Employee Spotlight: Meet Danielle Chu

Danielle Chu  |  Sales & Marketing Director  |  Latin America

Q. What is your role at Penumbra?

My role — together with the Penumbra Latin America team — is to increase sales and customer satisfaction within Latin America by engaging our distributors, developing relationships with customers, and interacting with end users of Penumbra products. I also define and implement business strategies to support our growth.

Q. What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?

What I enjoy most working for Penumbra is that I feel I’m part of a family that has the same goal, which is to make our life-saving technologies available to as many patients as possible. I love what I do, and I enjoy the people I have the opportunity to work with!

Q. What are three career lessons you’ve learned thus far?

• Respect people and work as a team always. Alone you will hardly achieve your objectives or, if you do, it will require much more energy.
• Work hard, nothing is achieved without effort and focus.
• We learn every day! Be humble!

Q. Describe yourself at age 10. What career aspirations did you have at that age?

At age 10, I was living in Antwerp, Belgium, and had the opportunity to make friends from various countries, exchanging cultural differences and learnings. It was a tremendous experience that I’m positive has contributed to both my personal and professional growth. At that time, I wanted to follow my dad’s career; he worked for a health company and traveled every month to different countries.

Q. Describe a travel adventure that you’ll never forget.

In 2008, my husband and I traveled by motorcycle from São Paulo, Brazil, to Montevideo, Uruguay. We rode 3,000 km in 14 days. It was a tremendous adventure! It’s interesting that a trip on a motorbike is completely different as compared to riding in a car in various ways. You have a chance to admire the view, use your sense of smell, and enjoy the curiosity of people at the restaurants and gas stations who wanted to know where we were from and where we were going.

Q. What is your personal philosophy?

My personal philosophy is to be happy every day. No matter what you do, give it your best and enjoy it to the fullest. Never give up!