Dr. Ana Carla Fonseca is a Public Manager from Fundação Getulio Vargas/FGV, where she graduated at the age of 20; Economist; MSc. cum laude in Management and Ph.D. in Urban Studies from Universidade de São Paulo, where she presented the first thesis in Brazil on creative cities, later appointed by the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism the best practical thesis of the biennium. She is also a guest professor in Brazil (FGV and Sala de Cultura) and Argentina (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba).
In parallel to her academic career, she led innovation projects for multinationals during 15 years, 10 of which for Unilever, based in South America, London and Milan. In 2003 she set up Garimpo de Soluções, where she does consultancies and gives conferences operating at the crossroads of economics, culture, cities and the future of work, having worked in 201 cities, 31 countries and for the United Nations.
Author of spearheading books in the region, such as Marketing Cultural e Financiamento da Cultura (Sponsorhip and Funding of Culture, 2002), Economia da Cultura e Desenvolvimento Sustentável (Economics of Culture and Sustainable Development – the first work in the field in Brazil and awarded with Jabuti, the most important book prize in the country, in 2007) and Cidades Criativas (Creative Cities, where she analyses changes, trends and cities, based on innovation, connection and culture – short-listed for another Jabuti Award in 2013). She also organised and co/edited books with global reach, for free download, e.g. Creative Economy as a Development Strategy (2008), first book in the world with this approach and Creative City – Perspectives (2009), with 16 authors from 13 countries. She co/designed and implemented projects aiming to foster active citizenship and urban innovation, such as Criaticidades, Sampa CriAtiva and OpenCity Lab and joined or coordinated strategic creative economy plans and projects for different governments, such as São Paulo State and the Federal District of Brazil.
She is the curator of international seminars and capacity-building projects, as ExpoGestão (the most relevant and lasting business congress in Southern Brazil) and a board member of a series of startups and initiatives, like Recicleiros, LocalChef and Virada Sustentável. She won Claudia Award in 2013 (the biggest women’s award in Latin America), in the Business category and was appointed by El País leading Spanish-speaking newspaper one of the eight Brazilian personalities who impress the world.