Beatrice de Salles aka Bia
Bia de Salles was born a citizen of the world. Although she grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, she has always had a bird's eye view of her place in the world. The great grand-daughter of a former Brazilian President and the grand-daughter of Senators both at the time of her birth had best sellers published; she traveled from her earliest years, staying with her mother’s relatives from the Italian nobility or visiting her Ambassador Uncle in Europe. At the age of 14, Bia was sent to an International girls boarding school for languages and finishing skills in a town near Geneva, Switzerland. It was there that she became a polyglot to make other polyglots envious: In addition to her native Portuguese, Bia is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German, and has a basic knowledge of Dutch, Japanese, Hebrew and Chinese. She is a lifelong learner, with an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Partnership with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. She also has a degree in Law from Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo, and has studied Journalism, International Affairs and Human Resources at various places. People are drawn by her positive energy and have always been interested and inspired by her generous soul.
All Globonders are “well-connected” by definition but Bia takes that term to a whole new level: Some years ago, Bia introduced Kirstin to her friend "Martin" at the Harvard Club Dinner the night before an HBS Latin American conference at which Globond was a VIP guest. The next day Kirstin realized that "Martin" was none other than serial entrepreneur, billionaire and philanthropist Martin Varsavsky who was the event’s keynote speaker. In the summer of 2000, Bia called Kirstin from India to tell her about her new friend, a Wall Street Journal reporter named “Daniel” whom she had met in China. She insisted that Kirstin set up a conference call to tell him about Globond which was still in its prelaunch phase. “Daniel” and Kirstin exchanged friendly emails about being mutual friends of Bia, and planned to have a conference call. The call never took place because “Daniel” was kidnapped and later murdered in Karachi, Pakistan. Bia's “new friend” turned out to be none other than Daniel Perl, the American journalist who had served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the WSJ and was stationed in Bombay to interview Richard Reid, the journalist that was investigating the Taliban.
Kirstin met Bia for the first time before Globond was officially established, on one of Kirstin’s visits to Brazil. Before, they had even met, Bia insisted that Kirstin stay at her beautiful penthouse in Sao Paulo, and. A year after they met for the first time, Bia, who had been born privileged, left all of her possessions behind in Brazil and came to the United States alone to make it by herself. She moved back and forth between the East and West Coast in a number of positions until she finally settled down to build a life in Palm Springs, California.
During the summer of 2001 Bia called Kirstin from Hong Kong to give the good news that she had finally been sponsored by Morgan Stanley and was relocating to NY. Her official start date for her new job in The World Trade Center was September, 10, 2001... the next day, Kirstin was inundated with phone calls and email from concerned friends and family asking if Bia was alive. Kirstin learned that Bia had been on her way to work that morning when the planes hit the Towers . She spent the next few months in New York City with other shell-shocked friends helping one another to get through the crisis.
Still Bia didn't give up and Kirstin picked her up from Logan Airport 3 weeks later and dropped her at The Leonx Hotel for an interview with the board of a Private Equity Team in Boston. 14 days later she started working as an Investors Relations Manager for a Boutique Private Investment Bank in Los Angeles, where she got her sponsorship and later her green-card. She now lives with Ata Yazici, a graphic designer from Instanbul and they have two children, Lorenzo and Anna Liz. They currently live in the area of Palm Springs in California where she has served as the Marketing Officer for Desert Commercial Bank in Palm Desert and as the Events Promoter for EventNet in the region. She has since opened her company called "BdS Services" and has also started to give presentations about her life experience in Languages & Globalization to target audiences including University of California, Berkeley. She has also written some articles to a few business magazines like "Epoca Negocios" and has been writing a book.
Bia just came back from Paris where she had the chance to work on a cultural project for the Louvre Museum and is currently part of the Women Leaders Forum in the Coachella Valley. She also serves on the Board of the Center of Leadership and Partnership Studies with Dr. Riane Eisler, PHD. She has been an Ambassador to several local Chambers of Commerce and has worked with the World Economic Forum in DC, India, China and Davos, Switzerland. Finally she has worked at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at the Harvard Business School, where she invited companies to attend their various Summits, and served as a panel mediator. She is a children's book translator, reviewer and editor and adores kids. Bia spent 3 months experiencing life at an Ashram in India and lived in Southeast Asia for some time!
She is constantly updating herself, taking classes and learning personally with people like Anthony Robbins, T. Harv Eker, Deepak Chopra, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and Robert Kiyosaki among others and shares everything with others. Her passion is Interior Design and her role models are her nice father who is an attorney in Brazil and her lovely grandmother, a beautiful and talented artist!
For more about Bia or to view her resume check her website at: http://www.biadesalles.com
For more about Globond because the world is huge please visit: http://globond.com/
By Kirstin Myers Journalist & Globond founder May/2009