Gabriela Mangieri Harper started her own communications business, the Ñu Group, after spending a decade creating, directing, and managing campaigns for the international division of advertising agency Martin|Williams, Inc. “Companies want to make sure they don’t overlook and ignore this customer,” says Harper. “I had a passion for it and I really believed there was a great opportunity that was untapped.”
After nearly five years of growth, the Ñu Group’s roster of clients includes such heavy-hitters as Wells Fargo and General Mills. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Midwest Direct Marketing Association and the U.S. Census Bureau. Although she is a busy entrepreneur, Harper makes time to volunteer for the youth and family program at the West Seventh Community Center in St. Paul, a minority business program of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association, and the literacy program at Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), a major social service provider to the Latino community.
Originally from Argentina, Harper was an exchange student at University of Wisconsin–River Falls, where she met her husband, Joel. Although the couple decided to put roots down in the U.S., Harper makes it a priority to stay strongly connected to the Latino community. “I’m proud of my background and the things I learned when I was young: the values of responsibility, commitment, ethics,” she says. “It’s part of who I am and part of what I bring to my business.”
