Claudia Laricchia

Claudia Laricchia, co-founder and President of Smily

Where The Forest Man of India planted a forest, Smily Academy is now planting a new human consciousness and a new entrepreneurial culture.

Claudia is the first non-indigenous person chosen by the Global Indigenous People’s Climate Justice Forum to lead international strategic cooperation. The Forum, founded by The Forest Man of India - Jadav Payeng - and Rituraj Phukan - head of the Indian national network of Al Gore on biodiversity.

The Forum represents up to 400 million people from 90 countries, including 20 million in the 97 indigenous communities of the Indian state of Assam, where the Forum is based.

Claudia has been appointed by the G7 Engagement Group on Gender Equality, Women 7, as an Advisor alongside 80 experts from 40 countries. Her specific working group focuses on climate justice.

Claudia is a Professor in 2 international Master's programs, one at the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and one at the Rome Business School. Her subject concerns the indigenous factor as a seed for innovative models of development regeneration.

She graduated in political economy in Siena in 2002, then completed 3 Master's degrees in her career, becoming a Physiocritic at the Academy of Physiocritics Science in Siena, founded in 1691. It was in Siena that she founded Usiena Alumni in 2014, the first association of former students of the University of Siena.

Claudia's career has had 3 turning points: the first concerns the management of European projects on business internationalization. The second concerns the research and implementation of technologies and innovations applied to agri-food systems. The third concerns the impact of these technologies on the climate emergency, and it arose from meetings with Barack Obama first and then with Al Gore, with whom she trained in Pittsburgh (USA) entering his network of 50,000 environmental activists from around the world.

Her education, expertise, and experience are now serving Smily Academy, which she founded with The Forest Man of India, Rituraj Phukan, and 2 young people under 25, Munmuni Payeng and Matteo Salerno.

On December 4, 2023, at COP28 in Dubai, during a meeting with Al Gore, she launched Smily Academy, Sustainable Mindset and Inner Level for Youth, the world's first indigenous accelerator aimed at creating sustainable youth enterprises, starting from a new approach based on human-nature consciousness and reconnection.

Both indigenous and non-indigenous populations, with Smily Academy, invest in the new generations to create innovative eco-businesses with high social and environmental impact.