Isabella has over 30 years of Hispanic media experience working with many of the largest marketers in the US Hispanic market. As Vice President of Media Integration at Zubi, she oversees all Hispanic strategic media planning and execution for Zubi’s clients, as well as new business development efforts.

Her passion for marketing to diverse audiences is evidenced in her commitment to always elevating the industry profile, while helping marketers understand and capitalize on the biggest growth opportunity in the U.S. Her mantra of “in constant pursuit of the perfect balance between art and science” demonstrates her passion for cultural connections, creative innovation and applying the latest technology to measure and optimize performance.

Isabella is considered a thought-leader in the Hispanic marketing industry and is often called upon to share her insights and experiences in industry conferences and trade publications. She currently serves as Executive Board Member and Treasurer for the Hispanic Marketing Council, Advisory Board member for Texas Tech University’s Institute for Hispanic and International Communication and serves on the South Florida March of Dimes Board.

Angela Zepeda is the chief marketing officer (CMO) for Hyundai Motor America. Angela is responsible for all of Hyundai’s marketing and advertising activities in the U.S., including the strategic direction, brand development, national and regional advertising, experiential marketing, digital and social media, brand partnerships, and lead generation, among other responsibilities. Angela was named CMO in October 2019.

Angela comes to Hyundai as a seasoned marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. She has built a career on consumer-centric campaigns that build brands and drive business results, and is an expert in online and digital marketing. Angela was most recently at Hyundai’s agency of record INNOCEAN USA, where she spent three years and was the senior vice president and managing director, handling all operations for the Hyundai business including creative, planning and media operations. She was initially hired by the agency to head up business development.

Previous to INNOCEAN, Angela was CEO of Quigley-Simpson in Los Angeles, where she oversaw all aspects of the agency—from brand leadership to new business development to operational efficiencies. Before that, Angela was CMO of Campbell Ewald-Los Angeles, where she played a key role in growing the agency’s business. Angela has also worked at some of Los Angeles’ best-known agencies, including TBWA\Chiat\Day, Team One, Rapp, Doner, and FCB, providing counsel to clients in the automotive, healthcare, financial services and packaged goods industries.

Angela is also an expert in marketing to women, with a keen understanding of the emotional triggers involved in women’s retail habits. She has spoken on the topic at various conferences, including the ISSM CONVERGE Conference, the WLN Conference, the M2W Conference in Chicago, and the Marketing to Women Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Angela holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Advertising from California State University, Fullerton. She is a member of thinkLA, the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Advertising Federation, and has held board positions with the Susan G. Komen organization and the LA Grant Foundation.

Angela was named to the Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs, Ad Age’s Leading Women and the Brand Innovators Top 100 Women in Brand Marketing lists in 2021.

As the Director of Content & Influencer Marketing at Sensis, the largest independently minority owned multicultural agency in the United States, Laura is responsible for the strategy and execution of influencer campaigns across all offices and clients. In addition, she oversees content, social media and digital efforts for all clients. She launched the COVID-19 State Awareness influencer campaign with the California Department of Public Health in the fall of 2020 which wrapped up earlier this year.

The robust social media influencer program was launched with the goal of encouraging Californians to follow harm reduction behaviors and get vaccinated. Laura and her team have been able to partner with nearly 400 influencers and counting, across CA from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, ages and categories. With these partnerships, they have been able to generate and promote nearly 1,500 pieces of engaging content across all platforms, resulting in over 30.5 million impressions and garnering over 3.7M engagements, such as comments, likes, and shares across all platforms.

Prior to Sensis, she worked at various national public relations firms, managing all influencer and celebrity partnerships and national public relations campaigns for hospitality, consumer lifestyle brands, and events including Colgate, Colourpop, Cameo, Art of Elysium Gala, Gold Meets Golden, Patrick Ta Beauty, 1 Hotels, The Sixty Hotels, and more. She has over 7 years of experience and her expertise lies in targeted celebrity wrangling, product seeding, event management, and brand recognition through focused talent and media outreach. Her current clients include a range of California based organizations, including the California Community Colleges, Reading Partners, California DMV, UnidosUS, California Realtors Association, and more.

Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies and Public Relations from California State University, Northridge.

As GM of Audience Measurement at Nielsen, Ameneh Atai is responsible for leading all digital and advanced TV commercial strategy, sales and client services teams in the US.

