The 10 Most Innovative Business Women's Revamping the Future, 2022_profile

Solving Client’s Constant Search for Excellence: Ana Tereza Basilio

Meet Ana Tereza Basilio, the founding Partner of Basilio Advogados. Ana started her academic professional life at Universidade Candido Mendes do Rio de Janeiro- UCAM, where she graduated in Law in December 1989. After graduating, Ana took a postgraduation course in North American Law at the University of Wisconsin. She had the honor to be a partner at Sergio Bermudes Law Firm from 1990 to 1998 and an international partner at Baker & McKenzie. She was responsible for the civil and commercial litigation and arbitration areas in Brazil while working for the firm from July 2002 to 2005. After this period of great learning, Ana founded her own Basilio Advogados Law Firm, which, in the last 12 years, has grown exponentially and she believes that today Basilio Advogados is one of the main specialized civil litigation, arbitration, and consulting firms in the country. Ana was also a judge of the Regional Electoral Court of the State of Rio De Janeiro, from 2010 to 2015, to be a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), based in Paris, in the Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (ADR) commission, Director of Mediation and Arbitration of the Institute of Brazilian Lawyers elected in 2018 for the biennium 2018-2019 and President of the Mediation and Arbitration commissions of this Institute since 2019.

In 2019, Ana has indicated Member of the Permanent Forum of the Arbitration Commission of the Escola de Magistratura of State of Rio de Janeiro – EMERJ. Later in August 2021, together with a few great names in the legal profession, she founded the Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos em Protecao de Dados – IBRADADOS, assuming its Presidency. Finally, in November 2018, Ana was elected Vice-President of the Brazilian Bar Association, Rio de Janeiro State Chapter, for the 2019 to 2021 term and was re-elected for the 2022 to 2024 term. She has also been awarded the Medal of Judicial Merit, from the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro. She has also received the Medal of Merit from the Federal Regional Court of Rio de Janeiro in 2015 and, finally was awarded the Tiradentes Medal in September 2019 by ALERJ – Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Remembering Accomplishments

Ana has some great personal and professional achievements. However, becoming the Vice President of the OAB-RJ in 2019, and was to be re-elected in 2021. OAB-RJ is the largest sectional in the country. Ana feels honourable to be able to represent more than 100 thousand lawyers from Rio De Janeiro. To reach this position, which was historically male-dominated and the recognition that women are capable of successfully occupying management positions has given me great professional fulfillment.

Leading a Law Firm is Challenging

Ana feels, that leading a law firm in Brazil, is extremely challenging. The country has gone through and still goes through several unstable political and economic moments, which often makes it extremely challenging, especially for liberal professionals. Ana keeps in mind that one of the main principles that lead her life and professional performance is persistence. Ana and her team study daily, persisting, persevering, be resilient, and always do a good job. Transmitting this to the team is essential. In addition, Ana feels trust in the good performance of her team of professionals, establishing a clear and agile communication channel, and work focused on solving the clients’ demands in the best possible way.

When Technology is an Ally

Ana also feels, that being a woman in a historically male-dominated environment is a challenge in itself. Besides, she believes, that no one is fully up for a challenge. However, Ana believes that hard work, persistence, and resilience will eventually lead everyone to success. Ana tries to conciliate the attribution of wife, mother, law partner, and vice-president of the OAB-RJ in the best possible way. To do so, Ana counts on her team that supports her and helps her manage her commitments, and a specialized team of lawyers to serve Basilio Advogados clients. Ana often highlights that the platforms for contact and meetings in the virtual environment have helped her and the team to keep themselves closer and more connected, and more than that, it has optimized their time to the maximum and has helped Ana in this intense routine of work and commitments. Technology is a great ally for her.

The Driving Force

Ana’s motivation in life is good work achieving excellence. It is working with and for the love of the practice of law. It is to serve the client in the best way possible, to solve a question, reach a goal, make a good deal, change a legal position, create a relevant precedent before the Courts, to leave Basilio Advogado’s mark, the name Basilio, registered in the history of her profession. This is Ana’s daily motivation.

Future Roadmap

When it comes to the future, Ana understands that the challenge is always to seek new areas of performance for the fields of Law, prospecting for more clients and business. Therefore, Basilio Advogados counts on a team with an excellent legal background and in constant updating. The firm values excellence and prioritizes ethics in its business relationships.

