Francesca Morichelli
MIM’24
Italian
As a child, I dedicated 15 years to competitive skiing and six years to figure skating—two sports that instilled in me resilience, discipline, and, equally, grace and precision.
I was the kind of child who could get lost in stories for hours – I loved musicals, writing, and had (still have) a strange passion for discovering the etymology of words.
.I find it fascinating to understand where things come from, whether it’s a language, an idea, or a feeling
Professionally, I interned at McKinsey & Company as a Banking Strategic Market Analyst before doing the MIM at INSEAD. However I always felt more drawn to the entrepreneurial world, so I began working closely with startups, helping them shape their market strategy, positioning, and growth plans.
Eventually, I joined Bonx, a SaaS startup in France that develops manufacturing ERP solutions. At Bonx I now focus on international expansion and business development.
What drives me most is bringing people together.
"Real equity means creating workplaces where talent rises because the system supports it, not because individuals have to fight for it."
Can you share an experience where you felt inspired by a leader or colleague regarding this topic?
Professor Georgina Hall, my Machine Learning and Optimisation professor at INSEAD, has inspired me the most in my journey.
She has this incredible ability to command attention without ever raising her voice. She’s firm, sharp, and confident, yet warm and approachable – everyone listens to her, not because she demands it, but because she naturally earns that respect. And beyond that, she’s simply an amazing professor.
She takes complex Machine Learning concepts and breaks them down in a way that makes them engaging, intuitive, and even fun. Her class is among my dearest INSEAD memories.In technical fields, especially male-dominated ones, there’s often this unspoken pressure for women to “toughen up” – to be louder, stricter, or to suppress their warmth just to be taken seriously.
But Professor Hall never played into that. She’s living proof of something I’ve always believed: being respected doesn’t mean being harsh. She reminds me that real leadership isn’t about changing who you are, but it’s about showing up as yourself, with confidence and conviction. She is the kind of leader I aspire to be.
How do you see yourself contributing to breaking down gender barriers in your industry?
Working in SaaS, I quickly realised how often I was the only woman in the room. And even if no one explicitly made me feel different, I still felt it. I would catch myself questioning if I was talking too much, if I was being too direct, and if I should soften my approach.
And once I noticed it in myself, I saw it everywhere – brilliant women who second-guessed themselves while men spoke with absolute certainty, even when they knew less.
I have been working hard on myself to unlearn that instinct to shrink—to stop over-explaining, to stop assuming someone else knew better, and to take my space unapologetically. Now, I see breaking gender barriers as something that happens in small, everyday moments: how I show up in meetings, how I support other women, and how I call out biases when I notice them (even the subtle ones, like when people assume the man in the room is the decision-maker).
So when I see another woman hesitate before speaking or downplay her own ideas, I make sure to support her. If she starts to say something and gets interrupted, I bring the conversation back to her. If she shares an idea and someone else repeats it louder, I make sure people remember where it came from.
If I see her holding back, I create space for her to step in.
In my opinion, breaking gender barriers isn’t about big speeches or formal initiatives.
It’s about these everyday shifts and the way we show up for ourselves and for each other. If I can help even one woman feel a little more confident about owning her space, then that’s already a step in the right direction.
What steps do you think organisations can take to support young professionals in advancing gender equity?
Organisations that actually care about gender equity for young professionals need to move past surface-level initiatives and start fixing the system itself.
Women don’t just need mentors – they need sponsors and senior leaders who actively advocate for their advancement and ensure they are considered for key opportunities.
We also have to stop treating success as something that requires great personal sacrifice, as if the only way for women to advance is by working twice as hard or giving up too much. Real equity means creating workplaces where talent rises because the system supports it, not because individuals have to fight for it.
More information about the programme Francesca attended:
The INSEAD Master in Management is the ideal programme to launch a global career. Through an innovative, hands-on learning approach with a strong focus on applied problem-solving, it equips agile, well-rounded, and forward-thinking individuals to drive meaningful impact in today's dynamic world.
Programme benefits:
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