Referent of Cema University and businesswoman, she raised her profile through her activity on Twitter. With humor, she says that she sought to «stir up giles» during the campaign.
Diana Mondino was born in Córdoba, where her parents and one of her sons live. She met her husband -Eugenio Pendás- at an economics congress in Bahía Blanca when he was still an economics student. They got married and together they moved to Spain to study for an MBA, something that did not exist in Argentina until they returned to set it up at Cema University. The MBA began to operate in 1987, the year in which Mondino began her career as a professor at that university and, together with one of her first students, founded a credit rating agency that was later bought by Standard & Poor’s. In 2001, she joined the firm as a member of the MBA team. In 2001 she joined the New York firm and was responsible for delivering the bad news: Standard & Poor’s downgraded Argentina’s credit rating several times before the crisis.
She has close to 84,000 followers on Twitter and in the last few weeks she has been especially active; she has uploaded up to five contents per day. For 20 years she has been writing a monthly column in the newspaper La Nación and regularly goes on television, but she says she has never generated as much conversation as she does now. Her memes and irreverent comments became mass circulation especially among those who feel comfortable with the economic ideas of the liberal spectrum.
The economist of the moment worries Juntos por el Cambio for her approach to Javier Milei.
Diana Mondino is an economist of successful trajectory, well known in the red circle. Some time ago she became an influencer with many young people who follow her on social networks. Rumors of her candidacy in Córdoba with the libertarians are worrying Juntos por el Cambio.
Diana Mondino has a long professional career in economics, management, project evaluation, risk and market analysis. In 1991, she even founded Risk Analysis, a local risk rating company, later acquired by Standard & Poor’s. She is currently the Director of Institutional Relations at Universidad del CEMA. Despite her recognized prestige, she has never been as popular as in recent times thanks to her active participation in social networks. She has more than 80,000 followers on Twitter and has become an influencer among young people who have massively turned to liberalism.
The economist from Córdoba is not only recognized in the red circle and consulted on TV channels, but has managed to reach an audience much further away from economic and financial analysis. For example, last night she participated in TheSpaceShow, a space managed by young libertarian millennials and admirers of Javier Milei. For these reasons, there has been speculation about his candidacy for that space in Córdoba.
Paradoxically, Mondino has not yet defined if she will accept an eventual proposal of Milei to run for the governorship of that district or to lead the list of national deputies, but the rumors have advanced in such a way that concern is perceived in Juntos por el Cambio, even in allied leaders such as Ricardo López Murphy, who last year proposed to the Cordovan to accompany him in the list of United Republicans that went to the PASO within the officialism of the City of Buenos Aires.
The link between the economist and Milei arises essentially because one of her sons, Francisco Pendas, is the right hand of Rodolfo Eiben, head of the Democratic Party of Córdoba, which supports the presidential project of the libertarian deputy. «Hopefully Diana accepts to get involved in politics this time because with her prestige and growing popularity she would add many votes», say in the environment of La Libertad Avanza.
The same spokespersons are surprised by the impact that these rumors have generated. «In WhatsApp groups linked to the PRO they have criticized her a lot for a decision she has not yet made, it is incredible the level of intolerance», they comment. Evidently a new rift has been generated within the liberal right between the followers of JxC and those of Milei. This is also perceived in the social networks. The fight is also in the leadership, especially in the opposition coalition, because of the rise of the libertarian in the polls, part of his electorate that is fleeing.
This is the behind-the-scenes of the networks of the economist, who is a professor at Universidad del Cema (Ucema) and, in her role as a businesswoman, is a member of five boards of directors: Loma Negra, Bodegas Bianchi, Banco Roela, Banco de Alimentos and Foro Argentino de Mujeres Ejecutivas (FAME).
