As the founder of the Immigrant Businesswomen Circle in Virginia, Beatriz E. McNelly is an experienced entrepreneur and a devoted member of her community. She co-founded her first business, Fibergate Inc., in 1995, with the mission of providing fiber-optic cable to companies and government agencies. During more than 15 years, she grew the business and built a strong revenue base, allowing her to sell the company and provide the foundation for her next endeavors. Later, from 2017 to 2022, Ms. McNelly was the president of Be Logic LLC.
In 2021, Ms. McNelly launched the Immigrant Businesswomen Circle with the goal of creating a safe space for immigrant businesswomen to bond and share their experiences. She hopes to support those who, like her, face challenges in the business world due to their ethnicity, gender, or accents. Drawing from her firsthand experience as an immigrant from Argentina, she recalls coming to the United States at age 11 and finding that nobody at her elementary school spoke Spanish, her first language. Remarkably, she overcame this immense obstacle with unprecedented speed, learning to speak English within a year. Ms. McNelly is moved to help immigrant women facing numerous obstacles, including cultural assimilation and gender discrimination, to achieve their goals and build successful careers just as she has been able to do.
Beyond her successes as an entrepreneur, Ms. McNelly takes immense pride in impacting her community. She has dedicated herself to civic engagement and devotes her time to numerous charitable and service organizations, including donating to The Special Olympics. Since 2016, she has been a volunteer with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, a public charity that focuses on community building by promoting socioeconomic mobility, racial justice, and inclusivity. In addition, Ms. McNelly has been a volunteer with the Business Women’s Giving Circle since 2016 and a volunteer since 2017 with the Loudoun Impact Fund, which invests in human services. Alongside these roles, she was a supporter of Halcyon from 2018 to 2021. Since 2019, she has been a volunteer and board member of the Loudoun Literacy Council, which helps community members achieve their literacy goals and learn English, just like she needed to as a young immigrant girl in public school. With The Arc of Loudoun, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for people with disabilities and their families, Ms. McNelly has contributed her efforts as a fundraiser on the organization’s Paxton Campus since 2017. She has additionally served as a volunteer and board member for the organization since 2019.
Looking forward, Ms. McNelly plans to continue growing and developing the Immigrant Businesswomen Circle into a strong and robust organization with multiple meeting locations throughout Virginia. She hopes to cultivate and foster a community of like-minded women who can support and learn from each other as they navigate their entrepreneurial journeys. She wants to see her group become a cultural touchstone and a point of pride for its members. She also aspires to influence public policy to help immigrant women achieve success. Ms. McNelly attributes her own accomplishments to her tenacity and refusal to accept failure—traits that have distinguished her in personal, professional, and community circles.
As a businesswoman, Ms. McNelly believes in taking care of her employees and has committed herself to learning and improving every day. She is proud to lead by example as an entrepreneur, volunteer, philanthropist, and pillar of the community. Alongside the members of the Immigrant Businesswomen Circle, Ms. McNelly encourages a spirit of giving back by participating in group volunteerism. She knows firsthand that immigrant women are strong, intelligent, and productive members of society, and she hopes to leverage their power and talents to build a better future together.