Mariana Duarte Silva

shesaid.so Portugal Co-Director | LinkedIn

Graduate in Business Management, co-founder and CEO of Village Underground Lisboa, a cultural and office hub for the creative industries recently nominated The World's 4 Most Unusual Coworking Spaces by Forbes. Mariana worked for 18 years in the music industry promoting electronic music DJs, 3 of those years were lived in London, where she devoted herself to producing events to promote Portuguese music, using her vast expertise in press relations, advisory and public relations in the music industry.

As the founder of Village Underground Lisboa she has been asked to take part in international conferences in Dubai, Lyon (Nuites Sonores), Ibiza (IMS) and Madrid (Boiler Room) and many in Lisbon too.  Known as an “Underground Entrepreneur” (Executiva magazine) and founder of one of “the capital’s most emblematic spaces” (Forbes Portugal), published an opinion piece in Monocle about Lisbon’s cultural revolution and is particularly dedicated to promoting women in the music and entrepreneurial sector in Portugal, and contributing to the cultural development of her home city Lisbon. In April 2021 Mariana opened Skoola, a music academy in Village Underground, for 10 to 18 year olds from all social and economical backgrounds where they  learn, in a non-formal way, the music they listen to and like trough classic music composition, to digital softwares of music making and performative ensemble. Skoola has now 35 “students”.