The Common Thread of Identity Complexity
"In no way would I have expected to become the person I am today, either personally nor professionally. In the 2000s in Italy there wasn’t varied ethnic and cultural representation within companies and I struggled to find managers who I felt could represent my identity complexity." Marilucy Saltarin, head of the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging area at Golden Goose, thinks back to her beginnings at Bocconi as a student, curious about the future and with an identity she defined as a ‘third culture individual.’ "During university I began to understand that growing up in a different culture than that of one of my parents represented a wealth of viewpoints that I strongly appropriated in terms of identity. And that has also led me to the work I do now." Today Marilucy Saltarin deals with strategies for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within companies, a role that includes both a focus on the fairness of the selection, career and evaluation processes of people, but also the management of communication, culture and training at companies with the aim that "everyone feels comfortable in the work environment beyond their demographic characteristics and background."
She continues: "The set of skills necessary to carry out this role – which did not exist when I went to university – were built along the way. At the beginning of my career I wanted to work in a large media company, preferably on TV... we’re talking about the early 2000s, Facebook had just been founded and the Netflix IPO had just happened, but Prime Video and Disney Plus did not yet exist. After a Bachelor in Economics and Management for Arts, Culture and Communication, I enrolled in ACME (the MSc in Economics and Management in Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment), applying for and obtaining a loan from Intesa Sanpaolo. There were some experiences that weren’t available to me – for example an internship in New York that would have been too much of a financial burden for me at that time – but I was able to do others and achieve my goal by joining companies such as Fox, RAI and Sky.
"I thought my dream would stop there, but over time I understood something more important, the reason for that dream: I wanted to see more representation in audiovisual content. Not only that, but I also wanted a wider variety of people that was more representative of society in spaces where, until then, they were not expected, such as a boardroom." After years of activism in the company in Employee Resource Groups, Marilucy Saltarin moved to the first role dedicated to Diversity & Inclusion at Sky and social issues became the focus of her career. "Today there is a bigger focus on identity and cultural issues and consequently there is a job market. Belonging, however, is not enough, you need very different specific skills to work in inclusion: from legal and compliance aspects to communication aspects, to inclusive language." The desire to grow in this role led Saltarin to challenge herself in consulting at Boston Consulting Group and, later, to accept a role on a global scale at Golden Goose. "The challenge is wonderful and complex," continues the Bocconi alumna. "DE&I is a subject that changes from day to day and depending on the latitude, because it can be very culturally sensitive and connected to the social, political and cultural context. And it must be addressed from a holistic and intersectional perspective." For anyone who experiences first-hand a struggle related to the affirmation of their identity, however, the presence of models can be a valuable resource. "There are videos with the reactions that some black girls had seeing the protagonist of Disney's live action version of ‘The Little Mermaid’. We are beings who pick things up through osmosis, we react to the context. And no one should have to fit into any category but their own."
