The world is no longer what it used to be, say the popular words. While scientists are more specific. In 50 years the planet has advanced in a vertiginous way with incredible changes for human life. Much more notorious and radical than those that occurred in the previous 200 years. Much (or almost all) is due to the previously unimaginable development of technology.
Today cell phones, satellites, space vehicles and even simple domestic robots have created a world of comfort that is familiar and everyday, without which we cannot imagine life. And it is hard to believe that this entire field was developed in a few decades. Undoubtedly, each one of them has been the result of research, vision and competence of scientists committed to making what for others was only pure imagination come true.
Ms. Laura Hannois understands very well what this is about. Not only because she had to pass hard life tests to complete her studies, but because, as in many other areas, she had to redouble her efforts when she felt the weight of being a woman in a field labeled almost exclusively male. At the age of 8 she began to program as a game and at 12 she was already clear that her path was science. She started at a technical school and received a computer science degree.
With the support of his family to overcome obstacles and after tough decisions such as moving to another city, sharing a house with 16 students, early risers and always working part-time, he began his dream of studying at the National University of La Plata. First in Astronomy and then changed to Electronic Engineering. Her constant motivation for her field led her in 1999 to win a research grant to carry out her thesis on Electromagnetic Field Measurement. However, a hard blow in the year 2000 put a parenthesis to end her career, although it allowed her to gain relevance in the private sphere, with some incursions into the public sphere.
At the age of 27, his first big challenge came. She was hired by British Telecom as Project Manager for Unilever Mexico, Caribbean, Central America and Andean for 4 years. Upon her return to Argentina, she joined Alcatel-Lucent, and then Huawei for the Telecom account as Project Manager. In 2012 she joined BGH Tech Partner as Head of Technology and Infrastructure, where one of her most relevant projects was hydrometry (early warnings) for the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. In 2016 she entered the public sphere as Director of technology for security in the Municipality of Vicente López. During this time, she finished her studies, and went for more with a degree in B2B Marketing at the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires (ITBA), among other titles.
Anyone would be satisfied with such achievements, however Laura’s always progressive vision led her without deviations in 2018 to NEC (Nippon Electric Company) where she notoriously served as Regional Marketing Manager for Latin America and, what she perhaps most values, it was the enriching opportunity to have conceptualized and developed international events on Smart Cities and Public Safety, such as the Smart City Expo Buenos Aires in 2019, where he combined creativity and the latest available facial recognition technology that streamlined access times to the event , and information from it while eliminating the use of paper, and also the versions of Mexico, Colombia, and the INTERPOL events in Chile and Argentina, among many others.
The vertigo combined with enormous satisfaction made 2019 a milestone in her career when she was invited as a panelist to the Smart City Business Expo Colombia, where she began as a speaker, an activity that she enjoys to this day at technology and business events. His meteoric career has not erased his memories and whenever he can, he recalls his infant beginnings with Muy Interesante magazine (head magazine) and also that book with which he achieved his first programming: Arturito y yo, which he still keeps as a stone philosopher of his career.
The Covid 19 pandemic that crossed the planet was not an obstacle to keep up the pace. Her sensitivity to the difficulties of gender, discrimination, differences in salaries and opportunities was the driving force behind creating iN+A LatAm, a consultancy firm with inclusive properties for the female universe in technology, and the consultancy’s first great job came, IINNDI (Innovation + Development + Inclusion), a 100% virtual event to give visibility and act on these issues.
In 2021 she joined ARSAT (Argentine State telecommunications company) and from the program of the Center for Genders in Technology she carried out work that allowed the favorable balance of 2,500 Argentine women trained in technology issues, and in 2022 the first face-to-face event post -Pandemic Women in Tech Argentina (WiT).
Like any multitasking woman, she had a commendable family and a son who is now 15 years old. Her professional life revolves around the honorary role of Coordinator of the Internet of Things Subcommittee in the professional council of telecommunications, electronics and computer engineering (COPITEC), teaching, and mainly as a consultant in marketing and technology. The finishing touch this year, without a doubt, is having been nominated for the Globant Women that Build Awards, which will surely add to her already long and prolific career with satisfactory results because, as she repeats over and over again with conviction in each of his oratory: “I have always been consistent with what I say and what I do. I am convinced that the only way to generate change is by taking action”. And so it will be once again because, as is known, science and the human imagination have no borders.
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