Being CEO in the Third Sector

“When I decided to work in a foundation, leaving the private sector where I was an executive, people said to me: ‘Are you crazy?’ Actually, I couldn’t have made a better choice.” Serena Porcari is CEO of the Dynamo Camp Foundation and President and CEO of Dynamo Academy, a social enterprise specializing in designing training programs, experiential activities, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. She wound up working in the third sector after building a career in consultancy and management.

She tells us: “After graduating from a science-focused high school in Milan, I took the entrance exam for Management Engineering at both the Polytechnic University and Bocconi in Milan. After passing both of them, I chose Economics instead because I thought it would give me more options in various fields.” And so it was. As a student, Porcari had the opportunity to study abroad at the Copenhagen Business School. “What I remember from that time is the city, beautiful and dynamic, and the exams, all strictly written. At each session, to make sure we students didn’t copy, there was a group of seniors. They were volunteers who spent hours and hours with us in the classroom,” she adds. Porcari graduated in Business Administration, writing her final thesis on Danish companies owned by foundations. It might seem like a sign of destiny, but she points out: “To be honest, the choice of topic tied in more to my experience abroad than anything else, but it was certainly a first taste of the nonprofit world.”

The initial stage of her journey centered on experiences in the for-profit world. With this in mind, she did a CEMS (Community of European Management Schools) Master’s in International Management in Munich and became an accountant. In 1995, she found an internship as an analyst at Innovest, where she had the chance to work with a team put together by Vincenzo Manes, who was starting out as an entrepreneur. “This experience would prove fundamental years later. It made me realize how many job opportunities in life can come from the relationships you build, instead of sending out a résumé.” And in fact, Porcari keeps in touch with her former colleagues, even though they’ve moved on. “After the internship, I got the chance to join IBM, which was building up its service structure.” Porcari worked her way up in the company and, at the age of 28, was a front-line manager with her own team. “I was one of the youngest and one of the few women. I remember one of my bosses telling me: ‘Make sure you say you’re 30, at least.’” At IBM, she grew over the years to the point where she was asked to join the sales management team of a major client: Fiat. “They asked me to go to Turin. It was a difficult decision because I had just gotten married and I was pregnant. But IBM gave me total freedom. I moved, and after my pregnancy I returned to work very quickly.” It was a choice dictated by the desire to do her job well. “I’m convinced that the rules of the game are hard regardless of gender, just as the responsibility to change them grows with your organizational role. Then came the turning point: a meeting with a friend and former colleague, Diva, who told her that Manes was looking for an advertisement for his foundation.  So after almost a decade at IBM, Porcari decided to make a change in her life and take on a professional challenge: in 2004 she became one of the pioneers of the Dynamo Foundation, where she uses her managerial skills every day in the service of venture philanthropy.