A Milanese in Washington, DC
“My sliding door moment? I left my career as an attorney in Italy to move to America. Before I left, I got married in the town hall, during my lunch break, on a Tuesday. I remember wearing a green dress. Then we packed our bags. It was a leap of faith, but if I am working at the World Bank today, it is also because of that personal and professional choice.” Francesca Daverio, who earned her doctorate in Business Law from Bocconi University in 2010, is an attorney specializing in international law. She works in the World Bank’s Legal Department as Head of Office, Senior VP and Group General Counsel. She is “a Milanese in Washington D.C.,” as she writes on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram.
“I remember my PhD years as extremely stimulating, insane, frantic studying, but I had brilliant colleagues and the course had a practical focus. And it allowed for experience abroad. My lifelong approach has helped me: never hold back and always be curious,” she adds. After her PhD (and before the big leap), Daverio worked in several law firms dealing with commercial and bankruptcy law, vertical skills that would come in handy when she went to the US. “When I first arrived, it was tough. I left [Italy] without any concrete job prospects, and I only applied to the World Bank after a few months. In those months of great uncertainty, I realized how important it was for me to be financially independent, to plan a career and have a role in society that was not just a wife and then a mother.”
So Daverio did what she advises young people to do today: she rolled up her sleeves, believed in her own potential, and took the plunge, thanks to a mixture of “fire and hunger”. She looked for a job in the legal field and seized the opportunity to apply to the World Bank. She was selected and began the journey that has led her to become the head of the World Bank’s Office of the General Counsel, responsible for Gender, Law, and Justice Services.
She says: “Leadership is a mindset, nobody teaches it to you. As a leader, I try to be authoritative, not authoritarian, to encourage younger people by setting an example on the job, while considering everyone’s needs and diversity. Maieutic leadership, in other words.” Daverio pays particular attention to her younger women colleagues, especially if they are pregnant. “When it was my turn, I had to make sacrifices; I had to say yes to professional commitments that should have been no. This was because male bosses did not understand the needs of a new mother. I don’t want that to happen to any woman, so I protect my female colleagues by figuring out a flexible work load.” And Daverio also steps up when she can give younger generations new opportunities.
