S4:E10 Ana Maria Sierra - Out of the Clouds

Anne V Muhlethaler interviews Ana Maria Sierra, a market development and strategic communication consultant living in Colombia. She is a Fulbright Scholar with a master’s degree in mass media from the New School for Social Research in New York. Following a 15-year corporate career in business management and leading senior management teams in Colombian and multinational banking and service companies, Ana founded Sierra Restrepo Consultores in 2009, a consultancy specialising in marketing and strategic communication. From an early education in the arts, then media before going into banking, Ana Maria has built a robust career and has worked with clients across Latin America in the coffee sector.

In their conversation, Ana tells Anne about her journey with MODA ELAN, the conscious and ethical jewellery platform she founded that aims to be the bridge that brings together the best ethical jewellery designers from around the world with the jewellery masters and gold panners from the biogeographical Chocó territories in the Pacific Coasts of Colombia. Ana shares how she became motivated by her love for handcrafted jewellery after taking a silversmithing course in Bogota, which led her to transition from a successful career in promoting coffee consumption in Colombia to pursuing her passion for silversmithing and artisanal metallurgy and eventually founding Moda Elan. Through this B2B platform she hopes to support local artisans and promote ethical jewellery practices.

Leveraging her consultancy firm, Ana explains how she began to sell her jewellery as pop-up shops and fairs, gradually incorporating contemporary urban jewellers into her portfolio. Her deep involvement with the Alliance for Responsible Mining opened her eyes to the importance of responsibly sourced minerals and single-origin gold, which became a cornerstone of her ethical jewellery brand. She became passionate about the powerful pre-Hispanic metallurgy legacy she discovered, which led her to choose to promote work rooted in the history of the Americas, with its unique aesthetics, materials — and, through the jewellery, bring those values to the world. Ana’s passion is evident as she tells Anne how she is committed to work with the Afro goldsmith communities of the Chocó Biogeographical Region while adding sustainability to their cultural heritage around goldsmithing.

Ana’s work is characterised by a strong commitment to social impact, particularly in supporting vulnerable communities like women miners and the Afro-Colombian artisan jewellers of this region. She talks about the impact of unlicensed mining and emphasises the need for transparency in the jewellery supply chain, advocating for ethical sourcing and fair trade practices.

Looking ahead, Ana offers her vision for Moda Elan, which would be to expand its reach and bring more awareness and support for ethical jewellery, reaching the wider ethical luxury market and leveraging the stories and values behind each piece to spark meaningful conversations with the view to drive sustainable change. She acknowledges the challenges she faces, such as managing rural associations and competing with large gold traders, but remains determined to overcome them. To illustrate that point, Ana jokes that this project is like “a jumbo jet with a blender motor.”

Ana’s journey is a testament to the power of shared values and the potential for creating positive impact through dedication and collaboration. Happy listening!