Meet & Greet: Felipe Cardenas, Co-founder of the Colombian LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and President of the Diversity Chamber

In this week's Meet & Greet interview, myGwork member Felipe Cardenas, shares how he co-founded Colombian LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and how the non-profit provides economic empowerment opportunities to LGBTQ+ Colombians and migrants. He also provides insights on why LGBTQ+ inclusion has become an absolute priority for Colombia.

Image credit: Provided by Felipe Cardenas

Can you tell us a bit about your role, career journey to date and about the organization you are working for?

I am a Colombian entrepreneur with a background in Business Management and Trade. I have lived in Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico, and in the latter I had the opportunity to join PwC, where I learned how to be a business consultant. After a couple of years, I quit my job and came back to Colombia to open my own consultancy firm. Through this company I was invited by the US Embassy in Bogota to co-found the Colombian LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and since September 2012 I have been the Co-founder and President. This non-profit provides economic empowerment opportunities to LGBTQ+ Colombians and migrants through membership, certification, training, events and other networking opportunities. Recently, we celebrated our 10th anniversary as LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Having expanded our reach, we re-launched the organization in October 2022 as the "Diversity Chamber". This has allowed us to have a stronger focus in Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) with a broader spectrum of different minority groups and an intersecionality appoach. Sexual diversity and inclusion in the workplace will remain a strong priority for us.

What's the biggest highlight of your career to date and why?

The biggest career highlight for me is being recognized globally by the tourism industry for advancing LGBTQ+ Tourism in emerging destinations like Colombia, and for being elected as the first under 40-year old Latino/Colombian, as Chair of the Board of Directors from IGLTA, the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association. This is highly relevant not only for my career but for the strong message it sends to all the UNWTO ecosystem of governments, corporations, business and professionals, that LGBTQ+ tourism is indeed a global priority and plays a key role in the economic recovery after the pandemic, especially for emerging economies that are advancing LGBTQ+ rights and more inclusive behaviour in their societies.

How important is LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace in Colombia/Latin America and for you personally?

LGBTQ+ inclusion has become an absolute priority for Colombia, especially with the new 2022 government in power. Colombia now has the Ministry of Equality for the first time in history, who is led by our Vice President, also our first Black-Afro Descendent woman in history to get one of the highest government roles.

Colombia has enjoyed LGBTQ+ rights since 2016 and currently has the second most advanced legislation in Latin America for LGBTQ+ citizens, after Uruguay. This is a strong signal that our country is finally evolving into being a more fair and comprehensive society that accepts and embraces our differences as human beings. Personally for me, this gives me not only hope, but also the energy to continue working harder with more businesses to to create discrimination-free workplaces across my country and the Latin America region.

What's the most challenging aspect of managing people right now?

For me as President of the Diversity Chamber, the biggest challenge is talent retention, especially given the fact that most of our team members are constantly exposed to corporations, our national government and other businesses. A few of them have ended up being recruited by partners/members of our Association, and this is a great path in their individual, professional careers, but as a nonprofit we can only offer so much in terms of job descriptions and salaries, and of course corporations or other business can offer more attractive compensation and career plans. I guess it's a good problem to have as the individuals that come to join our team will end up in great corporate/business roles in the short term.

What attributes do you look for in new recruits and why?

Lately we have learnt that leadership skills are more important than education/background. Some times we see resumes with very robust experience or coming from Ivy League Schools but at the end of the day, not all those super-qualified professionals have what it takes to get the job done. We are true believers that everyone should have a fair opportunity in a selection process to prove their skills/abilities to perform. Breaking this mindset, which is full of unconscious bias about talent has been a great learning experience for us at the Diversity Chamber.

What's your favorite inclusion campaign to date and why?

I would have to choose recruitment programs that we promote for remote work for LGBTQ+ migrants - focused on Venezuelan migrants in 2020 during the quarantine period and curfews experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This program, thanks to funds from the US Embassy in Colombia was able to provide training to over 800 LGBTQ+ Venezuelans living in Colombia and elevate their working skills to be more eligible to access remote/virtual work opportunities in the challenging times of 2020. A few dozen of them could access great job opportunities and a couple of hundreds of them became entrepreneurs thanks to this program.

How do you encourage staff to have a worklife balance in the Latin countries, especially with the increase in remote/hybrid working?

It is indeed a challenge, but since implementing a "2 days a week working from home" policy since 2021 and remaining true to our contracts, working policies require us to work 8 hours per day and just one Saturday morning (from 9am to 1pm), once a month. So regarding organizational culture, we are strict with deadlines but very flexible with the way we deliver projects, meaning that how our team members pair up to ensure work completion on time, even though our organizational structure defines how we interact as team leaders and members, we have learnt that this flexibility actually drives and optimizes our performance, working in groups to deliver a project than rigid schedules.. As long as the work is done with the quality expected, on time and on budget, we are good to go. This, we believe, is a great opportunity for us in LatinAmerica to elevate our productivity rates and break the mindset that working from home and strictly in one department goes against efficiency.

What podcast series are you listening to right now for your career development? Are there any DE&I-related podcast series you would recommend?

I’m not a big podcast fan as I am very visual, so prefer videos instead. But if I were to mention one I personally enjoy "the School of Greatness" from Lewis Homes a lot. Its content is not necesarily linked with DE&I, but I find it fascinating how he balances topics that are so close to personal development but totally applicable to our business activities, and especially our work in DE&I.

What was the last book you read (fiction/non-fiction)? Any interesting take-aways and would you recommend it to fellow leaders?

For Latin America perspectives in DE&I, I recently read Coming Out from Diego Tomasino, an Argentinian Accountant based in Miami with great stories how his work in Panama and now in the US is helping corporations to come out of the closet and embrace sexual diversity in the workplace. A very personal fiction book that I love from my favorite writer Agatha Christie is 4.50 from Paddington. As a Colombian, I will always recommend reading the Magical Realism master piece from the one and only Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

What do you do to relax at the end of a hard working day?

I go to the gym, or for nice dinners with my partner or friends, or enjoy a movie. But nothing beats a glass of Chardonnay for me. White Wine is the perfect way to end a tough day on.