IB Woman
Issue No. 46 - April/May 2009
Latin American
by Penelope Herbert
A passion for the vibrancy and cultures of Latin America has fuelled the career progress of Stephanie Glue. Gaining degrees both in International Business and International Studies, and then a Masters Degree in Project Management, Stephanie based her thesis on the opportunities for SA business exporting to Latin America, particularly Brazil.
“I was working at the Exporter’s Club while I was doing my Masters Degree and I lived and studied for a short time in France and Portugal,” explains Stephanie, “giving me a greater interest in traveling, exporting and Latin America.
“Involvement as the State Representative for the Australia Brazil Chamber of Commerce has further fuelled my interest in the cultures, languages and also the potential to develop a business niche with so many possibilities.”
Having resigned from her job at the University of Adelaide to move to Chile, Stephanie will be balancing a dual role contracting for the University and developing other consulting opportunities through her company, SGN International. While improving her Spanish and Portuguese language skills will be the biggest initial challenge of her move, she also sees many opportunities, both for herself and for other SA organisations.
“Often trade between Latin America and Australia is limited because of a mutual lack of awareness of the opportunities that exist for business and collaborations,” she says.
“It is important to recognise that as well as opportunities for selling into the region because many people in Latin America are highly educated,innovative and entrepreneurial, there are also many things we can learn from them and a great number of collaborative opportunities.
“My key objective is to assist the University in gaining a greater presence in Latin America. Building relationships with universities, government and industry in order to raise the awareness of what the University and SA have to offer is a large part of this....