Carol Anne Hilton: An Inspirational Business Leader, Thinker, and Advisor

Carol Anne Hilton is the CEO and founder of The Indigenomics Institute and the President of the Global Centre of Indigenomics. She has created a line of thought called #indigenomics, which has grown from a single hashtag to an entire movement that focuses on the rebuilding and strengthening of Indigenous economies. The Indigenomics Institute is an economic advisory for various private sectors, Indigenous communities, and governments. Her work in Canada is driving the narrative of of the 100 billion dollars Indigenous economic target.

The Indigenous Institute focuses on four core areas to grow and design Indigenous economies;

Dialogue platform for Indigenous economic design
Economic policy and strategy
Education, training and research
Economic reconciliation frameworks

“The Indigenomics Institute is converging ideas, resources, tools, and people to grow the Indigenous Economy. Indigenomics is economics from an Indigenous worldview and serves as a platform for modern Indigenous economic design,”– said Carol Anne.

Many Indigenous economies are witnessing positive growth and development. In 2019, the Institute identified the development of the 100 billion dollar annual Indigenous economic target. The Institute is facilitating the growth of the Indigenous economies from its currently identified value of $32 billion to $100 billion.

The Steadfast Leader

Apart from serving as the CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute, Carol Anne is also an adjunct professor at the Royal Roads University’s School of Business. She serves as a Director on the BC Digital Supercluster, the McGill University Institute for the Study of Canada, and previously with the Canadian Economic Growth Council, and the BC Emerging Economy Taskforce.

She is a well-recognized, award winning national and international Indigenous business leader, executive adviser, speaker, director and author with an International Master’s Degree in Business Management (MBA) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is of Nuu Chah Nulth descent and is from the Hesquiaht Nation on Vancouver Island.

‘As the world converges on an economic identity crisis of its own making, the inclusion and re-valuing of Indigenous worldview and knowledge in economy and business are paramount.’– added Carol Anne.

Carol Anne Hilton is convening the tools, leadership, resources, partnerships, institutions, investment to build meaningful innovations in designing and growing Indigenous economies to build national and global impact across time.

Her leadership principles include holding conversations that matter and removing herself from gossip and negative talk. Carol Anne pays particular attention to her beliefs to identify if they are serving or limiting her.

The Greatest Accomplishment

Raising her daughter as a single mother, while going to school and working is the greatest achievement for Carol Anne. She further describes that creating a word into existence, starting a hashtag, building a business, a brand, and a national and global movement towards a line of thought for inclusion of Indigenous worldview in economics is her greatest career accomplishment.

Carol Anne describes that it takes courage to become an Indigenous entrepreneur. In being an Indigenous leader and entrepreneur, she describes ‘It is important to check your current state of courage, your motivations, energy levels, and inspiration frequently.’ Carol Anne describes success as self-determination in practice. She believes personal success is choosing happiness, choosing freedom, and the ability to choose her own future. For Carol Anne, success means running her own companies and using her creativity to create her dreams into reality.

Future Roadmap

Carol Anne is committed to increasing the visibility and inclusion of Indigenous businesses and economic growth nationally and internationally. Bringing a vast experience of more than two decades of Indigenous economic design, and business development, Carol Anne is focusing on multi-generational Indigenous wealth creation. The Indigenomics Institute is working to develop an Indigenomics Economic Freedom Index- designed to measure dependency, own-source revenue, and investability in Indigenous economies. With all her expertise, strategic insights, and skills she is now focusing on driving multi-generational impact all over the world through the development of the World Indigenous Economic Forum.

“My vision in life is to live my life as the first generation out of residential school- that how I live matters to my ancestors and my daughter. My vision is to be an Indigenous entrepreneur and stand in my courage, inspiration, power and truth.” Carol Anne Hilton.

A Pioneer Reinforcing High-Quality Construction and Design Services: Cheryl Osborn

Cheryl Osborn is the Founder and CEO of Casco Contractors and Casco Design Studio. Cheryl founded the company 22 years ago with nothing more than a laptop sitting on her kitchen table, supplies in the garage, a new baby and a toddler. She wanted to change the way construction was being executed and hoped to completely disrupt the low customer service and poor communication expectations of clients in the construction industry.

About Casco Contractors and Casco Design Studio

Casco Contractors and Casco Design Studio is a full-service general contractor and design-build studio that serves all of Southern California. Casco provides pre-construction, construction, interior design & architectural services for corporate offices, retail, lab, medical office, redevelopment projects, exterior revitalization, ADA accessibility work, EV Charging stations and co-working spaces.

The company has a team of elite designers, project managers, superintendents, and field staff who take a project from start to finish, focusing on quality, schedule, and budget.

