Laura Torà is the Head of the Economic Growth Unit at DT Global Europe’s Business Development Division, where she has been working since 2017. She has over 10 years of professional experience as a consultant and project manager in the field of international development, including private sector development, trade, agriculture, value chains, sustainable development, social innovation and entrepreneurship, and sustainable development.
Prior to joining DT Global, Laura was a consultant at the World Bank and at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund in Washington, D.C. Her professional career also includes a 2-year experience in Ecuador working directly with grassroots organizations to strengthen the value chains of cocoa and Andean grains, as well as several short-term consulting assignments for institutions such as the United Nations, ESADE Business School, the Columbia University’s The Earth Institute or the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), among others. Throughout her career she has lived in several countries including Ecuador, Haiti, Thailand and United States, and has worked in several others around the world such as Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Mauritius, Mexico, Peru, and the Seychelles.
What’s your favorite place of all the places you’ve travelled?
I must admit that this is a is not an easy question to answer, as there are a good number of places of which I keep unique memories. Some of these places include the breathtaking and immense landscapes of the Andean plateau and its Lagunas at over 4,000 meters of altitude; the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas and its unique afro-Ecuadorian culture transmitted through their traditional songs “arrullos,” their delicious food, or through the canoeing journeys up the river in between lush rainforests; or the inland remote and peaceful villages in the Indonesian island of Flores, with their welcoming and warm-hearted inhabitants.
What was the last really great book you read? Why?
“Un hombre toca a la puerta bajo la lluvia” is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. The Cuban writer Rodolfo Pérez Valero excels in presenting a collection of unexpected, innovative and thrilling short stories. Each of them surprises the reader as they constantly bring in new elements in terms of content, form and style, breaking with preconceptions and letting the reader explore and understand new perspectives.
