Paula Andrea Restrepo, Silicaucho International | Women Breaking the Mold 2023

Leading a company as a woman in the "macho society" of Medellin, Columbia, is no small feat.

This is especially the case for Paula Andrea Restrepo, who took over Silicaucho International as president three years ago and has since pulled the company from the brink of bankruptcy due to embezzlement and internal theft.

"During (the COVID-19 pandemic) some things came to light which I had suspected for a long time," Restrepo told Rubber News in an email.

Over 20 years ago, Restrepo's husband became the majority owner of Silicaucho, a Medellin-based manufacturer of NBR, SBR, EPDM, hi-temp and silicone gaskets.

"My husband's best friend here in Colombia was his minority partner. Their agreement was to share earnings 50/50," she said. "My husband is extremely trusting to a fault, because to him one's word means everything. Unfortunately, that can be taken advantage of very easily."

After Restrepo became a certified public accountant with a focus on auditing and control, she noticed discrepancies between her husband and his partner's incomes.

"I started questioning the amount of money we were receiving versus what his partner was showing in the cars he drove," she said. "I guess my woman's intuition really kicked in."

Restrepo said it was challenging to convince her husband that his best friend was stealing from the company, but when she did, she hired an outside auditing firm "to prove in black and white numbers how much had been lost."

The next challenge, she said, was taking over the business and "changing an entire culture in a company within a macho society," where workers also were stealing gaskets and selling them on the black market.

"They had their own business on the side that was 100-percent paid for and financed by Silicaucho. I had to shut them down, install new security teams and be conscientious of my surroundings," she said, noting she had to change her drive home daily and avoid leaving the factory after dark.

After navigating strict labor laws of Columbia to terminate the employees involved, Restrepo had to pay back taxes to the National Tax and Customs Authority, vendors and various credit lines with banks—and re-establish the company's credibility.

"I was a woman with no experience in the industry (or in Silicaucho for that matter) in a business that had completely lost its credibility," she said.

Now, the company no longer owes anybody money, and Restrepo said she is focused on moving the company's manufacturing to a new facility by this November after acquiring a new plant in a Free Trade Zone outside Medellin.

"This will enable Silicaucho to better serve our export customers while at the same time giving us room to continue to increase production and sales," she said, adding that she wants to continue to help the company grow.

And as a personal goal, she said she wants to help those from her "third world culture educate themselves to what is expected serving first world customers, which in (the) long run, hopefully, will help Colombia economically expand.

"I feel that can help make future generations' lives better," she said.

Restrepo studied social work in Texas and moved back to Columbia in 2009 as her children grew older to earn her degree in accounting. Before becoming president of Silicaucho, she was the owner of a clothing store for a private fashion designer in Medellin, "considered the Milan or Paris of Latin America," she said.

And as a mother of four, Restrepo has supported her children as their "athletic director, chauffeur (and serving) on school committees."

"I think owning a clothing store, going back to the university and raising four children all at the same time, prepared me to be able to handle the multi-tasking required to be president of Silicaucho," she said.

Restrepo said she takes inspiration from her parents, who never had the opportunities she had.

"They both come from small, rural mountain towns outside of Medellin. They never had the opportunity to finish even (eighth) grade. They always put our family first," she said. "Their hard work drove me to always take advantage of education."

Years with company: 3
Years in rubber industry: 3

Every day is a new challenge. I am a very black-and-white person, yet I am from a country where our culture by nature is very grey. So, every day at the factory, my work is challenged by the very culture which I was raised in.

Every day I try to challenge our employees with doing what you say you are going to do. If you say an order will ship next Friday, then do not tell me (or more importantly) do not tell our customer, that the order did not ship. To me, this is a very black-and-white issue, and I want my employees to incorporate the same mentality. DO what you said you were going to DO.

I think leadership looks like a person that leads by example. I cannot expect my employees to do what I, myself, would not do.

Over (20) years ago my husband became the majority owner of Silicaucho. I was drawn to the rubber industry because my husband was too trusting, and his friend/partner was embezzling from the company.

If you truly believe in your ideas, then don't budge. Tell what you believe to be true and stick to it. Even if those people do not agree with you, they might not like you, but in the end, they will respect you because they will always know where you stand. The more you express what you feel in your ideas, over time you will earn more credibility for your positions (whether they like those ideas/positions or not).

In a way, being president allows me to lead or manage in such a way that I do not have to advocate for myself. In terms of my ideas, I think always being honest is the best way to advocate for myself.

To be honest, I have failed many times, but I always try to view failure as a learning opportunity, which over time will build character, motivate me to improve and in a way build self-confidence which allows me to try new things.