Arturo Ania

Business adviser, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Engineer, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Job-seeker, Photographer, World traveler

I am a Canadian, born to Spanish parents in 1975. My parents left the dictatorship and oppression of Franco for the sole purpose of raising a family in an open-minded and nurturing environment of Canada. My father worked as an architect in Edmonton Alberta (the Texas of Canada) without speaking a word of English. By 1980, he and my mother, had designed and built an angular cedar sided house in the middle of the McMansion Suburbia. My mother with of 3yrs of arriving to Canada became fluent in English speaker and had graduated with a college degree all the while giving birth to myself and my younger sister Sandra. My parents and their accomplishments are a daily source of inspiration. As we grew up, my sister and I were constantly exposed to Spanish culture and at the young ages of 8 (sister) and 10 we travelled alone to Spain on our biannual summer trips. It has always been important to understand where our roots lie. When I was 13years old my family moved east to Toronto to escape the oil economic crisis of the late 80’s. The move to Toronto transformed my life and exposed me to the energy, challenges and beauty of large urban centers. I attended catholic elementary and high school and then went on to major in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Upon graduation in 1999, I set out to accomplish my life long dream of becoming an Automobile Design Engineer. I moved to Detroit and joined Chrysler and eventually Mitsubishi. During the next six years I learned about the complexity, talents and constraints of the car industry. I also dabbled in the entrepreneurial space in developing an in-board chronometer for racing enthusiasts. At the young age of 26 I had realized a life goal and was ready for new challenges and a new dream. In 2005, I embarked on a 6month around the world tour with a specific focus on China and India. My time in China was a particular eye-opener and it brought to reality the scale, acceleration, might and opportunity (challenges) of the rising developing world. It also triggered a profound desire on my part to become more involved in initiatives that have a social impact. During my MBA studies in 2006, I began to believe that the most sustainable approach to creating social impact was through business, but through a new way of doing business –design thinking. I felt re-energized. In 2007, I joined a small team in DuPont with the task of injecting a marketing mindset in the company, but the help of my colleagues we have broaden our mission to that of transforming the way business is done at Du Pont. We are still at the critical early stages and are experimenting with numerous initiatives to understand what works best. The challenge is immense and daunting. I am always looking for new ideas on how to create social impact through business innovation and so far at the beginning of this voyage I have met great people….. to be continued :)

about humanizing business through product, service, organizational, and business model innovation and delivering game changing impact.

Automobiles, Marketing Strategy, Product Design & Development

- finding authentic travel experiences, renovating houses, and observing human behaviour