The Starting Line

Cheryl Osborn obtained her bachelor’s degrees in Interior Design and Engineering, Construction Management and set out to find her distinct passion in those fields. After working for several design and construction companies on both small and large projects, she realized she wanted to make a bigger impact on the market and start her own company. “When you’re young, you can take more risks and be more malleable until you find out what clicks,” she said. “I was fairly successful at a young age so keeping my reputation at the highest level was imperative. Once I found what I loved, I made sure to keep branding myself as a woman in construction and an expert in tenant improvement and client services, specializing in what I do best.”

Customer-Centric to the Core

Casco Contractors’ clients are generally tenants, developers, landlords, or brokers with repeat business. The company constantly seeks to exceed client expectations and maintain great relationships while innovating the way construction is performed. “We’re only as good as our last project, unfortunately. That is what keeps me going.”

Casco Contractors’ is known for its impeccable problem-solving approach. Before a client can identify an issue, the company is ready with comprehensive solutions. Every client at Casco is made top priority. Cheryl Osborn is a woman of her word, who will move mountains to finish a project on time or solve a seemingly unsolvable problem. Driven by the highest level of customer satisfaction and customer-centric outlook, clients trust Casco because they know the team cares deeply about them.

Cheryl’s Support System

Cheryl Osborn is quick to attribute her success to the many people who have helped her along the way. “I could not have done this without my mentors, my fellow women business advisors, all the men in the industry who have been in construction forever and were excited to see women get into the industry. My parents. My children. And the many successful trailblazing women and their stories”.

To More a Balanced and Equal Industry

Cheryl Osborn hopes companies reach out to a more diverse background of people -especially in industries like construction and engineering, where there are proportionally fewer women. She speaks frequently to young girls about math and science, and she is on the board of Advisors for California State University Long Beach School of Engineering to recruit more women into the industry.

She also thinks companies need to reach out to women with diverse backgrounds at a much younger age. Building a sense of confidence in young girls and breaking down barriers and fears of math and engineering can be a key contributor for them to step into non-traditional industries.

A Day in the Life of Cheryl Osborn

Cheryl’s daily routine is exciting and frenetic. From golfing with clients, raising 90k being dunked in a dunk tank for her favorite charities, to racing to San Diego putting on her makeup in the rear view mirror while closing a couple of deals and catching up with her daughter in Italy, she multi tasks constantly so she can be present for everything. She keeps a notepad by her bed so her insomnia does not keep her from documenting all her crazy ideas for innovation. She is now an empty nester so she is enjoying the next chapter of her life living in Laguna Beach and is on a spree to round out this chapter with what makes her happy, personally and professionally. She loves to meditate in the morning to open up space in her mind and to enjoy the little things – living life with no fear. And of course, she loves to cook so she always ends the day with friends and family, a fabulous meal, and a glass of wine.

Favorite Books

Cheryl Osborn is an avid reader. She reads a lot and has many favorites from her never-ending reading list. To name a few are:

Good to Great, Jim Collins, I learned about not just having the right people on the bus but having them in the right seats on the bus.

The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber, taught me to develop processes or die – literally. It teaches you everything you think is so easy as an entrepreneur but extremely difficult if you cannot delegate.

5 Habits of Highly Effective Teams, Patrick Lencioni. This teaches you how to leverage people’s strengths on a team that delegates and highlights those strengths.

Aced the Appraisals

Cheryl Osborn has won many awards and recognitions for her outstanding performance. Listed below are a few of them:

2014 Businesswoman of the year, Office Depot
Best Places to Work – 2018-2021
5th largest Tenant Improvement contractor in OC
11th largest woman-owned business in OC
20 women to Watch
Entrepreneur of the year, 2016 for Orange County
Businesswoman of the year, OC 2018
Companies That Care 2020 and 2021
2022 Women of Influence, Irvine

Valuable Advice to Budding Female Entrepreneurs

Cheryl Osborn offers a piece of valuable advice to female entrepreneurs from her experience and knowledge of working in the entrepreneurial field for years. “Ask lots of questions. Procure mentors in every aspect of what you do -men and women. Reach out to people and let them know you want to learn from them. Don’t act like you know everything – people love to teach people things and feel valued. Pay attention! And take great notes and have lots of people on speed dial.”

An Exciting Future

In the last few years, Casco has become a pioneer in the EV Charging industry. Casco Contractors is also expanding heavily into the San Diego, LA and Central Coast markets with a desire to go national. Cheryl Osborn wants to keep doing what she is doing and associate herself with good people and good clients forever. She loves her life’s work and works tirelessly to elevate women in the industry and constantly improve herself and her company, while forever striving to make a positive impact on the community She often revisits her favorite quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”