From Uganda to Trentino, with a Leadership Position in the Family Business

"I always had the idea that working for the family business was a real possibility. But I never took it for granted. I believe that even the heirs of an entrepreneurial family have the right to seek their vocation. At the same time, they are not automatically the most suitable people to play a role in the company. In short, the feeling must be mutual." Camilla Lunelli, Communication & External Relations Director at the Lunelli Group (Cantine Ferrari Trento), had that feeling when she was in Uganda – an experience that stemmed from an interest in the world of international cooperation acquired during her years at Bocconi. "My thesis was on development economics and while I was a student I interned at UNICEF in New York," she says. 

"After graduating, I entered the business world consulting with Deloitte, but I continued to look for possible field experiences with international organizations, until the UN called me for a volunteer role in Niger. Basically, my position was similar to that of an official, therefore fully integrated into the organization, but with the status of a field volunteer. Initially, I wondered if being a woman would be difficult in that context, but that was not the case. Paradoxically, I felt the gender issue more in the following years, during the phase of life in which you begin to build a family and have children, seeing many women I knew taking a step back to make room for men who were less talented." 

Her two years in Niger were followed by a year in Uganda that ended with her decision to return to the family business. "Moving from Kampala to the vineyards of Trentino was a big change, but I was also excited to witness the generational transition that was happening. My two cousins, Matteo and Marcello, had already joined the company, and shortly thereafter my brother Alessandro would also join us." That was how Camilla became the first woman at the company to hold a managerial role in over 100 years of history. "It’s not a record I’m particularly proud of: in part it’s a consequence of a trivial personal fact, namely that my grandfather had five children, only one of whom was a girl. I would have liked there to have been another woman family member in a management position before me. Reconciling private and professional spheres is a key thought in women's minds, but I believe that the problem should also be posed with the same urgency by men: namely, that it is a pointed question even for anyone who decides to be a father, otherwise things will never change. I think I was able to manage everything because with my husband – also a Bocconi graduate, we met on campus – we divide family and domestic tasks so that he takes on more than half. It was a shared choice, of course, which at times allowed me to be able to travel a lot for professional commitments. I realize it is an exception for now, but I’m optimistic for the next generations because, albeit slowly, the different forms of gender gaps are gradually narrowing. We cannot continue to ignore for long that girls and women have all the skills necessary to occupy any role in society. For our part, we must be ready to make sacrifices, and be aware that keeping everything together costs a great deal of effort. And then a fundamental task awaits us: to educate children – both boys and girls – to consider all this normal."