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Ana Dutra, Leadership Expert

COLUMN = LEADERSHIP

Ana Dutra is the CEO of Mandala Global Advisors, a company she recently founded, and a senior global advisor for Humantelligence, a technology solutions company. She has 28 years of experience as a global executive, consultant, and business leader in industries such as technology, manufacturing, and professional services. In the last six years as the CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting, Dutra created a $300 million new global business through a combination of organic growth, multiple acquisitions, innovative go-to-market approaches, and incorporation of technology and digitalization of products and services.

A Brazilian native with more than 20 years of experience in P&L management, business growth, and C-Level business consulting in more than 30 countries, Dutra is also a director on the boards of the Executives Club of Chicago, the International Women Forum, Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago, Governor State University, and Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL).

Dutra holds an MBA from Kellogg, a Master in Economics from Pontificia Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, and a Juris Doctor from Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, all summa cum laude. Fluent in four languages—Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French—she lives in Northfield, IL, with her husband, their three daughters, and their German Shepherd.

For more information, click here to contact Ana Dutra.

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

Do you have the desire to create something new; the strength of conviction to believe your creation will be successful, and the reservoir of energy necessary to thrust it into the marketplace?”

– Steven Schussler

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

A lot of people have ideas, but few decide to do something about them now. Not next week. But today.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Atari

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”

– John Lennon

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which obstacles vanish.”

– John Quincy Adams

Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler

If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained individuals quitting their day jobs.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

This is the age when magical technologies make more and more radically fun ideas plausible, even easy. You’re only limited by your creativity.”

– Martha Beck

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

Some things are destined to be—it just takes us a couple of tries
to get there.”

– J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

When I was younger I thought success was being a star, driving nice cars, having groupies. But today I think the most important thing is to live your life with integrity.

– Ellen DeGeneres

How do you stay resilient? It’s about momentum. Like riding a bicycle. If you stop you fall over. So I keep pedaling.”

– Diane Lane

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Why am I whispering when I have something to say?”

– Eve Ensler

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

I have spent a good part of my life convincing people that a blank sheet of paper is the greatest opportunity in the world, and not frightening at all.”

– Marty Skler, executive vp, Walt Disney Imagineering

Destiny is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

Don’t wait for someone else to lead you to your right life; that privilege—and responsibility—is yours alone.”

– Martha Beck

He who wants to tear down a house must be prepared to rebuild it.”

– African Proverb

If you do not tell the truth about yourself
, you cannot tell it about other people.”

– Virginia Woolf

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
 Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

– Ella Fitzgerald

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.”

– Marilyn vos Savant

‎Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

– Booker T. Washington

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

– Basil King

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

– Madam C.J. Walker

Education is an admirable thing to have, but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught.”

– Oscar Wilde

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

– Dalai Lama

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”

– Steve Jobs

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

Never never never never give up.”

– Winston Churchill

I don’t do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, ‘That’s going to fail,’ so I can prove myself wrong.”

– Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

– Audre Lorde

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

    Articles by Ana Dutra