Alessandra's Life, in 25-Year Increments
"I spent the first 25 years of my life studying and the next 25 building a career in large multinationals around the world. What would the next 25 be? I would like to continue building projects that have a social impact." Alessandra Mangione, for years a top manager at luxury giants such as LVMH and L'Oréal, has now created a non-profit organization for the development of talent in sustainable agriculture in "a corner of paradise" in Sicily, i.e. Piedimonte Etneo, between Catania and Taormina. Our phone call reaches her at the foot of the restless Etna, among the four hectares of fields planted with citrus and olive trees she grows in the narrow strip between the volcano and the Mediterranean Sea.
Before this big turning point, hers was a career she defines as traditional. After graduating from Bocconi with a degree in Marketing in 1996, Alessandra Mangione joined L'Oréal. She remained for about 20 years, working first in Marketing and then as Education Director Italy in customer training for L'Oréal Professionnel at the Turin HQ – a challenge given her young age – and then being promoted to Education Director Worldwide at central HQ in Paris.
That was a leap out of her comfort zone. "Many colleagues advised me against leaving marketing. At the time, it wasn't easy to change my line of work,” she explains, “but in the end it was a career booster, my desire to learn and my ability to involve people in different projects helped me succeed. I sought to be a manager capable of listening to the needs of their team."
This approach worked, with years of travel and meetings all over the world. Her career then progressed quickly, taking her to new business responsibilities in the emerging markets of Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and then to her second major career advancement as General Brand Director for Essie France in 2014.
Two years later came the third leap: she joined LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics where she was first General Manager Worldwide in the Maison Make Up Forever for professional businesses and then General Manager for Europe in the Maison Fresh. “There I had the opportunity to understand even more the complexities of a luxury multinational dealing with the challenges of sustainability and talent development.”
In 2021, the decision to leave it all. “Those were intense years” she says. “I had a lot of responsibilities and I loved my job: I reported directly to the CEO and sat at the tables where the big decisions were made. But I also started to ask myself a lot of questions about what I really wanted from life and whether I could apply what I had learned, my skills, for purposes closer to my sensibilities.”
She then started the project of a non-profit collaborative hub in Sicily that sees her in the new role of Director of Tenuta Cirale. “The idea is to create a place to cultivate wellbeing for people and the planet. On the one hand, it is an organic farm that focuses on sustainable agriculture, consumption and marketing. This means regenerating the land, respecting the environment and reducing food waste. On the other hand, it is a personal development activity, involving the local people in social initiatives that have an impact in terms of developing talents, the skills of young entrepreneurs and the whole community.” Alessandra Mangione combines these activities with a consulting job as a management expert, dividing her time between Sicily and France.
Given her journey, she advises younger generations to learn to listen to their minds by betting on themselves: from training to challenges at work. “One needs to understand what turns them on and then work out to trace their own path. If today I can design my own project and start my own business it is in part because I have invested in my skills over time and made myself financially independent.” As if to say that her years spent traveling around the world to monitor calls and KPIs have prepared the soil for new blooms.
