Laura Simão

WHAT I DO

I am a business development and design strategist and a teacher at Parsons School of Design.
I believe we all have superpowers - talents and skills that make us really stand out and that are part of our professional "DNA."
One of my superpowers is to bring "design thinking" and "business thinking" seamlessly together to create results and impact through human-centered processes and empathy. I mostly work with visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, startups and non-profit organizations.
My second superpower is the ability to inspire and empower people, and to spot opportunities for growth in unexpected places. I have a good talent for bringing people and resources together around these opportunities to create positive results for all involved.
The recurring theme in my career is working with people and organizations that are mission-driven, and committed to excellence and making a positive impact in the world.

WORK HISTORY & CREDENTIALS

Before starting my own teaching and consulting platform, I was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, focusing on social impact investing and strategic partnerships and a business development strategist at Debevoise & Plimpton.
I have a masters degree in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design, and am certified by the International Association of Counselors and Therapists (IACT) as an Integrative Life Coach, a neuroscience-based program on coaching the unconscious mind.
You can find my full resume on LinkedIn.

INTERESTS

My areas of interest at present, and in no particular order, are: the environment, climate change, clean energy, media tech and democratic news, exponential technologies, space travel and exploration. I also like to cook, take improv classes, watch live music and documentaries, and to read about philosophy and futurology (the study of humanity's future!)
I am passionated about helping mission-driven entrepreneurs and organizations make a positive impact in the world. Whenever I can, I put my business development and design thinking skills to work to help them redesign their business model, offerings, services and to grow through strategic alliances and partnerships for maximum impact.
My list of interests above should give you an idea of the causes that I dig. If you lead – or hope to start and lead – an organization in any of these areas, please reach out to me; I would love to help you!

MY STORY AND DREAMS

I was born and raised in Brazil, in the middle of South America (literally), in a magical and really remote place. In spite of all the nature and abundance that surrounded me, I have seen and experienced a great deal of hardship there. So, I spent my childhood hunting waterfalls (real and imaginary). Today, I live in NYC but my heart and soul are still hunting waterfalls.
Coming to America at 21 and without much money was a bit of a gamble. But then again, I was hunting waterfalls and, thankfully, I found one.

Recently there was a profile published about me in one of the top newspapers in Brazil, O Globo. The profile is part of a sort of thought-provoking column of the newspaper, so I had to go a bit wild (talked a bit about my views on design thinking and the future of humanity - I predicted that we will be communicating via telephathy in no time!). Anyways, it is an interesting read. It is in Portuguese, but you can check out here.
I have many dreams, but right now my top 3 are: (1) to be alive in a future when clean energy, climate change, access to basic education, healthcare, food, and water for all are no longer "causes" to fight for because they are so widespread and common sense, (2) to travel around the world to shoot a documentary about the shamans of the world, topreserve their legacy and the memory of our planet as they see it and (3) to cook the perfect poached egg (without any tools).
I am an optimist, so I am hopeful that #3 will be the hardest one to become a reality in my lifetime.

Find my blog at http://www.reset.studio/ideas or to follow me on Medium, click here.
E-mail: laura@laurasimao.com