The courage to start from scratch

“A young woman asked me for advice on writing a CV. Her draft talked about her excellent grades and international experience. But it didn’t represent her. She’s an interesting person, but her résumé wasn’t! I told her your résumé has to say who you are; not just what you do or have done.” Giovanna Gallì knows who she is. She is an enthusiastic professional with a passion for leadership and meritocracy, who loves to help people achieve their professional goals and draws energy from teamwork and new challenges. 

After working at JP Morgan and GE Capital, she is now a Partner and Director of the Spencer Stuart Global Board, leading the Board and CEO Practice in EMEA with a focus on corporate governance and leadership advisory projects. Throughout her career, she’s always been one of the few women in the room.

“I grew up in Campobasso [in southern Italy]. My father was a lawyer, my mother a teacher, and they always believed in educating their children: we could do anything as long as we did well at school.” So Gallì grew up with a strong sense of duty and openness to the world. “I was a curious child, used to interacting with everyone, from the farmer next door to my parents’ colleagues,” she adds.

When it came to choosing a university, there was no doubt: she was going to Milan. “I wanted to go to the best university, with the support of my mother, who was not afraid to leave me in a big city... without a cell phone! And Milan was the city of concerts and, for an 18-year-old, it was a great place to live.” So in 1987, Gallì enrolled at Bocconi. She graduated in Business Administration and then went on to do an MBA at ESADE in Spain, and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. “Incredible human and educational experiences,” she says, adding that the key factor during her studies was “the ability to adapt quickly to change.” 

After graduating, Gallì accepted an offer from JPMorgan to work in investment banking. “It gave me the opportunity to live in London; it was a personal challenge, even though I knew my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to be closer to the real economy and, above all, I was looking for a company with the ambition to make a big impact.”

So she joined General Electric in 1996, where she was responsible for acquisitions in major European countries. “I stayed at GE for 15 years because it was a meritocratic company where there was a real sense of belonging.” At GE, Gallì held various management positions in Europe and Italy, where she was Head of Business Development for several years, until she joined Spencer Stuart as a consultant in 2014.

“Changing jobs after so many years was not easy, it wasn’t something I planned and I didn’t do it for economic reasons... For me, the challenge was to start again and to challenge myself as a professional at the age of 45.” At GE, Gallì had grown as a manager, but as a consultant she was starting almost from scratch, studying and learning from senior people, with humility and determination. Gradually she moved up, and after two years took on leadership roles in EMEA, until she was elected to the Global Board. Because “I had a unique perspective, bringing my style, my ideas, in full respect of the partnership culture.”

On being a woman in a man’s world, she says: “I never thought I had fewer opportunities as a woman. I have to thank my mother, she gave me the confidence and support to do what I wanted. And I seized that opportunity.” To young women, she says: “Don’t ever measure yourself against a standard. True diversity means being yourself, in the way you think and act. 
That goes for everyone: women and men alike!”