Clothing retailer The Limited has selected a Latina LGBTQ CEO as one of the faces of its new advertising campaign, "The New Look of Leadership."
Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder and CEO of Pipeline Fellowship, will appear in The Limited's direct marketing, digital and social media campaign, which is scheduled to run through the holiday season.
The Limited said the campaign "embraces female empowerment and celebrates the many faces of leadership seen today."
The company said it looked for women who "stand out, speak up and push boundaries in their everyday lives," to participate in the campaign.
As a woman, Oberti Noguera is a rarity in the world of angel investing, where, in 2014, "only 26 percent of U.S. angel investors were women and only 8 percent were minorities," according to the Center for Venture Research. ( An angel investor provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs. )
Her Pipeline Fellowship program, which she launched in 2011, seeks to change those statistics through its investing boot camps, which are aimed specifically at women entrepreneurs.
To date, Oberti Noguera said the program has graduated 100 women and invested in more than 20 women-led for-profit social ventures, including one company that exited in less than five years, an impressive timeframe for the angel investing process.
"It's pretty awesome to work on something where we can see the needle moving," Oberti Noguera said.
But she's quick to add, "There needs to be more done and we need more white women and more women of color on the angel investing side."
Oberti Noguera said there are a few reasons why she decided to participate in The Limited's "The New Look of Leadership" campaign.
First, she said the company walks the walk, with a woman, Diane Ellis, serving as CEO of The Limited. She noted there were also many women involved behind the scenes in "The New Look of Leadership" advertising campaign, which appealed to her.
"Realizing how many women behind the scenes who were in leadership positions for the campaign itself, from the casting agent to the creative people to the tailor to the stylist and the photographer, that was something that really resonated with me," she said. "It's very easy to just have something be on the surface."
Second, she said the diversity of the campaign itself appealed to her, as did the company's history of supporting diversity through previous advertising campaigns.
"Knowing that The Limited had supported Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington and Lyn Paolo with [its] exclusive Scandal Collection, I knew they walked the walk. They were really engaging a diverse set of women," she said.
She was also happy to be able to represent the LGBT community through the campaign.
Oberti Noguera doesn't take her status as an out LGBT for granted. She knows how difficult it can still be for members of the LGBT community to be out in their jobs, particularly in the corporate sector.
She noted there are still plenty of instances of homophobia within corporate workplaces, which creates an unsafe environment for many LGBT people and keeps them closeted.
In fact, she said her partner works in a field where she doesn't feel that she can be out at work and, therefore, remains closeted.
"My partner is not out," she said. "One of the things I am so grateful for, about being an entrepreneur, is that I am my own boss. I'm in a position where I can be out and I don't have a fear of being fired or not being promoted. It's given me an agency to be more vocal.
"I'm glad that we've had a lot of progress, with marriage equality for instance, but we are still not addressing some important issues, such as yes, a company might have an affinity network or an employee resource group, but that doesn't necessarily change how one's colleagues behave or act, or the culture.
"If more people were out it might help, but it's super hard to be that person to come out in this environment."
So, she hopes her own visibility, and being part of The Limited campaign can help lead to that change.
One other aspect that was important to Oberti Noguera about the campaign was what she wore and making sure it represented her personal style.
"Off the bat, I said if I'm going to be part of this I want to make sure I'm going to be comfortable with what I'm wearing," she said. "So I was very clear from the get go that I just don't like dresses or skirts. That is just not who I am. The fact that they were able to accommodate that, I was very grateful.
"When I think about diversity, there are different sorts of diversity out there and being able to represent women who choose to wear pants and pant suits is important to me. I wanted to make sure we had different looks of leadership, in terms of who we are, our identities and what we represent, and also what we choose to wear."
Oberti Noguera's video for "The New Look of Leadership" at www.thelimited.com/features/top-looks/leaders .
Pipeline Fellowship program applications for spring 2016 are being accepted now for the following cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, DC, Houston, Miami, NYC, and Philadelphia. Visit pfapply.seamlessdocs.com/f/boot camp for the application .
The casting call is being held Oct. 19-21 in Chicago, according to the Facebook page www.facebook.com/thelimited/app_181034565422548 .
