Podcast Episode: Moving Forward Together: Lessons from Women Around the World
As we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month 2025, the Moving Forward Together reminds us of the power of women educating and inspiring generations. This year, my colleague Gemma Hilario from Killarney, Ireland, and I had the privilege of interviewing women from Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, and Ireland. Despite the vast distances between us, common themes emerged in our conversations—proof that, regardless of location, culture, or background, women share a collective strength and vision for the future.
We asked these women three powerful questions:
What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self or to the next generation of women leaders?
How can we amplify the voices of women from underrepresented or marginalized communities?
What’s a mantra or motto you live by that keeps you grounded and focused?
We met with:
Paula Knaap, Deputy Chief Executive, Organisational Enablement, Ministry of Regulation, New Zealand
Juliana Peixinho, Director, Customer Service Delivery LATAM at Equinix, Brasil
Claudia Cannizzaro, Director, Art Omi: Artists Residency, NY and Grays Peak’s own Operations Manager, Italy
YOU CAN FIND THE PODCAST ON:
SPOTIFY (AND SPOTIFY FOR PODCASTERS), APPLE PODCASTS, GOOGLE PODCASTS, AND IHEART RADIO
Celebrating Women’s History Month: How You Can Get Involved
This year’s theme, Moving Forward Together, is a call to action for all of us. Here are ways to honor and celebrate:
Mentor and Support: Lift up the next generation by mentoring young women and offering support to those entering leadership roles.
Listen and Amplify: Seek out and share stories from diverse voices, especially those from marginalized communities.
Educate and Inspire: Highlight the contributions of women in history and today—whether through social media, community events, or workplace discussions.
Advocate for Change: Push for policies that support gender equity, workplace inclusion, and leadership opportunities for women.
Across continents and cultures, women are connected by shared wisdom, challenges, and triumphs. This International Women’s Day, let's commit to moving forward together—educating, inspiring, and empowering future generations of women leaders.
Meet Our Guests!
Gemma Hilario
Gemma Hilario has over 20 years’ experience in the voluntary sector, now pivoting to being self-employed and bringing her skills to other sectors. As a Team Leader at the Coolmine Kerry Hub from 2021-2024, she led a group of 8 specialists (e.g. Social Workers, Social Care Therapists and Psychotherapists) she used her skills of creating responsive, empathetic environments that are tailored to individual differences. Her passion for not only collaborating with others but connecting with them, has taken her far.
Gemma now is the founder of her own Coaching and Training program, inspiring others with her values of authenticity, integrity, honesty, and so much more. She takes a more realistic approach and acknowledges family influence while still instilling a strong, powerful work ethic.
Paula Knaap
Paula Knaap, Deputy Chief Executive, Organisational Enablement, Ministry for Regulation. Paula and Maureen actually met while presenting at a conference for the Hague convention in Hong Kong and really hit it off!
Paula is an accomplished senior leader who has worked across a range of private sector law and government environments and combines strategic thinking with a results centred approach. She brings high energy to her work and excels at uniting people around a shared vision. She is tremendously passionate about people and can be counted on to offer people-centred perspectives and prioritise social and economic impact.
Paula has previously led large regulatory and social policy functions at WorkSafe NZ, Ministry of Education, the Environmental Protection Authority and New Zealand’s Inland Revenue, where she was a key member of the Leadership Team acknowledged for transforming performance, service and culture and won an IPANZ Award for this in 2016.
Paula is a qualified lawyer with a Masters in Business from Henley Business School in the UK and is a Global Women Breakthrough Leaders Alumni. She also has extensive international experience, negotiating intergovernmental agreements and representing New Zealand overseas.
She believes strongly in the values of human rights, equity and social justice, and she strives to bring a compassionate approach to all areas of her life. Animal welfare is also important to her - Paula and her family provide a home to rescue animals on their small block.
Juliana Peixinho
Juliana Peixinho, the Director of Customer Service Delivery LATAM at Equinix. She has been working with them for 12 years. She was first a project manager and has had the opportunity to grow with them. She studied business administration in her undergraduate studies, and acquired her MBA in Human Development. Mother of two, loves books and travel. She lives in San Paulo but still enjoys seeing new places. She is an animal lover and loves to have them with her while she is working! She explains the struggles balancing being a mom, a professional and taking care of household chores all at the same time. She is constantly focussed on her physical and mental health while balancing her work.
Claudia Cannizzaro was born in Sicily during the Years of Lead, a critical moment in Italy in the seventies that shaped her views of the world and the importance of social justice, she grew up in Rome where she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1997, thanks to an article her mother had found in a magazine, she applied for an internship – a concept still foreign to recently graduated Italian students—and found herself living her dream of being a professional artist in New York City, where she resided, thrived and actively worked for two decades, as an artist and as an arts administrator in the non-for-profit sector.
Claudia Cannizzaro, self portrait at 20
Currently, aside being Grays Peak’s Operations Manager, she is also the director the international artists residency program at Art Omi, a non-for profit organization in upstate New York, which has been hosting to date hundreds of visual artists from literally all over the world, all the while living a fairly quiet family life in her stone house in the Sicilian countryside.