Female presence leads Chilean team at Expo Osaka 2025
The General Director of ProChile welcomed four hostesses and the communications and operations managers of the Chile Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025 to support the country's participation in this event, who join the director and deputy director of the national pavilion, who are already in Japan.
The General Director of ProChile, Ignacio Fernández, received the four hostesses and those in charge of Operations and Communications from the Chilean Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025. These are the hostesses Valentina Ardiles, Daniela Pilquil, Tammy Alonso and Arelis Pérez, along with Valentina Castelli, who is in charge of Communications, and Paula Vicens, who is in charge of Operations. They were selected after participating in public calls made by the institution.
These six professionals will join Marichu Meyer and Paula Salamé, director and deputy director of the Chilean pavilion respectively, in the coming days. Together, they will form the stable team of the pavilion comprised of a total of 8 women.
"I want to emphasize that these professionals were chosen after highly competitive contests and under very specific selection criteria. This team of 8 women will be the visible face of our pavilion and of the country for six months in this international event that will start next April 13th until October 13th and will bring together 158 countries and international organizations in Japan," said the General Director of ProChile, Ignacio Fernandez.
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Meanwhile, the general commissioner of Chile for Expo Osaka 2025, Paulina Nazal, commented that "we are filled with pride that, in this women's month, we can announce that the team that will represent us in Japan will be integrated by professional women with diverse profiles and trajectories, which not only reinforces female leadership in our foreign policy, but also enriches the perspective and the contribution of diverse experiences to the representation of Chile on the global stage. Gender equality and inclusion policies are an important part of the topics that will be discussed at the Expo and Chile will not only have a week of activities dedicated to this matter, but it is showing, with concrete actions, its commitment to this issue."
The professionals were welcomed by the General Director of ProChile and then began their training on various topics, such as the country's image (by the Foundation Image of Chile); tourism (by Sernatur), the themed weeks of Chile at this Expo (by ProChile); protocol and ceremony (taught by the General Directorate of Ceremonial and Protocol of the Foreign Ministry) and also about the Japanese people and their customs (a talk given by a representative of the Japanese Beneficence Society and Isabel Margarita Cortés, host of Chile at Expo Osaka 1970).
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Chilean Team at Expo Osaka.
Pavilion Director: Marichu Meyer is a commercial engineer, with a career spanning over 13 years at ProChile, being part of the sectoral brands team, overseeing the budget execution of various projects and leading teams within the institution.
- Deputy Pavilion Director: Paula Salamé is an agronomic engineer with studies in international commerce, and a career of over 17 years in different positions in ProChile, both in coordinating various export sectors and developing projects from both regions and commercial offices in different markets.
- Communications Manager: Valentina Castelli is a journalist with over ten years of experience in creating, directing, managing, and producing communications projects. In 2015, she was the Head of Communications, Protocol and Public Relations for the Chilean pavilion at Expo Milan 2015.
- Operations Manager: Paula Vicens is a public relations specialist with over 25 years of experience in the field of public relations and event organization, having been part of the organizing team for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago.
- Hostesses: Valentina Ardiles is a translator with a specialization in English-Japanese and has held various positions in the private sector related to Japan. Daniela Pilquil, on the other hand, is a Mandarin Chinese interpreter and was a hostess at the Chile pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010. Tammy Alonso is an English-Japanese translator with experience working in Japanese companies and educational institutions. Arelis Pérez, for her part, is a business engineer with more than four years in positions in the private sector.
The Chilean pavilion at this Universal Exhibition is located in the "Saving Lives" sector, which features as its centerpiece the project "Makün: The Mantle of Chile" (a mantle woven by 200 craftswomen from four Mapuche communities), which is held up by a cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure. In addition, the pavilion will have an immersive experience with a "videowall" of more than 40 linear meters, that will display information, videos and other data to visitors, allowing interaction with them.
