By: Gina BuendíaVivian Fernández de Torrijos
The driving force behind TRIBU DDB Panama
For five years she served as First Lady of the Republic involved in the social agenda of the State. She was the brain behind the National Inclusion Plan, giving the opportunity to thousands of handicapped people to improve their quality of life respecting their rights. Currently, after finishing her work in the governmental apparatus, Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos met again with her profession and it only took one phone call to say yes to the advertising industry.
We did not have to wait long to be attended by the former First Lady of the Republic. In her presence it is easy to determine those qualities that make her be recognized as a woman of character, intelligent and determined, with enough magnetism to capture the attention of those who listen to her or simply look at her.
A petite woman of elegant projection, Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos opened the doors of what she calls her life project and her great passion, to be at the head of the firm TRIBU DDB Panama, affiliated to the advertising network known worldwide for its trajectory in the industry.
The fact of having a taste for advertising in her blood did not assure that after the presidential term of her husband, Martin Torrijos Espino, she would immediately return to the business. But just as she was saying goodbye to her office as first lady, destiny conspired to make her return quickly and in a big way.
As she explains to Pauta, during her work in her husband’s government she never thought about what she would do next, she was only sure that she could not forget her profession as a publicist, but she imagined that it would take her some time to decide how to get back into the communication business.
“On the way I met my personal friend Jorge Oller who called me – I thought – to congratulate us for the work we had completed, but he told me about TRIBU DDB and the interest in opening operations in Panama, emphasizing that they did not want to do it if I was not in charge”, explains Fernandez de Torrijos.
This proposal awakened in her the emotion to do something different, accepting the proposal 24 hours later, having just the next day, her first work meeting with the multinational McDonald’s, her first client in Panama. see print edition
