Executive Profile
Executive leadership at the intersection of systems change, field-building and economic transformation
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Objective and Mandate
Actively exploring new mandates:
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Mandate focus: Systems and narrative change; sector transformation and institutional innovation; collective action and field-building.
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To accelerate: Economic transformation and new economic models; public sector and governance innovation; social innovation; ecological and environmental systems change; narrative change and public imagination.
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In what capacity: Senior leadership mandates with significant scope and international reach, either as CEO, Executive Director or equivalent head of an organisation or collective initiative, or as a senior functional leader (Chief, Director, VP, Head of or equivalent) in innovation, strategy, impact, systems change, collective action, field and ecosystem building.
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Open to: Permanent roles, including founding mandates. Fractional or interim for the right opportunity. Open to relocating internationally, with preference for Europe and Africa. Open to hybrid and remote roles.
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In what kind of organisation: Foundation, intermediary, international organisation, multilateral, collective initiative, movement or network, think tank or ideas platform, public sector innovation organisation, new economy initiative, NGO, social enterprise, major media or cultural organisation with a significant public interest mandate, or adjacent.
Executive summary
Valeria Duflot has fifteen years of professional experience leading and stewarding organisations and initiatives at the intersection of economic transformation, governance innovation and social innovation, enabling impact at scale through ecosystem building, narrative transformation and policy influence. She has founded and led organisations and networks in both the Global South and North, equipped and enabled public, private and civic sector leaders to adopt new mindsets, policies and practices, shaped public discourse through global media and contributed to advisory bodies and sector initiatives from the grassroots to the EU and UN level. A Franco-Malagasy neuroscientist-turned-consultant-turned-social-impact leader, fluent in French, English and Italian, she brings cross-sector, cross-cultural and multistakeholder fluency: equally at home on the ground, in a boardroom and in a policy room.
A research biologist by training, with a postgraduate specialisation in Biotechnology Management from TBS Business School (triple-accredited: EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA) and executive training in Social Innovation from the Ashoka Visionary Programme, Valeria began her career consulting for Fortune 500 companies on data analytics and digital strategy, before redirecting her career to social innovation and economic transformation. The scientific and commercial foundation she built then underpins her evidence-based, results-oriented approach today. Her lived experience of the cost of outdated systems grounds her commitment to innovation, inclusion, agency and wellbeing: as the transformation she works towards in the systems she shapes, and as the standards she holds in the teams and cultures she builds.
Her track record demonstrates an ability to design governance structures and operating models that are fit for the change they seek to create, across a broad range of organisational forms: small agile teams enhanced by digital platforms and partner ecosystems, cross-functional teams of 50+, teams-of-teams with distributed volunteer and young professional programmes, and collective initiatives ranging from community-driven member networks to coalitions of networks, consistently bridging the local and the global. Across every context and scale, a defining feature of her work has been the ability to achieve significant, durable impact relative to resource, through narrative change, sector influence, ecosystem design and the architecture of collective action.
Across all of this, she has shaped the organisations, ecosystems and leaders that enable transformative change, and the narratives, cultures, structures and norms that inspire, enable, reward and embed it. From Bangalore to Venice to Brussels, this has contributed to shifting mindsets, behaviour and sector norms, redirecting revenue flows towards regenerative and community-centred economies, advancing sector knowledge and influencing industry practice and public policy from the local to the multilateral level. Across every context, the throughline is the same: connecting the local and the global, the grassroots and the institutional, and unlocking individual and collective potential in service of systemic change.
She integrates neuroscience, behavioural and relational science with the strategic use of technology, communications and business modelling to work on the human and systemic levers of change, building innovative and resilient organisations and cultures that are future-ready and fit for complexity. Recognised for leading with integrity, courage, empathy and rigour, she is frequently commended for the relational and emotional intelligence that stabilises complex systems in crisis and unlocks creativity and potential. She brings to every mandate not just strategic, governance and operational excellence but a clear sense of direction and purpose.
She is actively exploring her next executive mandate: a full-time leadership role in an initiative with international reach or ambition, focused on systems change or field-building in economic transformation, governance innovation or social innovation. Her goal is to put her 15 years of experience in service of ambitious initiatives best poised to dramatically accelerate the transition to economies, cultural narratives and governance systems that centre and cultivate the wellbeing of people, places and planet.
