Monica's Five Lives

In Monica Ramirez Hartmann's career – that includes many different paths – there is a before and after Bogotá. "After years as an executive at private companies, I became Manager of the Bronx Creative District, and there I really understood what my path was: to be able to have an impact, to regenerate." Colombian by origin but raised in the UK, Ramirez Hartmann returned to Bogotá with her family when she was still a young girl. She recalls: "Colombia in the ‘80s was a difficult country. I didn't fully realize all the dynamics but there was fear on the streets, guerrilla warfare, drug trafficking and a lot of poverty." 

After overcoming her initial disorientation since she spoke mainly English, she went to college in Bogotá, graduating with a business degree. "I was a good student, but I remember that at the time I felt a bit lost, I wasn't sure if I had found my way. However, I liked the fact that studying business meant connecting different areas, from marketing to finance." Between 1994 and 1995 she worked at Citibank and in marketing at IBM, then in 2000 she moved to Italy, for the sake of love. "I had met my first husband and I decided on impulse to pack my bags. So I arrived in Milan and this is where I decided to enroll in an MBA in the business field." She chose Bocconi, where she joined an international class group. "There were about 70 of us. I met people from countries I had never been to, from cultures I didn't know much about. For me it was incredible: I was 25 years old and the world opened up to me."

So she decided to say yes to a project involving several companies, including Ford, in São Paulo, Brazil. She was responsible for developing activities related to tracking systems to find stolen cars. "It was a very interesting initiative but with the collapse of the Brazilian economy the project was cancelled and I was left on hold." So then she decided to start again in Colombia with her husband. "I went home and found a job as a general manager, at the age of 28, in a chemical products company. It was like a second MBA because for me it was the first real chance to integrate everything I had learned. I was then the reference manager, a gestora who makes decisions. I think that was the turning point, the experience where I started believing in my ability to manage the company."

With maternity came the decision to stop working for two years and focus on her family. "I don't regret the choice. Motherhood is also an MBA, you learn many things. When my son was two years old I got divorced and I had the drive to make another change." She therefore began working at Invest in Bogotá, where she remained for four years and where she met her current husband. "The agency connected public and private sectors and was responsible for looking for international companies ready to invest in Colombia. Which meant raising awareness of my country outside its borders." It was a job bridging different cultures that led her to travel and then work abroad: she was Senior Business Development Manager for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission for five years.

Her fifth life, as she calls it, began with an unexpected phone call from Bogotá. "The newly elected mayor called me saying that he was looking for a person for a new job in the city government structure. A manager of the historic center was needed to develop some disadvantaged areas. I said yes, a little bit out of courage, perhaps a little bit out of madness." And this is how the city changed. In 2016, 2,000 police officers cleaned up the infamous streets of downtown Bogotá, known as "the Bronx" and in 2018 the Creative District financed by the municipality was born. Which means concerts, events and spaces for the creative industries and for the city's young people. "Since my commitment ended, I have changed jobs several times but I am proud to see the Creative District still active, regardless of the city councils’ political persuasions. In the following two years I dealt with tax breaks for companies that invest in social projects and now I am focusing on business, education and culture.” She therefore suggests that young people who are passionate about cultural heritage broaden their perspective. "I learned that behind the cultural world there must be a solid business structure for anything to be achieved. Separating art and business is a mistake, we need economic sustainability and there is a great need for cultural managers who focus on these aspects."