Paving the Road to Success: Alumna Fabrizia Lemmo
Fabrizia Maurizia Lemmo, from Rome, graduated in 2017 with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Entrepreneurship. She has worked as a student assistant for the Institute for Entrepreneurship and was a member of the JCU Business Club. Fabrizia won first place in JCU’s 2017 Elevator Pitch competition and interned for BoxEventi Italia as well as the U.S. Embassy in Rome before landing a job as a Market Developer at Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC), where she currently works.
Alumna Fabrizia Lemmo
Tell us about your experience at Coca Cola.
One month before my graduation I met two Coca Cola representatives at the JCU Career Fair, organized by the Center for Career Services. I sent them my CV and was hired as Market Developer. I manage the company’s clients in the center of Rome by ensuring that their strategy is successfully implemented. Working there is an invaluable experience that will help me in my future endeavors. I would like to continue working for Coca Cola and build my career within this company.
What advice would you give to students considering JCU?
Studying at JCU helped me prepare for the job market. Thanks to my marketing classes with Professor Salvatore and Professor Signorini, the Entrepreneurship course with Professor Pulino and the Business Communication course with Professor Favorite, I was ready to face new challenges and responsibilities. I would advise incoming students to participate in many extra-curricular activities, because that’s where you meet people who share your interests.
Together with Carol Spizzichino, Michele Massi, and Lisa Cheng, you presented a business plan to BoxEventi Italia as a class project for Professor Riccardo Maiolini’s BUS 410 class and it lead to internship with them. Tell us about your project.
Within Strategic Decisions in Entrepreneurship course (BUS 410) we had to develop a business plan for BoxEventi Italia, one of the few companies that organize big events in Rome, such as the Maker Fair, Body Worlds, and the BNL Internazionali di Tennis. Professor Maiolini divided us into groups and gave us two months to prepare a business plan. We pitched it directly to the company. They picked our plan as the best one and offered us a summer internship. Companies are invited to the class as part of the Learn Do Share initiative to collaborate with students on selected topics. BoxEventi Italia asked us to find a new target market for international customers traveling to Italy and we decided to focus on Chinese tourists.
Is the world getting closer to achieving gender equality in the workplace?
One of the reasons why I like Coca Cola HBC is that more than 50% of its managers are women. The world is leaning towards gender equality, and more women get the opportunity to showcase their talent in business and entrepreneurship. However, many of them stay in the shadow of their male colleagues, despite being a driving force behind the company. I hope that women’s hard work can be fully acknowledged in the future, and inequality will become a thing of the past.
