Her Story
About Paula
Paula Ortiz is a seasoned international business development professional specializing in the entertainment lighting industry, currently serving as Business Development Manager for Latin America at CHAUVET. Based in Davie, Florida, she has built a 30+ year career focused on global markets, with deep expertise in distributor development, sales strategy, and market expansion across Latin America and Canada. Her work centers on supporting regional partners, strengthening commercial performance, and aligning local execution with global product and brand strategies. She began her career in the lighting sector in 1994, progressing through roles in fiber optic lighting, component manufacturing, and international sales leadership before transitioning into entertainment lighting. Over the years, she has held positions in multiple companies within the industry, steadily advancing her focus on international business development, technical sales engineering, and market penetration. Her long tenure in the field reflects a consistent specialization in lighting technologies rather than shifting across unrelated industries. Paula earned an MBA in International Business from Florida Metropolitan University, complementing her undergraduate studies in Criminal Justice and Psychology. In her current role, she divides her time between distributor support, product training, customer engagement, trade shows, and on-site demonstrations. Known for her hands-on approach, she regularly collaborates with technical teams and regional partners to drive adoption of advanced lighting solutions and expand market reach throughout Latin America and Canada.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Paula
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say just keep going, you know, consistency in what I do, and wanting to do better than what I did the day before. It's about that continuous improvement and not giving up.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received has to do with looking at how to grow within what I'm doing, and looking at it just for my own growth - not comparing myself to others, or what others are doing. It's about being my own competitor. I think that's the best thing, because that's the best way to grow. Especially when I first started, there were not a lot of women role models, so I couldn't compare myself to another woman in the lighting industry, in sales. There's not a lot of us, so I had to look at how I can improve myself and grow without having to compare myself necessarily, only because there were not very many women to look upon.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
To believe in themselves and to go for what they want.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges are related to not knowing what exists, that there's a possibility of doing all the great things that are out there in the entertainment lighting industry. People think entertainment lighting, they think mostly of lighting designers, programmers, operators, right? But there's a lot that can be done on the sales and commercial side of things. The opportunities are endless, because yes, the industry can be considered a small industry, the lighting industry, however there is yet a lot to be done, so the opportunities are also there. There's a lot of growth. There is also the opportunity of getting to know people from different parts of the world, and new cultures, new ways of doing things, the resiliency of the people that you get to meet. So there's opportunities at the professional level, which also help us grow at the personal level, because we're meeting other people, and it's all about relationships. It's a nice community of people doing business.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity, professional ethics, and transparency are the values most important to me in my work and personal life.
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