaders in science, technology, business, Education and society who are providing solutions to build a better world. With the creation of Innovactoras, she had met great women innovators with a lack of confidence in themselves. These female role models are people who are not aware of the great projects they have carried out and the positive impact they have on society.

This first session of the cycle made me realise the following issues. First of all, Maria made me realise that a leader is not only a recognised person who has left a mark on the world, but also a person who does great works in the present and who does not have to be commonly known.

On the other hand, I was very struck by the lack of confidence that these referents had in themselves. I think that at this stage of our lives, when we are forming our personality, it is very important that we are strong and confident in what we do. That we are self-confident women who know our weaknesses and our strengths. So that tomorrow, when we go out into the world of work, we can make the most of our abilities to contribute in different areas of work and contribute to the betterment of society. And I think this is something that could also be applied on a personal level.

Thinking of a female leader in my life, I imagine that, like many of you reading this, my mother came to mind. She is my point of reference. She is a person who has done and continues to do great things every day, but at the same time so quietly, that make this world a better place.

For all this, we can make use of "Analizza.me", one of the initiatives created by María Beunza, at partnership with Innovactoras and REDWINN (network Iberoamerican Innovation and training to Strengthen Female Impact in Innovation Ecosystems), whose aim is to put artificial intelligence at the service of the human development . This study aims to provide a greater knowledge of our capabilities and strengths, which I believe can be of great help financial aid to increase the confidence I have already mentioned.

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