Diana Faria Ribeiro | Business Manager

From an early age curiosity has been the vector of my life's decisions. May be influenced by my mother, who since I was born encouraged me to travel and discover the world, that I have had the curiosity to know more, experience more and live more.

I grew up in an international environment, having studied at St. Dominic's International School, which allowed me to unleash my curiosity, know more people, different cultures, different ways of life.

This "global village" where I grew up not only nourished my curiosity throughout the years but also challenged what I knew, what I took for granted, allowing me to grow and become a more expressive, open, and if possible, a more curious person.

This insatiable hunger for knowledge and learning accompanied me throughout university, a time where I decide to join the Erasmus Program, to leave on my own, to discover, in search of new experiences. Living on my own was a test to my self-proclaimed independence; a decision that helped me grow and understand, once again, that knowledge is infinite, that there is no "one truth".

But curiosity hasn't been limited to my academic life, it has also been a decisive element in my personal life. I could speak to you about all the clichés used when describing someone's hobbies. I could say I like to read, dance and travel, but that is just the beginning. I don't like to read good books; I like to see a story through someone else's eyes and see what I cannot see through my own. I don't like to travel; I like to learn new cultures that defy what I take for granted. I don't like to dance; I believe that dance is a natural form of human expression.

My life's path and my curiosity have inevitably led me to working with ambitious entrepreneurs in industries from alternative medicines, through tech, to food. My innate curiosity and need to learn more about different things partnered with my need to organise and create structure around me has allowed me to help several entrepreneurs to turn their visions into working businesses. It's this need to learn, organise and create that fascinates me, that guides my curiosity and my professional ambitions.