Ameneh joined Nielsen in 2015 through the acquisition of eXelate.  Ameneh brings diverse knowledge to the Ad and MarTech space as her previous roles were in Director

of Solutions Architecture and Director of Artificial Intelligence Solutions; her strengths are in advising and working directly with marketers and advertisers.  She is client focused with a strong background in data driven software solutions and extensive experience in the digital advertising ecosystem.

Ameneh started her career in Systems Engineering and held positions at International Submarine Engineering and Engineering Consulting, designing autonomous submarines and Big Data collection and monitoring infrastructures. She received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering – Electronics from Simon Fraser University and holds two US patents in systems design, one of which has been in collaboration with University of Waterloo.  In her personal time, Ameneh is an avid traveler.  She also is classically trained in dance and passionate about empowering young women by teaching dance and choreography.

Luis Miguel Messianu has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments in the U.S. multicultural market during an advertising career that spans three decades. Born to Romanian parents and raised in Mexico City, he has worked in both the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets. His professional trajectory is defined by a conscious effort to help pioneer the melding of marketing niches into a nuanced and evolving market. His award-winning work for multinationals such as McDonald’s, State Farm Insurance, Clorox, MolsonCoors, Sprint, Pepsi, among others, is a testament to that effort. Luis Miguel Messianu is an innovator, a mentor, and an example followed by many distinguished professionals in the multicultural marketing community.

Twenty seven years ago, when advertising to U.S. Hispanics was an afterthought in a business plan, Luis Miguel had the foresight to target this vast and untapped market. In 1994 he started his own Hispanic agency, winning soon after the McDonald’s and State Farm Insurance accounts. Twenty seven years and numerous award-winning campaigns later, both clients still trust their multicultural strategy to Luis Miguel’s creative shop, now called alma. alma is a modern culture marketing agency known for highly effective, award-winning segment-led creative campaigns. Working with a broad roster of clients, including McDonald’s, MolsonCoors, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo, CVS Health, Google, State Farm and others, alma unlocks culture for brands by harnessing the power of emotional storytelling to move people.

In 2001, DDB partnered with the agency, recognizing the spirit, passion, and creativity of the team built by Luis Miguel, as well as his vision and leadership in creating a non-conformist culture, which constantly reinvents itself. Luis Miguel sits on DDB’s Global and DDB Latina’s Creative Councils and their Executive committee, and today alma is the largest Multicultural agency in the country, with a team that hails from over 30 countries, the agency has fueled exceptional business growth through creativity, earning 27 Cannes Lions and 13 Effie Awards, as well as numerous One Show, Clio, ANA, and New York Festival Awards. alma has been named to Ad Age’s prestigious A-List seven times and has earned “Agency of the Year ” titles from El Ojo, El Sol, FIAP and USH Ideas, all while nurturing a culture of accountability, curiosity and collaboration. With access to Omnicom’s global network, alma has offices in Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Tallahassee.

In 2015, ADCOLOR named Luis Miguel Legend Honoree in celebration of his achievements in diversity through his career, and in 2016 he was selected as juror for the Radio Category at the Cannes Lions Advertising festival. In 2019 he was inducted into the CMC Advertising Hall of Fame, one of the highest recognitions in the multicultural industry.

José Villa is the founder and President and Chief Strategy Officer of Sensis, an integrated cross-cultural marketing agency. José founded Sensis as a Web development firm in 1998, and one of the first agencies focused on the multicultural digital market. Under José’s direction, Sensis has grown into the largest independent multicultural agency in the U.S. José has more than 24 years of experience in advertising and multicultural marketing across a variety of industries. José has a unique professional background that combines digital technology and advertising with economics, market research and strategy consulting. He has pioneered a new “cross-cultural” approach to reaching the diverse American mainstream.

His thought-provoking analyses of advertising at the intersection of technology and culture are published regularly on MediaPost, AdAge, and numerous industry trade publications. José is also a regular speaker at advertising and digital conferences such as RAB OneShow, SXSW, MediaPost, and Hispanicize. A thought leader in cross-cultural and modern advertising, José has co-authored multiple studies including the “Hispanic Millennial Project”, the “We are Gen Z” Report” and the “Boomer Cultures Report.”

José has an Economics degree from Harvard University and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

As President of GroupM Multicultural, Gonzalo plays a key role in all aspects of the multicultural media and marketing efforts initiated by all WPP media agencies: Wavemaker, Mediacom, Mindshare and Essence. The goal of the division is to provide clients with a truly relevant and informative point of view of multicultural markets and audiences across the US, resulting in tailored communications strategies based on in-depth knowledge of consumers.