Core Competencies:
- Executive & Operational Leadership: Venture Building, P&L Management, Full Lifecycle Stewardship, Team Leadership (50+), Lean & Digital-First Operations, Innovation and Collective intelligence
- Systems Change & Field Building: Coalition Stewardship, Ecosystem Design, Narrative Transformation, Policy Strategy, Capacity Building
- Governance & Diplomacy: Board Stewardship, Multistakeholder Diplomacy, Fiduciary Oversight, NED, Distributed Governance
- Science & Strategy: Neuroscience-Informed Leadership, Behavioural Science, Pattern Recognition, Evidence-Based Decision Making
- Communications & Influence: Strategic Communications, Narrative Management, Digital Platforms and New media, Media & Stakeholder Engagement
Languages and Location:
- French (Native), English (Fluent), Italian (Fluent), Spanish (Understood)
- Based in France. Globally active. Internationally mobile.
Core Leadership Mandates
An overview of operational, strategic and governance experience
Institutional Stewardship & Policy
- Formal Appointments: Appointed EU Sustainable Energy Week Ambassador and member of the EC Drafting Committee for the Code of Conduct on Data Management in the Social Economy.
- UN & EU Engagement: Served as observer on the UN Task Force for Social and Solidarity Economy; contributed to landmark EU and UN initiatives including the Social Economy Action Plan, Transition Pathways for Tourism and Proximity Economy, and the UN resolution on Social Economy; founding signatory of the Glasgow Declaration.
- Coalition Leadership: Co-founding Chair of Catalyst Now’s Europe Chapter, a 1,000-member network spanning 35 countries, and member of its global Governing Council co-guiding strategy for a 6,000+ member global movement alongside leaders from Skoll, Ashoka, Echoing Green and the World Economic Forum.
- Field Building: Currently convening and stewarding a new pan-European coalition of networks working on the future of the European economy and governance.
- Wellbeing Economy Alliance: Co-shaping the working group on planetary and human health, tasked with co-creating a new vision and narrative for health in a wellbeing economy.
Venture & Operational Leadership
Benchmark Building: Co-initiated and led The Humming Tree (THT) in Bangalore and Venezia Autentica (VA) in Venice, both becoming benchmarks in their respective industries within two years of operation, attracting prestigious corporate, institutional and media partnerships and inspiring large, loyal followings.
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- Venture Impact — THT: Co-led a cross-functional team of 50+ to build a thriving cultural platform from scratch in Bangalore, creating a market for live music and creative economy where none previously existed. Successfully transitioned leadership, ensuring continuity of operations and mission.
- Venture Impact — VA: Envisioned and established internationally recognised pioneering new economic ecosystem and model. Leveraged a core lean team, 150 vetted partners and a digital infrastructure bridging online and real-world engagement to reach a 100M+ global audience and redirect 3M+ annually to local SMEs without grant dependency. Led organisation through its full lifecycle to a responsible wind-down, developing an open-sourced learning repository to ensure continued indirect impact and contribution to sector knowledge.
- Global Systems Change: Led global systems change arm, Overtourism Solution, operated through a lean team-of-teams model and the Global Impact Talent Programme, influencing business practice, policy, sector knowledge and public opinion worldwide making a long-term distributed impact.
- Market-Tested Resilience: Designed and operated diverse earned income models (B2B/B2C) across ventures including sponsorship, e-commerce, services and subscriptions, maintaining mission alignment without grant dependency through diverse and challenging economic cycles.
Field Building & Leadership Development
- Field Building: Built and stewarded fields across scientific research, performing arts, cultural economy, sustainable tourism and social innovation for almost two decades. From community-level ecosystems to international coalitions, her field-building work has consistently demonstrated that narrative change, ecosystem design and collective action can reshape how entire sectors think, behave and organise. Key proof points include The Humming Tree, Venezia Autentica, Overtourism Solution and Catalyst Now’s Europe Chapter.
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- Executive & Leadership Coaching: Guided and equipped 200+ impact leaders, executives and grassroots changemakers across four continents to reach their next stage of impact, spanning disability justice, inclusive finance, climate resilience, health equity and economic transformation.
- Institutional Capacity Building: Recognised as an expert practitioner and delivered capacity building for entrepreneurs, businesses, public sector representatives and social impact leaders through institutional agencies and initiatives including the UN-founded GSTC, Italy’s Invitalia, and the European Union Social Innovation Competition.
Strategic Differentiators
A multi-disciplinary approach to complex challenges. Fusing strategic clarity with operational rigour to scale social and economic transformation.
Pattern Recognition, Strategic Instinct and Foresight
Having worked simultaneously as founder, executive leader, board member and adviser across diverse sectors, industries, contexts and scales, Valeria has developed deep pattern recognition and strategic instinct unusually reliable across radically different contexts. She brings to every mandate the ability to read complex systems quickly, identify leverage points others miss, and guide organisations through high-stakes inflection points with clarity, humility and confidence. This depth of pattern recognition translates directly into foresight practice: the ability to anticipate shifts in systems before they become consensus, and to help organisations position ahead of the curve rather than in response to it.
