International Women's Day | How the glass ceiling shaped the journey of giffgaff's Carlotta Negri di Sanfront

To celebrate International Women's Day, Carlotta Negri di Sanfront, Chief Product and Design Officer at giffgaff, tells Executive Grapevine about the influence of female role models, and her own inspiring career.

Growing up, I was your typical “daddy’s girl” and like many other daughters dreamed of following in his footsteps.

In my case, my father was a racing car driver. A successful one at that, taking home the annual Italian rally championship in 1975. I grew up surrounded by trophies, with pictures of rally circuits decorating the walls, and it’s probably no surprise that playtime for me involved my collection of toy cars.

So whenever asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, my answer was that I wanted to race. Actually, I didn't just want to race. I dreamed big... of winning a Formula One World Championship. And yet, watching race after race, something struck me. There were never any women on the podium.