Laura McDermott

Part of my role at IE is working transversally to promote social innovation. I connect the dots between people and projects that could benefit not only each other, but also society and the planet. This means keeping my finger on the pulse of new trends and opportunities within the community, and considering how these might be best leveraged to create more impact.

For example, in 2018 I designed the global Red Innova community, which facilitates the scaling of social startups connected to the Fundacion MAPFRE Awards for Social Innovation, boosted by IE University. The entrepreneurs of the Red Innova focus primarily on SDGs 3, 8, 9, 11, specifically in Latin America and Europe.

Today, my central role with Red Innova is to continue to nourish our relationships with the entrepreneurs - the ones leading the change on the ground -, understand their evolving needs, and connect them with the best opportunities to scale their impact. We thoughtfully designed the community and as a result, it has an active engagement rate which is 5 times higher than the standard for online communities. An engaged community is a key indicator that we are providing value and building strong partnerships for the goals!