Isabel Noboa: the Ecuadorian tycoon reveals her strengths, her challenges and some details of her family life

She is not a woman who goes unnoticed. The elegance of Isabel Noboa Pontón is marked in the same way when she wears jeans, a cool summer suit or a stunning office outfit. Her warm tone of voice —subtly emphasizing the words— conveys, more than the executive that she highlights as the most respected businesswoman in the world. ranking “Companies and leaders with the best reputation in Ecuador”, to a deeply believing human being, respectful of his values; to a motivator, to a proud mother and wife. And in the conversation she betrays a secret simplicity in his privacy.

“I am a woman who is built through the principles and values ​​based on my faith,” she says. She starts and ends the day with a prayer; she practices meditation, reflection; and she is convinced that she is part of a path defined by circumstances, the instruction received in Ecuador and Harvard (Switzerland) and what she experienced when she went from social entrepreneur to business entrepreneur.

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At an early age, in the 70s, he gave life to the Foundation for the Adoption of Our Children (FANN), with which he helped more than 600 infants to find a suitable home. For FANN it was not easy, because there were not only babies, but children with cleft lips, others already grown, “and all of them had to have a home”.

It was her participation in the Foundation that caused her brother Álvaro, a former presidential candidate, to take her to her first magazine cover, in The truth, when she was between 26 and 27 years old. Whoever appears on the cover of The Magazine of EL UNIVERSO this December 25, 2022 remembers him with a smile, the same smile that he gives unreservedly when he talks about the family with whom he will share Christmas.

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“Always for me, Christmas is with the family; and, of course, also with the executives we have a toast. For me, Christmas is, first of all, gratitude for the year that has passed, for the mistakes we may have made, which are ultimately lessons, and for the new opportunities (…). First of all, I think it is a thank you to God and also a moment to reflect on how we can build a better person for the following year”, she specifies.

What is the biggest personal challenge that Isabel Noboa has?

“I would say that, at the family level, it would be to have my whole family very close, because in any case one does not agree with what the other does, but that is where we mothers have to achieve understanding. And at the business level, my challenge is to produce more sources of work and try to support adolescents when they require my help”.

Isabel Noboa has integrated her three children, as directors, to the holding company business Nobis. “My sons are my life; they are the most important thing that I can have ”, she confesses.

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For the businesswoman there is another fundamental person, whom she admires and yearns for: “I hope you admire me too.” It is about her husband, the cardiologist Agustín Loor Viteri, whom she says is her support: “An intelligent man who can guide me in things that perhaps I am not so clear about.” She is captivated by him even details such as his knowledge of wines, cheeses or geographical locations around the world. He is a man who reads a lot.

The business leader not only preaches discipline: she practices it in all aspects of her life, because she believes “that what is easy leads to a difficult future”, and that taking care of the physical and mental part is paramount. In this she includes nutrition; but, if it’s about treating herself, she opts for a corn cooked only with cheese. The interview turns into a conversation amid smiles when talking about her daily life.

What overwhelms her?

“Perhaps, sometimes, I feel that I have many things that I want to accomplish and time is not enough (laughs). Part of what they taught me at Harvard is ‘Manage your time.’ But to manage my time, if I want to pray, if I want to do physical exercise, if I want to fulfill my tasks as a mother, if I also want to fulfill my business and social responsibility at a given moment, my time is shortened, because, although I I don’t want to, the day seems to me as if it were an hour (laughs)”. He begins his day at 06:30 and ends at 22:30, if he does not have to comply with any social activity.

What do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy reading, the hobbies; I like chess; I enjoy reading the newspapers and keeping up to date; and, for example, do sudoku, watch movies too. But I don’t always have enough time for everything (laughs).

What kind of movies do you watch?

