Lara Botta

Lara Rita BOTTA was born in Milan, but she is a citizen of the world by vocation.

After an international education, culminating with a Master's degree in Gender Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 2001, she started her successful career at Roche Pharmaceuticals Ltd London (UK) & Basel (CH) - dealing with Drug Safety Reporting and optimising the division's Global Processes.

In 2006, she re-established herself in Italy, joining the family company BOTTA EcoPackaging, where she is now Vice President of the Board of Directors. A corrugated cardboard packaging company, specialising in sustainable packaging, which Lara has been able to innovate and grow so much that it has achieved important awards such as Impresa 4.0 from Milano Chamber of Commerce, Best Female-Led SME from Assolombarda entrepreneurial association, Imprese Vincenti from Intesa San Paolo Bank and Road to Green Award.

Her vision and ability to search for innovation, seize and translate it so that it can be applied to company processes and strategy, have led her to achieve important personal awards such as Techno-Visionary 2020 award in the Eco Packaging category with an honourable mention for having been able to interpret circular economy through innovation and having distinguished herself for her ability to have vision, favouring social impact, transparency in behavior and ethics; 'Women who made it' award and the Packaging Gateway Excellence Award.

In 2018, she founded Instapack.me, of which she is also CEO, an advanced eCommerce with RPA technology and a 3D configurator, which deserved a listing among the Financial Times’ 100 European Digital Champions.

Her outstanding role in the field of sustainability has earned her recognition as Sustainable Packaging Expert according to Comieco. This expertise has led her to be featured in numerous articles, both in print and online, for publications such as Il Corriere della Sera national newspaper, Repubblica, Gente, Donna Moderna, and Il Sole24Ore newspaper.

She also participates in several TV interviews on national networks such as SKY News24, TGR and CNBC.

She has appeared in two publications as a case study on packaging innovation in green business and e-commerce: Green Business by Kickster and Packaging Design in the Digital Age (Barbero-Pereno, Politecnico di Torino).

She has also participated in numerous Podcasts including: Stories of Successful Enterprises on 'Voci di Impresa' program by Sole24Ore, Green Businesses by Kickster, and invited as a guest by two USA influencers in the Sustainable Packaging field; Cory Connnors and Adam Peak.

In addition, she has developed a pioneering model that applies the concept of Frugal Innovation to SMEs, a work that has resulted in a lot of interest and has been taken up by 'Management discussions' Podcast and 'The Good in Town' magazine.

Fully integrated into national entrepreneurial associations, she has held various roles within the Italian scene (from 2006 to 2017 she was Vice President of Young Entrepreneurs in Assolombarda, with the responsability of Associative Marketing, and Public Relations with Schools and Universities) and in Confindustria (from 2017 to June 2020 she was National Vice President of Young Entrepreneurs - Confindustria, covering the roles of Head of Gender Policies Committee, Advisory Board STEAMiamoci STEM Assolombarda project,

Head of Digital Communication, Gender Equality Advocate&Speaker).

At present, she is a Member of the General Council of Assolombarda - President of Industrial Services with a mandate for Sustainability - Vice-President of the Innovation Services Group.

Since 2019, she has been a member of La Carica delle 101, serving as a StartUp Advisor to female led startups.

She has been a member of juries in competitions related to entrepreneurial initiatives and StartUps such as Start-Up Contest-Premio Marzotto, GI Startup Contest, and Chivas Social Impact Startup Contest Jury, and is currently part of the Board of Experts for Impact Innovation of Unicredit Bank StartupLab.

She believes in continuous improvement and this has led her to consolidate her training in the field of packaging and management through advanced training and executive courses (MIP Digital Transformation&Change Management; Packaging Challenges for Circular Economy c/o Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna; In the Boardroom 4.0- executive program for inclusion in Boards Governance 2020-Board Member Training-Federmanager; ITA-ICE-MAECI internationalisation practices and techniques).

MAIN AREAS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST

Sustainability, Marketing, Communication, Family Business, Generational Change

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(2017) AA.VV Crescere e competere con tutti i talenti: Cosa può fare un Leader per dare spazio al talento femminile – Prefazione, Club 30% Italia

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