Alessandra Lariu, a former creative director from various advertising agencies decided to take her talents elsewhere in March of this year when she left her 'big agency' job at McCann Erickson in New York to focus her time exclusively on SheSays, an organization that exists to further women's careers in digital. Chosen as "One of the Most Creative People of 2010" by Fast Company, Ale is a mentor any agency woman would want to have. And just last week she launched SHOUT, an extension of SheSays that aims to foster a community of like-minded creative women who can simultaneously relate and push one another's boundaries. And then to sweeten the deal these women get compensated for their feedback and ideas, even if their ideas aren't chosen as the final client selection.
When Ale isn't running her own company and mentoring other women, you can find her writing a monthly column for a Brazilian magazine; teaching at Hyper Island, Miami Ad School and Boulder Digital Works; volunteering on the board of the Advertising Council; and designing and building a house from scratch. She says she loves being busy, and based on that last sentence we can tell that isn't an overstatement!
Ale attended school and university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and obtained a degree in communications studies. She then received a scholarship from the Brazilian government where she faced fierce competition as there were 50 people to one vacancy to do complete a master's program abroad. She now has a master's degree from the University of Plymouth in England on 'Electronic Publishing.' She says the title still makes her laugh because at the time, in 1994, CD-ROM's were king, and she started producing for CD-ROMs and the Web doing a lot of design and coding, which is how her career in digital started.
Read on for advice from the mentoring pro.