Future-Ready Strategic Builder
Combines social and policy innovation, systems thinking, digital infrastructure, strategic communications and robust business modelling to decouple the scale of impact from the need for resources. Expert at designing and leading lean, high-efficiency operational models that achieve outsized systemic impact through innovation, agility, narrative transformation, partner ecosystems and collective intelligence rather than resource-heavy growth.
Community-to-Global & Cross-Sector Leadership
Drove organisations and networks with strong local roots and national or international influence in both the Global South and Global North, across scientific research, performing arts, cultural economy, sustainable tourism and social innovation. In particular, scaled the influence of her flagship place-based economic ecosystem, Venezia Autentica, to global reach and influence through policy, capacity building and narrative change. Her career consistently demonstrates that local roots and global reach are not in tension but mutually reinforcing, and that cross-sector fluency enables genuine translation across institutional cultures, sectors and geographies.
Evidence-Based Relational Practice & Culture Building
Integrates neuroscience, behavioural science and trauma-informed practice to foster organisational wellbeing, innovation, psychological safety and performance in everyday leadership and through high-stakes institutional shifts. Builds enabling cultures of trust, creativity, participation, accountability and joy that unlock individual, organisational and collective potential and sustain long-term relevance. Recognised for leading with integrity, courage, empathy, adaptability and rigour, she is frequently commended for the relational and emotional intelligence that stabilises complex systems in crisis and unleashes collective creativity and action.
Communications & Influence
An experienced and compelling voice across global print and broadcast media (BBC, CNN, Arte, National Geographic) and international stages, Valeria has advised and trained public, private and civic sector leaders from around the world on adopting new mindsets, practices and narratives adaptable to their context. She has built social media presences engaging 100K+ followers, shaped content regularly reaching millions, developed digital platforms recognised for “changing society”, and built brands that inspired the trust of community, consumers, institutions, media and beyond.
Full-Spectrum Operational Leadership & Governance
Led a broad spectrum of organisational models: cross-functional multicultural teams of 50+, lean core teams amplified by digital infrastructure and partner ecosystems, distributed volunteer leadership programmes, and teams-of-teams across geographies and sectors. Stewarded organisations through their full lifecycle, from founding to exit, navigating diverse and challenging economic cycles, high-stakes crises, structural restructurings, succession and fiduciary liquidations, while maintaining 100% mission alignment through earned and diversified income models without grant dependency.
Voices of Peers and Team
Perspectives from visionary peers and dedicated teams I’ve had the privilege to lead and learn from.
“While she clearly leads from the heart, what I find remarkable is that [Valeria] brings the kind of structured, analytical, and systems-level thinking you’d associate with McKinsey or Bain… I genuinely Googled her to see if she was ex-McKinsey because her strategic clarity and operational rigour were so strong… High-level strategic thinking without ego, in service of the greater good. It’s really an exceptional combination.”
“[Valeria] bring[s] an ethical purity and humanity to [her] deep grasp of the interrelationships that drive our societies. [She] exude[s] wisdom and humility. When [she] ‘rise[s] to speak’ in [her] firm but gentle way, the room grows silent to listen… [She] [is] one of the most impressive and unforgettable individuals I’ve had the pleasure of working with”
“Working alongside Valeria has been a truly formative experience for me. She has a remarkable ability to hold complexity without being overwhelmed by it. Whether it is making big strategic decisions or navigating the delicate dynamics of multi-stakeholder groups, she brings a calm clarity and gives people the space to contribute fully. From the start, she made me feel like a peer: respected, listened to, and empowered to lead within my scope.”
“Every organisation needs that sort of energy, those sorts of skills, and that kind of confidence that Valeria builds between people, for it to grow and progress…What she’ll bring… is also the support of an enormous, loyal, firm, and solid network.”
Credentials & Contributions
A snapshot of the recognition, current service roles, and continuous learning that inform Valeria’s holistic approach to leadership.
Recognition
100s of media features including BBC, CNN, Washington Post, Fortune | Awards for “using tech to change society” | “Entrepreneur Changing Italy” , National Geographic Travel
Current Service
Catalyst Now: Co-Founding Chair, Europe Chapter and Member of Global Governing Council | Wellbeing Economy Alliance: Co-shaping working group on planetary and human health | Convener and steward of new pan-European coalition of networks for economic and governance transformation
Education and Trainings
Ashoka Visionary Programme (Executive Education in Social Innovation) | Postgraduate Specialisation in Biotechnology Management, TBS Business School (triple-accredited: EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA) | MSc/BSc Health, Biology and Neurosciences | Continuous learning: Foresight (ongoing), Regenerative Finance (ongoing), Trauma-informed Practice, Macro-economics of SDGs | Diverse corporate sales trainings
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