A Mexican Leader with a Vision for Girls Football

As a child, sports were an important part of Anna Cecilia’s life. Her parents believed strongly in the lessons and values experienced through sport, especially for children, and enrolled Anna Cecilia in almost every sport available, including tennis, gymnastics, swimming, and horseback riding. Playing sports was an important part of belonging and unity within the family and the community.

“Sports are a way of living in my hometown. They are the basic element of social development in our community. My parents were very aware of the great contributions sports can have in a child’s early years, which is why they enrolled me in swim lessons before I could walk! And for as long as I can remember, my dad would gather all of us on Sundays to watch sports on television as a family; sports were not only about physical and emotional benefits, but the unity we felt together, supporting the national soccer team.”

At an early age, Anna Cecilia realized the importance of sport in Mexican society and the power of elite athletes to influence public opinion. She saw sport as a unique and untapped resource for promoting messages of social responsibility. Unfortunately, sports administration careers for women were very rare, especially in an emerging field like social responsibility.

“When I began looking for jobs, I wanted a career in social responsibility. At the time, no such thing really existed in sports, so I looked for government jobs. Eventually I landed a job with a corporation doing event management. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it allowed me to achieve some experience. Shortly after I started, we began consulting with the soccer federation in Mexico, hosting various events and fund raisers for them. They offered me a job to do event management for the federation, and of course, I said yes. I told them of my interest in social responsibility and they let me pursue it! So I currently split my time between event management and social responsibility, working with sponsors and promoting national campaigns like Breast Cancer Awareness. I couldn’t be happier.”

Through this experience, Anna Cecilia hopes to gain knowledge as it relates to cause marketing and the development of social responsibility initiatives. One issue that Anna Cecilia hopes to address through a national campaign is adult and childhood obesity, especially for women and girls. “As of now, Mexico is number two in adult obesity and holds first place in childhood obesity. It is very important that we take action on this to help lower the statistics through sports and fitness.” We believe Sarah, Greg, and the team at Equinox can equip Anna Cecilia with the resources she needs to promote her efforts.

At Equinox, Anna Cecilia will be exposed to several key areas of business operations, including the different divisions (e.g. retail, personal training, group training) and how those divisions function through the life cycle of a client. Most importantly, Anna Cecilia will also work with brand marketing to better understand consumer insights and how to attract individuals and sponsors to support a business or cause. We believe this will be especially valuable to Anna Cecilia as she promotes lifestyle changes in health for women and girls in Mexico. We are excited to see the ways Equinox’s research and insight can inform Anna Cecilia’s new campaign launch and the long-term changes in obesity rates for Mexican women and girls.