Mari Urdaneta: If we are leading a company, let us have that vision where we don't have to think all the time that something is happening to us because we are women
For Mari Urdaneta, CEO of 200% Media, being a woman is a ‘superstrength’ and a ‘superpower.’ “You can do things men can’t, such as giving life and having life cycles that help you mark emotional movements.”
Urdaneta has surrounded herself with emerging female talent and is grateful to executives such as Abraham Pulido, Luis Balaguer, and Fátima Goncalves for helping her to grow in her beginnings. “It is important to feel we are in places where we can tell each other everything, so what prevails is the prominence of the product we create together. I have had the pleasure of having such beautiful people around me who helped me grow, who saw something in me, and wanted that to be born and grow,” she said.
Although Urdaneta recognizes there are women as directors of photography or in positions on the set previously dominated by men, there is still more to be done. “It would be great to see women leading our networks and platforms because the leaders in LatAm and the US Hispanic have always been men. You can find female executive producers, but those 5 minutes Jessica Rodríguez had on Univisión is rare,” she noted.
She mentioned that during Content Americas, there was a spontaneous meeting of a group of women executives from Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and the US Hispanic US. “What happened there was that a group of powerful women from different areas within the industry sat at a table, and a phenomenon happened: many big men executives passed by, wanted to approach them, and the only ones who dared were Dago García and Samuel Duque. The conversation was divine, and there was an opening from all of us. We should do this more and support each other more. I think men do this frequently; they have many places to do that, and we have sinned by not creating those spaces and moments more.”
GREAT ALLIES
Although Urdaneta admits there is still much imbalance, she also recognizes that men can be great allies. “For me, Pedro Dávila has been a great ally. He does not care about gender but rather about the project being great, and if I am his partner, he treats me the same as any great man’s partner he may have. I have had the privilege of working with Luis Balaguer, and he named me head of the Talent and Management or Production department, and many male executives preferred to talk to him. His position was that he had appointed me there and demanded their respect towards me. He did not doubt that he had designated a capable person in that department,” she said. She also mentioned allies such as Wilmer Valderrama, “who loves that you’re a ‘kicking ass’ Latina.”
She added that we must put aside the prejudice of being aggressive. “If we are leading a company, let us have that vision where we don’t have to think all the time that something is happening to us because we are women. But sometimes, plain and simple, the industry can be cruel and opportunistic, which is also the case with man. Women must put aside that chip on the shoulder that you are very aggressive.”
She also mentioned the case of Victoria Alonso, whom she considers her ‘unicorn’. “She is in the power play of having launched and being the founder of a studio like Marvel Studios.” When she met her, she discovered that she did not want everything they had tried to instill in her, which wasn’t true. “They always told me that I had to be a shark and go over the people to grow. I don’t have to stop being a human being or be considerate and respectful to be a leader and have power.”
Urdaneta mentioned that she has worked with great female talent in executive positions such as Kaitlin Saltzman, VP and Head of Scripted, and Jessica Acevedo, VP of Production & Unscripted Development, both from WV Entertainment, and with Jennifer O’Connell and Rebecca’s Velvet Hammer Quinn and Lindsey Springer, president of Scripted TV at Media Res. “We’ve had the privilege of getting into larger company spaces,” she said.
She considers that a good way to help the new generation is to support those women who still do not have great credits in any field in which they work, such as cameramen, directors, writers, producers, and creatives, to have a place in forums organized by entities like WAWA, “so they can begin to listen, learn to see, and get used to it.”
