Recovering the CLAUDIA magazine column and conversation with Leonora Bardini, originally published on April 10, 2020.

Leonora Bardini, the Woman in Charge of Globo’s Programming
As the head of TV Globo’s programming, she runs everything without giving up her beach workouts, ocean swims, and visits to her family in Goiânia.

Last month, TV Globo made the unprecedented decision to suspend telenovela productions. Morning shows with Ana Maria Braga and Fátima Bernardes were also pulled off the air. The goal was to dedicate at least 11 consecutive hours to live news coverage of the global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It was a radical shift for Brazil’s largest broadcaster—but a necessary one.

Behind this decision stands Leonora Bardini, a native of Goiânia and Globo’s programming director. She is the first woman to ever hold the position, which she took on two years ago. “It’s my responsibility to keep the station on the air 24 hours a day with maximum relevance. What we’re seeing now is drastic, something that’s never happened before,” she told CLAUDIA in an interview.

Leonora is one of those behind-the-scenes figures who have a huge impact on our daily lives. She decides everything that goes on air—including Sessão da Tarde movies and late-night series—that often keeps you glued to your screen. Not many people can say they influence the routine of 100 million Brazilian viewers, right? Leading a team of 120 people, she’s sometimes called in the middle of the night—after all, the world doesn’t stop. “I take it in stride because I really love what I do,” she says.

Leonora was studying communications in Goiânia when she took a three-month internship in Milan, Italy, as a regional director of AIESEC, the world’s largest youth leadership movement. Travel has been a passion of hers from an early age. So much so that Leo, as her friends call her, has lived in seven cities, including abroad.

When Leonora was about to turn 15, her mother, dentist Maria Eugênia Bardini, wanted to throw a traditional coming-of-age party. But there was no convincing her daughter, who instead asked for a student exchange program in Australia. The gift came a year later—at age 16, Leonora boarded a plane for the first time and flew to the other side of the world. She never stopped traveling after that.

After graduating from college, she landed an internship at a tobacco company in Rio de Janeiro. In less than three years—and a stint in Curitiba—she became the company’s marketing manager in Santa Cruz do Sul, 140 kilometers from Porto Alegre. Staying in one place too long doesn’t suit this Aquarius, born on February 2nd, Iemanjá’s day.

Even while rising fast in the company, she made the bold decision to join TV Globo’s trainee program. That meant relocating again, this time to São Paulo, where she was assigned to the programming department. “I’ve always invested heavily in my career. I’ll change areas, homes, cities, or companies if necessary,” she says. “I was already in a management position when I applied to Globo. But I took a step back, betting it would lead to something greater in the future,” she recalls. It paid off, as we can clearly see now.

At the time of her transition, she got a tattoo with lyrics from Mistério do Planeta by Novos Baianos: “I keep showing who I am / And being who I can / Throwing my body into the world / Walking in all directions.” It was a celebration of her many adventures and ventures. “My furniture actually held up pretty well through all the moves,” she jokes. After six years at Globo, she seems more grounded now. Calm and composed, she’s known internally as someone who never raises her voice and is always smiling.

“I believe in collaborative leadership, in giving people space to grow. I only advanced in my career because I helped develop other professionals along the way. I always built strong teams so that when an opportunity came up, I could be promoted and someone capable would be ready to take my place,” she explains. Even working in a male-dominated field, she never felt inferior for being a woman or for being younger. She credits that to her open personality, her willingness to listen, and her constant desire to learn.

Away from the Studio

Her rapid rise and major responsibilities at just 30 might lead one to assume that Leonora prioritizes work over her personal life. Not true. Since moving to Rio, she’s treated her weekend ocean swims as sacred. “I’m from Goiânia—we miss this kind of thing there,” she says. She also sticks to a daily morning workout routine on Leblon Beach, in Rio’s South Zone. “I need to always be available because the station is on air 24/7. But I still go out to the theater and the movies, and if the phone rings, I’ll answer. I’m not willing to give up living my life,” she affirms. That includes hitting Carnival blocos, going to concerts, and meeting friends at bars. Leonora loves a party so much that she celebrated Carnival in both Rio and São Paulo—and made sure to wear costumes. “I divided my time so I could stay updated on the network’s coverage and still have some fun. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth it,” she says.

Even as a self-proclaimed “citizen of the world,” she preserves her family roots. She frequently visits her hometown. “Aside from all the effort, everything I’ve learned and built, I know that what I have comes from a place of privilege,” she stresses. “Having a family that gave me access to so many things and to information is one of the reasons I got to where I am,” she acknowledges. When she’s in Goiânia, she’s just Lola, the childhood nickname she still goes by. She hangs out at the same bars she used to ten years ago and meets up with her childhood friends. “Nothing’s changed,” she says.

The people who’ve known her since she was a girl are the proudest of her journey. Her number-one fan is her mom. Leonora told her about the promotion first. “She got so excited in the family WhatsApp groups that she sent the news right back to me,” she laughs. Since Leonora did the photoshoot and interview for CLAUDIA, Maria Eugênia hasn’t stopped asking when it will be published. “You have to tell me these things ahead of time so I can inform everyone,” she told her daughter, eager.

The day we met Leonora at the Globo studio where the Bom Dia Brasil morning show is filmed, her schedule was unusually light—no one yet grasped the full scale of the pandemic. She only had to respond to one quick WhatsApp and a phone call. With those done, she told us about her latest at-home obsession. “I’m a plant mom,” she jokes. “I didn’t know it was so much work taking care of them. And I’m possessive—only I’m allowed to water them. It’s my therapy,” she says with a wink.

In recent days, that escape valve has been more important than ever—but Leonora isn’t one to complain about the heavy atmosphere. “This has been a great learning experience for me, just as it has for all of us. We’ll come out stronger from this crisis. I truly believe that,” she wrote just days before this edition went to print—still as serene as ever.