In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’ve interviewed 5 Itineris power women and talked about their career path, gender equality in the workplace and about the women who are an inspiration to them.

During this International Women’s week, we’ll be sharing their stories with you, because we believe together we can #BreakTheBias.

Today: Valerina De Lille, Dynamics 365 Practice Manager at Itineris.

At the age of twelve I knew already what I wanted to study: Commercial Engineering. I guess that also has to do with the fact that I grew up in an entrepreneurial family; they owned an IT business. After I graduated, I joined the company as a Finance and HR Manager. We’re talking about the year 2000, when the so-called dot-com bubble bursted, which caused a stock market crash. After several difficult years of reorganisation and restructuring, I decided to make a career move within the same company and I moved to ERP Consultancy, in different roles, to end up as an ERP Operations Director.

After 18 years in the company, I felt it was time to move on, and I joined Itineris as a Dynamics 365 Practice Manager. Within that role, I am managing an ERP team and I am also involved in solution strategy.

There are many things that have made me grow throughout my career, and in life in general. What I have learned above all, is that hard work pays off, that it’s important to be passionate about what you do, to create your own opportunities, to never give up, and to never forget that teamwork makes the dream work. I have a strong belief that together you can achieve so much more!

My advice to young women would be: don’t be afraid to take your career into your own hands, and you will see: many opportunities will come your way for sure! What is equally important: make sure you are surrounded by a family that supports you. I became a mother at a relatively young age, and I found it important to also spend enough time with my kids. I could never have combined this with my career aspirations if I hadn’t had a family to support me in this.

Through my experience, I’ve realized that a good balance between men and women is important, in any type of business. Every single person is unique, and men and women often bring complementary skillsets. The strength of a team comes from discovering, recognizing and respecting each other’s talents and embracing their complementarities. If nurtured and developed well, this results in powerful and successful teams.