Pioneer. Advocate. Changemaker. Dr. Estie Alessandrini.
Dr. Estie Alessandrini is a NeuroLeadership Advisor, entrepreneur, and advocate for more inclusive and sustainable models of leadership. As Founder of Ekanovate, she draws on neuroscience and her experience as a clinician and business leader to help individuals and organizations better understand how the brain responds to pressure, change, and the demands of modern working life.
Her own career has taken her from clinical practice and entrepreneurship through an international relocation and a period focused on family, before returning to professional life with a new perspective on leadership, performance, and well-being. That experience now shapes her work helping leaders build resilience, improve decision-making, and perform effectively without sacrificing their health or personal lives.
Estie is also President of the Aprimenta Association and Swiss Chair for the G100 Wing for Pay Parity and Corporate Transformation. Across these roles, she works to turn conversations about gender equality into practical action, creating opportunities for women in leadership and advocating for greater representation and pay parity.
At the heart of her work is a simple idea: understanding how our brains work can help us become more effective, compassionate, and sustainable leaders.
1. Every standout career has a "before" and an "after." Can you share a specific
moment, either a bold risk you took or a daunting challenge you faced, that
fundamentally redefined your professional trajectory and led you to where you are
today?
My journey has a very distinct before, middle, and after. In my "before," I was a clinician and business founder operating under the absolute belief that career is everything. It was high-stakes, fast-paced, and left very little room for anything else. Then, as a family with two small kids, we took a massive leap and moved to the other side of the world. This total change of scenery brought me to my "middle," where the pendulum swung completely the other way and family was everything.
Finding myself stuck between those two extremes was the real challenge. I quickly realised that giving 100% to your family was just as unsustainable as giving 100% to your career. When we force our minds to constantly choose between the two, we just burn out, and we certainly can't lead others effectively.
My "after" came when I finally found the clarity and confidence to step back into my professional life, realising that career, family, and looking after yourself don't have to compete, they can actually work together.
This major shift is exactly what inspired the brain-based leadership work I do today as a NeuroLeadership Advisor at Ekanovate. True leadership isn’t about sacrificing one part of your life for another. It’s about understanding how to optimise our brain’s capacity so that our work, our well-being, and our families can all fuel and energize each other - sustainably.
2. Whether you are leading a major tech marketplace or a grassroots community,
how are you intentionally challenging the status quo in your industry to create a
more inclusive or innovative future?
In my roles as President of the Aprimenta Association and Swiss Chair for the G100 Wing for Pay Parity, I'm trying to change the conversation from just talking about equality to actually doing something about it. A great example is the annual Boardroom Exchange that we’re hosting in Basel this June. By connecting senior board members with board-ready female leaders, we are actively shaping high-performing boards of the future.
In so many industries, diversity and inclusion are treated like abstract, feel-good goals. I challenge that by looking at real cultural and corporate change through a practical, human lens. To build a truly inclusive future, we need to focus on three simple pillars:
Surrounding yourself with the right people: There is immense power in finding like-minded changemakers. Mindsets and behaviours are highly contagious and when you build a community of proactive peers, innovation and equity naturally become the default.
Action over awareness: Our brains quickly tune out constant talk without action. If we just drive awareness without shifting structures or pay parity, people get fatigued and tune out. Real change happens when we move from thinking to doing.
Speaking up: Disruption requires the courage to make your voice heard, even when it feels uncomfortable. It’s about being mentally flexible enough to break old habits and let better leadership models take shape.
It’s not just about getting an invite to the room anymore. It’s about changing how things are run once we get there.
3. Beyond technical expertise, what is the one "hidden" superpower or soft skill that
has been most instrumental to your success, and why should the next generation of
women in digital prioritize it?
My ultimate superpower is simply embracing my brain advantage. It’s all about learning how our minds and bodies work under pressure and using that to become better, more grounded leaders.
In the digital world, we constantly talk about upgrading our software, coding languages, and tech stacks, but we completely ignore the most incredible piece of technology we own: our own neurobiology.
When we understand the basic mechanics behind stress, decision-making, and emotion, we stop just reacting to everything around us and start intentionally directing it. I believe the next generation of women in digital should prioritise this for two reasons:
Sustained Resilience: The digital space moves fast, and it is incredibly easy to hit cognitive overload. Knowing your own brain's limits is your best defence against burning out.
Compassion-Driven Leadership: Tech is ultimately about people. When you understand your own mind, you build a deeper, science-backed compassion for how others process change, uncertainty, and collaboration.
By mastering our inner biology, the next generation can step out of survival mode and use their brain advantage to lead the future of tech with clarity and impact.
4. Success is rarely a straight line. What is a common myth about your specific
career path (or entrepreneurship) that you want to debunk to give a more honest
perspective to women currently navigating their own "messy middle"?
The biggest myth in leadership is the idea of the solitary, perfectly cool-headed leader who never doubts themselves. It creates a false narrative that if you are feeling insecure or out of your depth, you are failing and completely on your own.
The data tells a very different story. A global report by Korn Ferry shows that imposter syndrome is a near-universal secret at the top, affecting roughly 71% of CEOs and 65% of senior executives. If you are sitting in a meeting feeling like a fraud, statistics guarantee you are surrounded by people who have felt the exact same way.
From a brain-based perspective, feeling like an imposter isn’t a character flaw; it’s a totally normal neural response. When we take big risks, our brain flags unfamiliar territory as a threat, triggering a stress response that temporarily clouds our thinking with self-doubt.
The real power comes when you understand this why. Once you look at the biology behind it, you stop seeing self-doubt as proof that you aren't good enough, and start seeing it for what it really is: a sign that you are expanding your boundaries and growing.
The WDS Ripple Effect
5. Our community is built on mutual support and inspiration. If you could leave one
piece of "radical" advice for the WDS community something that isn't found in a
standard business textbook what would it be?
My radical advice is simple: Treat your brain as your most valuable business asset.
Experts teach us how to optimise data, manage budgets, and build tech stacks, but they ignore the engine driving it all. In the digital world, we are pushed to be always on, almost mirroring the machines we build. But real human innovation doesn't happen when we are stuck in constant stress and survival mode.
The most disruptive thing you can do in a fast-paced industry is to actively partner with your biology instead of trying to hack it. When we learn to listen to our bodies and consciously regulate our stress responses, we unlock real cognitive clarity. And that is what gives us the ultimate competitive advantage for sustainable innovation and impactful leadership.
Thank you, Women in Digital, for this inspiring interview series. Let’s continue to lead with our minds, elevate each other, and consciously design a more inclusive, human-centred future for tech.
NeuroLeadership Advisor | Founder, Ekanovate | President, Aprimenta | G100 Swiss Chair for Parity & Corporate Transformation
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