Ney Diaz, President of INTRAS
The art of networking is not easy; only a few are true masters.
Ney Diaz is one of the professionals I know who does it with excellence. Ney fits into two categories in this post: “Born Networkers” and “Entrepreneurs”.
I met Ney during my master’s at ICADE in Madrid, back in 1994 (good grief, that’s 18 years ago!!!). I was doing advertising and Ney an MBA. The difference is that my father paid for mine, whereas Ney had come from the Dominican Republic and paid for his himself by working hard.
As soon as I met him, we hit it off. First we became friends, then professional collaborators, and for a long time now we have thought of each other as brothers.
His entrepreneurial profile:
A year after returning to Santo Domingo when he finished his master’s, he emailed me to suggest I give a seminar on Market Research in his country. I really liked the idea, as I had been teaching the subject for some time. He came to Madrid, we finalised the programme and in October ’96 I was flying to Santo Domingo, sharing the bill with Porfirio Quezada, who was Nestlé’s Head of Research at the time.
This is where his role as a networker and entrepreneur comes into play. By working his network of contacts, Ney managed to fill that first seminar with more than 125 people, all top-level attendees: marketing executives, advertising and market research agencies, company directors… a resounding success.
There was also impressive media coverage. We gave several radio and press interviews, and the only resources Ney had were his contacts, a small makeshift office in a room of his house, a fax machine and a great desire to do things well.
After that seminar Ney kept running events and laying the foundations of what is today a flagship company in his country, Intras, the leading company in training for executives and professionals and in events, which I am lucky enough to be part of. Before officially launching Intras, he worked as an employee at several companies, always as a professional constantly striving for excellence in everything he does, and it has paid off.
He is never satisfied; he is constantly learning and training, both in the United States and in Europe, to stay up to date and offer the very best to his clients.
His networker profile:
What stands out most: his kindness, his people skills, his poise, his eloquence, his empathy, his excellent photographic memory, his pragmatism, his directness… I am running out of attributes, because he nails it. He connects with people like nobody else, whatever their background. He gets on just as well with the man who parks cars outside a bar as with a minister; that’s Ney.
Years ago he even launched a pioneering business television programme covering the hottest topics with star guests. He currently runs GESTION, a business magazine, as well as other companies in training and consultancy.
For everything I have told you and much more, I admire him; he is a real role model for me. I will always regret not having started a business when he did, or even packing my bags and moving to the Dominican Republic when he invited me to be part of his project, but you never know, there’s still time. My last visit was in November 2012, a success thanks to him.
Update 2023: In 2021 and 2022 I gave innovation webinars and interviews on his blog.
If you want to follow, read and learn from Ney Díaz’s advice, here is his blog, as he never stops producing interesting content.
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