In every chapter of her multifaceted career, Gina Diez Barroso has proven that vision and execution are not opposing forces—they are twin engines of change. As a creative force, business leader, and global advocate for inclusive development, she has built companies, institutions, and ecosystems with one unrelenting goal: to generate value with purpose.
Her legacy is not measured merely in capital raised or companies launched, but in lives transformed and systems shifted. From reshaping Latin America’s creative industries to redefining the path of leadership for women, Gina’s work is the embodiment of design thinking applied to human potential.
Designing a New Industry Standard
Gina Diez Barroso’s business journey began with disruption. At a time when few were talking to young women in Latin America, she launched Tú magazine—one of the first platforms to speak directly to their ambitions, insecurities, and aspirations. The publication quickly grew into a cultural phenomenon, giving voice to a generation.
She brought the same innovative spirit into real estate. Frustrated by the fragmented nature of the industry, Gina founded Group Diarq with a bold new model: a fully integrated, end-to-end development firm that combined land acquisition, architecture, construction, and interior design. Her goal was simple but radical—deliver beautiful, high-quality spaces with the efficiency and clarity clients deserved. Diarq’s influence now spans Mexico and the U.S., with more than 600 employees and hundreds of high-profile residential, commercial, and hospitality projects that carry her hallmark of functionality fused with creativity.
Diez Company represents, manufactures, and designs high-end lighting solutions that combine aesthetics and innovation. Diez is the leading company in high-end global commercial, hospitality, and residential lighting, representing over a hundred designers from Mexico, Latin America, the USA, Europe, and Asia.
Creativity as Strategy: The Creation of CENTRO
She founded CENTRO University 25 years ago in Mexico City with a bold mission: to elevate creativity as a strategic tool for economic change.
Today, CENTRO University is recognized globally for its innovative approach to creative education, producing alumni who lead across industries from fashion to digital design, film, architecture, and technology. Its success is grounded in a core belief that creativity, when paired with business and entrepreneurship, can reshape not only careers, but economies.
Power Skills, Real Impact: The Rise of Dalia Empower
Gina Diez Barroso’s understanding of systems—where they thrive and where they fail—led her to launch her most ambitious project yet: Dalia.
Dalia is a global learning ecosystem built to address one of the most complex barriers to equity in today’s economy: the internal obstacles that hold women back from advancing professionally. While women are graduating at record rates and excelling academically, many still struggle with confidence, personal branding, negotiation, leadership, emotional intelligence, and other power skills essential to thriving in leadership roles.
Dalia is not a philanthropic initiative. It is a strategic business model—one that leverages AI, behavioral data, and community infrastructure to provide personalized learning pathways focused on what Gina calls the “real differentiators” in career success: resilience, communication, self-awareness, and decision-making under pressure. These are not “soft” skills—they are the foundation of any leadership journey.
With scalable technology, corporate partnerships, and a rapidly growing user base, Dalia has positioned itself as a prime example of impact investing: a company at the intersection of learning, inclusion, and economic advancement. Its mission? Impact 25 million women, with the ripple effect of touching over 100 million lives.
“Doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive,” Gina Diez Barroso often says. “Dalia exists because we believe women’s leadership is not only a moral imperative—it’s a business strategy and an enormous opportunity.”
A Global Investor with Purpose
Gina’s reach extends far beyond education and design. Through her family office, Diez Holdings, she actively invests in high-impact ventures across sustainability, technology, health, entertainment, and real estate. Her investments are guided by a values-driven lens—seeking not just financial returns, but structural solutions to complex social challenges and building a more resilient future.
In the public sector, she serves on Mexico’s Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocalization (CADERR), advising the Office of the President on frameworks to attract investment and ensure inclusive regional growth.
She also sits on several boards, including the Mexican Stock Exchange, Santander Global Advisory Board, Grupo AXO, and the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (ASCOA), helping shape conversations at the highest level of business and policy around the world.
A New Playbook for Legacy
In a world where legacy is often framed as what you leave behind, Gina Diez Barroso is reimagining it as what you build now for others to lead. Intergenerational leadership, for her, is not just about succession—it’s about systems that empower the next generation to lead with confidence, integrity, and vision.
That ethos permeates everything she creates. Whether it’s Dalia’s community-led growth, CENTRO’s entrepreneurial pedagogy, or Diez Holdings’ inclusive investment thesis, Gina is building not just businesses—but future-ready platforms designed to outlast her.
Recognition Rooted in Real Impact
Gina Diez Barroso was named EY Mexico’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023 and was a finalist at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in Monaco in 2024. She also received the Gold Medal from the Council of the Americas and was named Mexico’s Most Powerful Woman by Forbes in 2024.
She is also a member of the exclusive C200 network of top female executives and represents Mexico at the G20´s W20 and Women’s Alliance, where she champions gender equity and economic inclusion.
More Than a Platform—An Ecosystem and a Movement
Dalia challenges outdated leadership paradigms by recognizing that systemic change requires both inner and outer transformation. The platform dismantles limiting beliefs—imposter syndrome, fear of failure, guilt—and replaces them with tools that help women not only succeed but redefine what success looks like for them.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, advancing gender equity could unlock $12 trillion in global GDP. Dalia isn’t just aligned with that opportunity—it is actively building the systems to realize it.
At its core, Dalia is a movement designed for scale and rooted in trust. It is a blueprint for what the future of work—and the future of business—can look like when inclusion is not an afterthought, but a competitive advantage.
The Architecture of Change
Gina Diez Barroso’s work stands at the intersection of innovation, inclusion, and impact. From the creative industries to corporate boardrooms, from Mexico to the world, she has designed structures—literal and metaphorical—that elevate people and ideas.
She is not merely a successful entrepreneur. She is a systems builder, a connector, a mentor, and a fierce believer in the power of purpose to drive profit—and of business to shape society.
Through her work, Gina reminds us that legacy isn’t about what we leave behind. It’s about what we build for others to rise.
