Silvana Estefan

My career in fashion and retail spans 15 years, beginning with my internship at Ralph Lauren after studying abroad in Paris. I initially thought I wanted to go into diplomacy and interned at UNESCO, but I realized the pace was slow and I wanted to impact through business instead. After a competitive summer internship at Ralph Lauren, I received a full-time offer and spent a year and a half in production and global sourcing. I'm originally from Colombia, South America, but grew up in different countries including Ecuador, Brazil, the U.S., and France. After 20 years away, I returned to Colombia to work at ProColumbia, a government-backed institution where I served as a trade expert and matchmaker between exporters and importers. I then founded my own resort wear women's label with my sister, spending 6 years building that business. When I got married, I moved to Seattle for my husband's job and opened the U.S. branch of our business in February 2020, just a month before COVID hit. During the pandemic, I saw Amazon crushing it in e-commerce and fashion, so instead of getting my MBA remotely, I decided to try Amazon for a couple years to learn. After an intense interview process, I joined as a vendor manager for footwear, managing major accounts including Dr. Martens, Aldo, Vera Bradley, and Rebecca Minkoff. I was promoted and rotated to a business development role launching net new emerging brands to Amazon that were top 1% in their category. I did that for 2 years and became interim manager while my manager was on maternity leave. I then moved to Miami to be closer to family and transitioned to my current role as VP of Strategic Partnerships at Piranha, which is Amazon's fastest growing agency. We also work with Uptake, helping brands get on TikTok Shop. My dream is to help emerging brands leverage e-commerce to grow their business, and that's where my passion lies.