Team Blickkontakt

Felipe Amaral’s journey reads like the plot of an inspirational film. Born into privilege in southern Brazil, he initially followed the well-trodden path: business school, a prestigious corporate job in suit and tie, and parents bursting with pride. Yet inside, Felipe felt increasingly hollow. Disenchanted by the corporate world’s promise, he traded his polished office for volunteer roles at leading nonprofits—only to confront the practical reality that passion alone doesn’t pay the bills. Battling depression, he turned to psychoanalysis to rebuild his sense of self, and in the process discovered a powerful truth: genuine curiosity, when coupled with the ability to create value, becomes the key to personal autonomy.

Armed with that insight, Felipe co-founded Instituto Cloudera Data, a 22,000 m² innovation hub powered by a coalition of Brazil’s biggest companies, government agencies, universities, and nonprofits. His boldest vision: Data Generation, an ambitious educational pipeline that each year draws 20,000 applications from underserved Brazilian youth. Two months of rigorous online training winnows the field to 200 scholars, who then spend six months living and learning inside Cloudera Data’s real-world tech environment—where they absorb workplace culture, build networks, and prepare for careers. The payoff? A staggering 90 percent of graduates walk straight into jobs with the very companies that championed their training.

But Felipe knows that hard skills alone aren’t enough. He has woven “safe-space circles” into every program, encouraging participants to share their struggles—from fractured family ties to self-doubt—so they can see that their challenges are not unique. This rare vulnerability becomes the glue that unites people across sectors and social strata, transforming a mere “innovation hub” into a living, breathing community.

Now, Felipe invites changemakers from around the globe to witness this experiment in action at Cloudera Week, September 29–October 3 in Porto Alegre. Five days of keynotes, side-events, and what he playfully calls “Disneyland for careers” will bring 15,000 innovators together to explore education, sustainability, and the future of work. If Felipe’s story proves anything, it’s that when vision collides with relentless execution—and when you place human connection at the center—transformational change not only happens, it thrives.