Ximena Duque (Cali, 41 years old) talks about technology as if it were a fiber that unites the country or a silent lever capable of transforming territories and economies. Since the presidency of the Colombian Federation of the Software Industry and Related IT Technologies (Fedesoft), which he assumed in 2020, he has promoted the digital industry in Colombia and has the firm conviction that “investing in software “It’s investing in the future of the country.”
The strategy he is leading within the Federation – which represents 500 companies in the software and information technology (IT) and is part of the National Commerce Council – has among several pillars the positioning of national industry, the reduction of digital divides, talent training and competitiveness.
Under this guideline, the organization has trained and sensitized 60,000 MSMEs on digital skills. They installed technological solutions in 3,800 of them and carried out digital maturity measurements for 11,000 others, with specific paths for their technological integration. They also reached 21 regions of the country with business conferences and action plans. In talent, one of the pillars that Duque considers most urgent, they have retrained 10,000 people with digital skills, thus connecting them to real market demand. As for exports of IT services, they reached 10% of the total exports of all of Colombia; 16% above 2023.
The program Duque is most proud of is the National Programming Competition, which has nine versions. In this year’s event, 494 schools participated. Students receive training from companies and universities, develop a minimum viable product to solve a problem aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. “Many children have never been on a plane and come to Bogota to present their project. It changes their lives,” he says of this initiative which he considers as a field of opportunities for Colombia to recruit talent.
Opening the trails and filling the gaps
Its story, however, begins far from digital, a sector historically led by men and in which women are beginning to break stereotypes in leadership positions. She is the daughter of a couple with deep peasant roots: her father is from Río Frío, Valle del Cauca; his mother, from La Merced, Caldas. They both grew up in the countryside before migrating to the city and paving the way for new generations: “My parents were the first to arrive in the city, and I was the first to study at university,” she recalls.
These origins, marked by effort and an unwavering faith in possibilities, shaped his way of seeing the world. His mother, devoted to design and clothing, told him that everything was achievable; His father, a merchant with business sense, taught him work discipline. Duque retains from his childhood the feeling of living supported and surrounded by a constant impulse towards new possibilities.
He studied economics at Icesi University in Cali. Her job first took her to New York, where she did an internship in an association that brought together the chambers of commerce of Spanish-speaking countries. He later won an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to specialize in Germany in a program bringing together students from 27 countries.
He returned to the country to do a master’s degree in International Affairs at Externado University, and that’s when Fedesoft, still a small union, appeared. He started working in the field of innovation, structuring processes and “filling the gaps”. He then headed the Competitiveness area, in charge, among other things, of internationalization. In January 2020, when the CEO resigned, the board appointed her manager. Two months later, the world stopped because of Covid19.
“He software “It became the only way to survive,” he said of the start of the pandemic. His role was decisive. Fedesoft built a direct line with the Presidency of the Republic, supported the massive purchase of vaccines with other unions, renegotiated contracts with large companies in the IT sector to guarantee better rates and promoted an initiative in which almost 500 technological solutions were made available to companies that needed to survive. “It was a critical moment, but also an opportunity to show why our industry should participate in the national debate,” she recalls. Her agile and decisive leadership led her to be appointed executive president a few months later.
Her concern about gender inequality runs just as deep. From Womenize, a Latin American community in which she directs the Technology chapter, promotes training spaces, webinarsrewards and policies for more women to join the sector. He emphatically cites the data: only between 17 and 18 percent of graduates from tech careers are women, and that number hasn’t changed in years. Despite everything, companies have managed to ensure that between 30 and 35% of their teams are women. The bottleneck is at the base. “We need to understand what’s happening at these early ages and how we support girls so they don’t abandon these fields. »
Internationalization is another of the fronts he has led. Fedesoft accompanies Colombian companies to world fairs, organizes trade missions and builds internationalization routes with allies, to open export windows: “No company software “I should be disconnected from the world,” he says.
“Maybe we are a union that doesn’t take pictures, but makes things happen,” he says. Their current challenge is quite the opposite: that the impact of Fedesoft be visible so that Colombia understands that the software This is a strategic opportunity. “The most important conversations in the world are about technology. Colombia cannot be broken up.” The country can become a Latin American digital power if it manages to integrate talent, business, academia and the state. Its mission is to make this projection a possible future.
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