“I love suspense or based on real life: those are the movies I like the most, and for me they are a break. Many times, when I’m overwhelmed for the day, I love to go into my TV room and forget about everything I had to do watching one of these movies.

in the technological age

The figure of Isabel Noboa Pontón is not elusive to modernity. Her higher studies were done remotely at the University of London, where she obtained her degree in economics (when we were far from the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced tele-education), but then she studied in person at Harvard. And this last preparation, his teachers and methodology are what he values ​​the most: “When I returned from Harvard, what I did is that I put on a card everything I thought was important at a business level, to work with my executives with those bases” .

Social media is a vehicle he uses to motivate and inspire. On Instagram it has more than 25,000 followers, on Facebook it is followed by 62,000 users and on Twitter it borders on 65,000, but it has not been seduced by TikTok.

“If I inspire it is only because I speak with my heart, with faith in what I express. My reason is only because I believe in dreams and I believe in people, ”she points out. She declares herself flattered that she is considered a motivator. “I think that if I have been able to deliver it is because I have had the opportunity to do so, and everything that I can contribute to anyone, regardless of status, like Isabel Noboa, that they know that they have in me a person who will always be willing to help them and lend a hand.”

And he emphasizes his gratitude to God for the opportunity to give, seeking to close gaps, avoid scarcity or pain. At that point along the way, he mentions FANN, the Nobis Foundation that promotes, among others, rural enterprises and United for Education. “We have more than 72 companies to be part of the reconstruction of our society,” he notes.

Her name appeared in 2022, for the eighth consecutive year, as the most respected businesswoman in Ecuador in the ranking of the Corporate Business Reputation Monitor (Merco), and there is no doubt that in 2023 it will return to the payroll. How have you led the way in your companies for gender equality? We asked you:

“Walker there is no path, the path is made by walking. Your footprints are the way. For gender equality, we have slogans on our walls. We combat discrimination and train women in tasks that were previously only performed by men”, she responds, not forgetting that when she began her business career (98) she felt that being a woman made a difference, but later she understood that “gender should not intimidate us”.

He talks about teamwork to achieve equal opportunities, salaries and training.

“Women and men have qualities that complement each other. Our condition as a woman helps us at all times, especially when it comes to negotiating. We can do several things at once without problem and successfully. The business world is complex; but, with perseverance, plus a team of committed executives and collaborators and our intuition, that sixth sense typical of women, we can succeed ”, she says.

And if a young man facing working life asked you for advice, almost like a mother, what would you say?

“I would tell him that, first of all, manage your life with principles and values. If you do not do the thing in a right way, at some point you are going to have problems; So don’t try to make yourself known, don’t try to skip things. Pursue having a life with dreams and with confrontations with yourself to overcome obstacles that are only in your mind. You have to learn that you can overcome everything, that the only thing that I have seen so far that we cannot overcome is death; the rest, everything. But always with principles, values, discipline and perseverance, because many times we fail at something and decide not to do it again. That is not the way: we have to learn from those mistakes to get ahead. (…) You have to keep looking, that the one who persists finds. I can’t always have the remedy for them at work, why? Because it would not make the companies competitive if I need a lawyer and contract three; so unfortunately I also have to limit. But ultimately, wherever we are, we have to support to grow the sources of work”.

From not having a plate of food to a prosperous exporter

Isabel Noboa’s face lights up when she talks about Luis Noboa Naranjo, her father. Her chest swells and, although she has shared some publications about it on networks, seeing her and hearing her talk about him is a lesson in growth: “My father was a teacher for me. Through his life he showed me that it is not necessary to have to be able to do. So, he always repeats it to all adolescents when they tell me: ‘It’s just that I don’t have to do this or that.’ Needless; I mean, if you want to build your dream, you have to find a way, and that’s what my father did”.

At that point in the conversation, he recounted that Luis Noboa Naranjo “at some point in his life did not even have anything to eat and, nevertheless, he managed to make Ecuador the first banana exporter in the world; and he was the first private exporter in the world, the biggest private exporter in the world, but all of that from a man who started at the bottom and really started first as a leader, selling magazines. At the age of 8 he already appeared in a magazine called Knew as the child who sold the most magazines in Ecuador. So, no matter where you are, what background you may have: your future is only in your hands.