Under Gonzalo’s leadership, GroupM Multicultural handles $1B in billings from clients such as Nestle, Unilever, Target, L’Oréal, General Mills, Walgreens, Church & Dwight, IKEA, AARP, Kimberly Clark, Universal Pictures and Bayer. Gonzalo first joined the GroupM family in 2003 as Managing Director of MEC Argentina. During his three year tenure he developed a reputation for creative media thinking and activation. In 2006, he moved to New York to launch MEC Bravo and in 2010 he was instrumental in combining all the agencies under the GroupM Multicultural banner. In 2014 Gonzalo was awarded Media Maven of the Year, in 2016 he was nominated for the Crain’s Visionary Award and in 2017 he received the Executive Leadership Award.

Gonzalo started his professional career at American Express Argentina and prior to joining GroupM he worked for BBVA, Hachette Filipacchi and Editorial Televisa.

Carlos is a recognized strategist who has been guiding growth strategies backed by innovative
insights, data and econometrics to optimize and solve challenges in implementing Multicultural
and Inclusive & Generational segment efforts within a Modern Marketing and Total Market
context.

Since 2000, Carlos has led Santiago Solutions Group (SSG) guiding insights discovery,
opportunity models, analytics, and marketing strategies for clients such as AARP, AT&T,
Arizona Blue, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Shield California, CVS Health, Elli Lilly, Feeding
America, Ferrara, J&J, Home Depot, Kimberly Clark, McDonald’s, Nestle, The Principal, Sierra
Club, SNHU, Sparkling Ice, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Target, Ulta Beauty,
Verizon, Walgreen’s, Walmart, Stater Bros., among others.

In 2016, Carlos co-founded AIMM – the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, an
arm of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), evolving the multicultural and diverse
marketing discipline for the 21st century alongside CMOs from Nestle, Wells Fargo, Walmart,
Denny’s, USAA, P&G and 140+ leading advertisers. Carlos leads efforts around multicultural
data quality and transparency and the Cultural Insights Impact Measure™ (CIIM™). CIIM is the
new industry gold-standard measure gauging the incremental value of cultural relevance in ads
and content. With more than 300,000 evaluations across 500+ brands/200+ shows, CIIM has
opened a path to create more authentic portrayals, deeper consumer connections, and greater
sales lift for brands.

Since co-founding Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc., in 1985, Alex’s passion and vision have led the company to become one of the country’s most influential, independent, Hispanic owned and operated Omnicultural^® marketing agencies. Alex started the Houston-based agency with his wife and partner, Cathy, and the conviction that thoughtful, relevant, fully integrated, in-language and in-culture communications is the best way to reach the exceedingly important Hispanic market.

In his role as company president and CEO, Alex is intricately involved in providing invaluable strategic counsel and creative direction to agency clients. Alex credits the agency’s success to its team of multicultural, multinational communications professionals.

During the agency’s 34-year history, Alex has been honored with many awards. Some of the honors he has received include 2001’s Entrepreneur Award from PROSPANICA (formally known as the National Society of Hispanic MBAs); a Lifetime Achievement Award (the first of several) from the Association of Women in Radio and Television in 2003; a Silver Medal from the American Advertising Federation, the highest honor given by the organization, in 2005; the coveted Agency Executive of the Year Award from HispanicAd.com in 2008 and 2012; the Ohtli Award from the government of Mexico in 2015, the highest honor bestowed on civilians of Mexican descent living abroad; and the Governor’s Award from the AAF Tenth District’s Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame in 2016. And just this past year, the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council honored both Alex and Cathy with the President’s Award for their significant support during and after Hurricane Harvey in Houston.

The Lopez Negrete client roster includes Bank of America, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Phillips 66 Company, Community Coffee Company, Realtor.com, Lone Star College Systems, the Houston Dynamo, Motiva Enterprises LLC, United Airlines, Riviana Foods, and McDonald’s. Over its 34-year history, the agency has represented and worked for a veritable who’s who of American industry and commerce, including Microsoft, Verizon, Samsung Telecommunications, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and Kraft Foods, among others.

Alex is committed to the future of the Hispanic marketing industry. That’s why he and Cathy collaborated with the Advertising Education Foundation of Houston to establish the Lopez Negrete Hispanic Marketing Education Fund. The fund offers scholarships to students interested specifically in Hispanic marketing or advertising.

Born in Houston and raised in Mexico City, Alex resides in Houston. He and Cathy have two children, Michelle and Patrick, and two granddaughters, Mia Marie and Catherine Josephine.