CS Team
Sebastian Puente, CEO
Sebastian co-founded Cultural Strategies and serves as its managing partner. His experience spans 16 years crafting, producing, and managing communications and media strategies for clients. As the chief operations officer for Hispanic Radio Network (currently Hispanic Communications Network), Sebastian oversaw the production and distribution of daily and weekly cause-oriented radio and print campaigns, reaching millions of Spanish-speakers across the Western Hemisphere on over 160 radio stations, 60 newspapers, and 4 satellite radio channels. Among its clients were the National Science Foundation, US Department of Labor, and Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. Sebastian co-founded an print and online media company that served thousands of Spanish-speaking homes with local search services and re-launched a weekly sports newspaper recognized nationally in 2008 with two José Martí Publishing Awards. His insights contribute to the development of brand strategy, custom media publishing, stakeholder outreach and advocacy marketing.
Juan Tornoe, CMO
Juan has been working for more than 16 years on the media, agency and client sides of the marketing and advertising industry. At LatinWorks Marketing, Juan’s strategic planning and consumer research informed marketing programs for ESPN Deportes and Domino’s Pizza, among others. His unique media buying tactics were developed during his tenure at the Wizard of Ads and the Wizard Academy where he purchased more than $10 million annually in media for a variety of retail clients across the U.S. and Canada.
He has judged the AAF’s ADDY Awards and his blog, Hispanic Trending, is the leading Latino marketing and advertising blog. In addition to being an international public speaker, Juan has been published in several industry publications and newspapers, among them CNN’s AC360, Marketing y Medios, LatPro. com, Latino Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, and FutureNow’s GrokDotCom. Juan is frequently quoted in the news regarding his area of expertise and his insights appearing in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NPR, BBC, and Univision.
Juan earned a master’s degree in business administration, with emphasis in marketing and total productivity management, from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He oversees the firm’s planning, development, execution of client marketing and media buying activities.
Armando Rayo, VP Engagement
Armando’s experience is deep rooted in the community and nonprofit sector. He specializes in building capacity & creating change with a focus on Hispanic Engagement, project management, leadership development & social innovation. Armando has over 12 years experience in community engagement, volunteerism & social media, and has developed innovative engagement strategies (grassroots to social media) multicultural programming and trainings for many nonprofits & businesses including, RISE Global, Hahn,TX, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, CASA of Travis County, OneStar Foundation, Active Life Movement and Austin Independent School District. He serves on the national Points of Light/Hands On Network’s Neighboring Taskforce, is a board member of TANO – Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations, is a frequent panelist/presenter at local & national conferences (United Way of America, Points of Light Institute/Hands On Network, OneStar Foundation, United Neighborhood Centers of America, Keep Texas Beautiful), and has been recognized by SXSW, Texas Social Media Awards, Austin American-Statesman’s Top Blogs & the Austin (Twitter) List, Austin Social Media’s Top 100 List, Republic of Austin Best Food Blog and Austin Under 40 Awards. Armando writes for GivingCity Magazine, blogs at ElMundodeMando.com & TacoJournalism.com and has been featured in the New York Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, NPR’s MarketPlace, Austin American-Statesman and Austin Monthly. Mando’s alter ego, as Austin’s resident taco ambassador for TacoJournalism.com, brings flavor and fun to his work. As part of the TacoJournalism team, Mando has been building the taco community in Austin through reviews, taco insights, taco tours and creating taco buzz via social media.
Paulina Artieda, Associate Creative Director
Paulina has over nine years of experience as a creative strategist, bilingual copywriter and art director. Born in Ecuador and raised in Austin, Texas, Paulina has led both traditional and nontraditional advertising campaigns, including experiential, guerilla and interactive marketing.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and completing the rigorous Texas Creative sequence, Paulina moved to Chicago to pursue her career in the multicultural advertising industry. There, she worked for Commonground Marketing where she led cross-market campaigns for both Hispanic and African-American communities, having clients such as American Family Insurance, Bacardi, Sprite, Coke, MillerCoors, Procter & Gamble and Nike.
In addition to fulfilling the team’s creative needs, Paulina lends her expertise in qualitative research and strategic planning.
Laura Granado, Director of Client Services and Business Development
Laura’s family roots are in West Texas, where she grew up next door to a first generation grandmother who bought and sold livestock and alfalfa for a living – teaching Laura not only the fundamentals of the market exchange but also the significance of her Mexican heritage. Laura has a background in financial consulting; while working for two prominent financial institutions, she was responsible for devising and managing the financial portfolios of affluent families, business executives, and large public institutions. Through her experience as a financial professional, Laura gained strong business acumen along with practical experience and understanding of business management applications, including business development, strategic marketing, research analysis, and exceptional detail in project management. Her keen interest in establishing and fostering relationships with others to help identify their needs and solutions evolved to the communication industry, where she utilizes both her professional and cultural backgrounds to assist organizations discover and execute effective multicultural marketing opportunities.
Laura graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in Finance and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a focus in Economics.
Jessika Gomez-Duarte, Research and Development Coordinator
Born in Venezuela, Jessika has made the US her home since she was ten, allowing her to develop a bicultural identity that goes beyond just easily shifting from English to Español. Her work is driven by a passion to understand how cultural identity influences our experiences and perceptions of the world around us. Jessika’s diverse work experience includes research, community outreach, strategic and event planning. Prior to moving to Austin, Jessika was a project researcher for the Latin American Cancer Research Coalition in Washington, D.C. Her work spanned from developing research material to coordinating timely completion of projects. Beyond research, Jessika has extensive experience in designing and implementing outreach and recruitment campaigns using various types of media as community liaison and outreach coordinator for various nonprofit organizations. Jessika graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, and has completed professional training in community interpreting and social marketing in Washington, DC.