A multifaceted career driven by curiosity
“The advice I give girls is to be comfortable with power. The greatest act of self-sabotage a young woman can commit is to be uncomfortable with power.”
Freelance consultant, advisor, and business angel, Paola Bonomo describes her career as “multifaceted,” not a linear path, but the outcome of her unquenchable curiosity about the world. Born in Marostica, in the province of Vicenza in northeastern Italy, she started her career at McKinsey after graduating from Bocconi University. She did an MBA at Stanford and then went on to hold senior positions at eBay, Vodafone, and Facebook. She says: “I cut my teeth first as a consultant at McKinsey for many years at the beginning of my career, and then as a manager in the digital world, working both for Silicon Valley platforms and in traditional companies going through their digital transformation.” She has experience in many sectors: telecommunications, retail, and digital services from e-commerce to advertising, with roles ranging from strategy and M&A to operations and marketing.
Today, Bonomo sits on the board of Telecom Italia and other companies, and on the investment committee of the Neva First fund. She is also Vice President of Italian Angels for Growth. “At the moment,” she explains, “I am involved on the one hand in corporate governance, as a board member in listed and unlisted companies, and on the other hand in innovation and growth, with my work in the world of venture capital.” These are worlds to which she brings a lifelong desire to learn and grow.
“I like the ‘portfolio career’ I have today because it combines commitments and responsibility for strategic decisions with the opportunity to meet and support entrepreneurs and innovators, and to understand where the technologies are going that are changing the world we live in. I like to pay special attention to women entrepreneurs and innovators, and I would like to see many more of them.”
To young women, she says: “In terms of your career, whatever situation you find yourself in, you have to study the mechanisms people use to get to the top. Make a pact with your bosses: if I get this done or solve this problem, will you choose me for the next growth opportunity? And if you do not see a path that leads to you getting picked for these opportunities, make a change: it’s better to take a risk in a fast-growing work environment than to settle for security in a stagnant one.” Beyond that, it’s essential to work on “frontier” issues, to keep pushing yourself a little further, “to set the bar high for yourself, even more than others do. But above all, be yourself. You can’t be a role model if the role doesn’t fit. It’s like wearing clothes that aren’t the right size.”
Bonomo’s role models are artists, musicians, and writers. Icons who have made lifelong careers out of their creativity. “Louise Bourgeois, Elena Ferrante, and Patti Smith come to mind,” she says. As for being underestimated in her career, she says yes, it has happened. L’esprit de l’escalier [editor’s note: the feeling of not having a comeback or a retort for a provocation], I’ve often felt it, but I’ve always tried to make up for it. With facts,” she adds.
