International Business Strategist Chiara Paolinelli talks Italian Excellence Gala and Awards LA

Born and raised in Rome, Chiara Paolinelli is happy to support Italy from the other side of the Atlantic as a highly in-demand international business strategist. In her role, she has the opportunity to support, develop, and expand the brands she works for, creating new commercial and financial opportunities. Currently working in Trade and Commerce for the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles, she focuses on importing goods and services from Italy into the West Coast of the United States.

Helping Italian brands expand and diversify abroad has been immensely rewarding to Paolinelli. Leveraging a vast array of talents and understanding the cultural differences between Italy and the United States, not just linguistically but the historic and economic variations, is a task that many are not up for, but the sense of satisfaction she gets from using her vast expertise to help other Italians expand their businesses is more than she could have ever hoped for. 

To be honest, I didn’t know that I wanted to be an international business strategist; it just happened. I became fascinated by how trade fuels the most diverse markets worldwide, and how it creates opportunities for human resources globally and how it is able to support sustainable cooperative efforts everywhere,” she said.

Throughout her esteemed career, Paolinelli has been at the helm of countless successful projects, using her business acumen and innate talent to impress. When she helped support and coordinate certain activities around the city for “Pavarotti Day” last year to celebrate the late Italian Tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, collaboration with countless organizations was a must to ensure a seamless day that honored such an icon on the renowned strip of sidewalk. From 2019 to 2022 she assisted with the development of the True Italian Taste Campaign in the West Coast of the US, an initiative which aimed at raising awareness about the authentic and certified agri-food Italian products, and planned strategic activities such as webinars and masterclasses that were well received by attendees and event participants.

Currently, Paolinelli is gearing up for the 2023 Italian Excellence Gala & Awards, which she has helped organize since 2019. The event recognizes leading Italian and Italian-American personalities, their distinction, and their contribution to the Italian community globally in the West Coast. The event has taken place in different locations, including The Houdini Estate Hollywood and the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, and has honored acclaimed individuals such as Supermodel and Entrepreneur Bianca Balti, Boston Celtics power forward Danilo Gallinari, Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti, Actress Stefania Spampinato of Grey’s Anatomy fame, and soccer legend Alessandro Del Piero.

“It’s exciting to be working on this project because through the creation of this event, every year, local businessmen and women get a chance to connect with Italian entrepreneurs, content creators, innovators and more, thus promoting opportunities for bilateral/cross-cultural and entrepreneurial pollination between Italy and the U.S. It’s exciting to be creating such business opportunities and to be working as a connector between the two economic realities,” said Paolinelli.

The ceremony is an extremely important yearly initiative for IACCW, for its members and for the non-members of the business community, where expectations run high. Event attendees expect to be wowed, and for Paolinelli, this is a feeling she is accustomed to. She knows that 

event venue choice, exceptional award recipients list and more are vital to its success and requires extensive creative thinking from all aspects and strategic know-how of the business and cross-cultural expectations for the Italian international business community. 

In her role, Paolinelli helps organize the event by supporting the award winners selection process and finding lead strategic partnership/sponsorship solutions, which the event would not take place without. It is an immensely time consuming process and takes the utmost attention to detail, but she excels. Each year the event grows, and such success can be directly  attributed to Paolinelli’s efforts. 

“I like using innovative thinking skills to come up with creative event planning solutions; I also like hearing every year from event guests and – often from award winning recipients – that they enjoyed the event, they connected with other international businessmen-women and they felt as though they had an interesting Italian-American evening in Southern California; to me hearing about the enjoyment – and the often successful business connections made during the event, is priceless” she said.

The Italian Excellence Gala and Awards has become a staple event for the business community in West Coast America. Local, international, Italian, American and Italian-American business people and entrepreneurs look forward to attending this event every year. This year’s date is yet to be announced, but you can be sure it will be an evening to remember with Paolinelli’s support.

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