Since his time as a university student, Leonardo Loureiro (47) has been interested in trade union issues, and actively participated as a student representative in the various councils of the University of the Republic. This led him to join the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti) in 2002, in the areas that most interested him: internationalization and technology marketing, years after finishing his degree as a computer engineer and starting his professional activity.
Quanam's commercial manager got involved in teaching at the same time, and today he teaches MBA classes at ORT University.
Five months after the death of Cuti's president, Álvaro Lamé, Loureiro was appointed to that position. He gets emotional when he talks about his personal friend, whom he defined as a "powerhouse of generating ideas", some of which Cuti is managing to materialize.
One of the issues that worries the technology industry is the lack of talent. How is it perceived from CUTI?
We are with a program called "Jóvenes a programar" together with Ceibal, which is focused on incorporating more talent into the industry. Talent that comes from the core of the business, which is technology and the use of technology, programming and design.
Then there are people who have specialized a lot and are not from the engineering or ICT sector, who are working on processes. The chemical engineering career is well trained in processes and there are people from this profession who work in ICT, whose main focus is technology, and we are trying to get people with this type of knowledge to join the industry.
How do you work on the internationalisation of companies in the sector?
It is one of the objectives we set ourselves when the board took office in June last year, to continue with the focus on the international issue. We are very guided in what activities we are going to do as a chamber, which does not mean that our member companies can not do different activities and focus on different things.
We focus on those countries where the survey we do on economic activity shows greater export activity.
The last survey showed that the main destination market is the US, to which we send 40% of our exports. We promote and carry out many activities together with Uruguay XXI and we go to the US three or four times a year.
We are thinking of doing a mission to that country in October this year, working together with the Minister of Industry Carolina Cosse to develop that mission, and thinking that it is convenient to do it annually so as not to lose contact. We want to generate presence and for Uruguay to be recognized as a technological country. It seems little but it is really a lot.
What else is needed to boost the image of "technological Uruguay"?
Uruguay is recognized, in Latin America for sure. When you want to take it to the US, the work is very hard. For that to happen, many things have to start happening in the national ecosystem, in which steps are being taken, but there is a lack of speed. We have had important milestones, such as Tata Consultancy Services being in Uruguay, Globant too. Many of our companies have been installed in the United States for a long time. All this adds up.
Entrepreneurship and technology go hand in hand. How do you see the ecosystem in Uruguay?
When I started studying there was no concept of entrepreneurship. Now it exists and we have pre-incubators in all universities and recognized incubators. Many of our partner companies have specific programs where they develop the concept of intrapreneurship, they create spin offs, interesting companies but that are not part of the main core of the business, then a new venture is generated. It makes the industry grow, ideas emerge.
What was Álvaro Lamé's legacy in the industry?
Álvaro was a person who worked full time and was a powerhouse of ideas. Besides being a friend, we shared the same vision, he taught me a lot, he added me as a friend to his life. The last thing, which I'm sorry I don't see reflected, is the project "Jóvenes a Programar", because he was convinced that young people want to work in the ICT sector.
Source: The Observer
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