43 MAGAZINE My name is Nerea Luis, I am 29 years old, and I hold a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence. During my short professional career, I’ve spent several years working in academia as a training researcher and teacher. I’ve been in the world of industry for just over a year, where coming across leaders is much more common. Being a woman and working in technology, it is probably hard for you to imagine me as one of those “stereotypical leaders,” the kind that unconsciously come to mind when somebody mentions the term. For that very reason, I want to tell you a little about myself, my generation, and the leadership profile I most identify with. I was born in the early 90s’ and belong to that generation of young Spaniards who have received the best training (public, in my case) in my country’s recent history. In turn, I’m also part of the generation that – halfway through our time at university – suffered the consequences of an economic crisis that destroyed the hopes and dreams of many families. If I stopped here, the story would not inspire hope at all. However, I feel very fortunate to belong to the last generation that knew and experienced the “analog” world, as well as to be one of the first generations to live and shape the digital one: The internet. My generation is undoubtedly affected by this change, and it has been very positive. Personally, I would not be who I am today without the internet, and there is even less of a chance that I would have chosen a professional career in technology. Nor would I have embarked upon my own project; I’m almost certain of that, as my immediate family had no history of setting up businesses. What I’ve not yet told you is that the internet helped me create my first website (including a community) in secondary school. Later on, at university, I cofounded the annual technology event T3chFest, which welcomes over 2,000 attendees and 90 speakers every year. All these moments awoke an entrepreneurial spirit in me, one that had not existed until then. The curiosity I’d always shown since I was little blossomed and became a desire to embark on projects that used technology as a tool. I believe one of the characteristics of a “future leader” is the ability to be an entrepreneur and create something while thinking about a diverse and global audience. The next step is to harness the internet to shape the process and, finally, enrich ourselves through technology to obtain data, as this can help us Nerea Luis Doctor of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering at SNGULAR / Spain Recognizing new leaders will undoubtedly boost entrepreneurship among women and eliminate gender inequalities once and for all