Team
Sebastian Puente, ceo
Sebastian co-founded Cultural Strategies and serves as its managing partner. His experience spans 15 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 recently co-founded a 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. You’ll find him actively involved on the board of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Juan Tornoe, cmo
Juan has worked for more than 12 years on the media, agency and client sides of the marketing and advertising industry, with experience in copywriting, strategy development, media buying and consumer research. He has worked with a wide range of businesses, from owner operated small companies to Fortune 1000s and has judged the AAAF’s ADDY Awards. His blog, Hispanic Trending, is the leading Latino marketing and advertising blog. Juan is a national and international public speaker and 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, his insights appearing in The New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NPR, BBC, and Univision. He has an M.B.A. with emphasis in Marketing and Total Productivity Management from E.S.E.A.D.E., in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Read Juan’s musings at JuanTornoe.com.
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) & cultural programming for many nonprofits & businesses including United Way of Central Texas, MPower Labs/RISE Entrepreneurship Conference, Tate Austin Hahn, Lance Armstrong Foundation & ACTIVE Life. He serves on the national Points of Light/Hands On Network’s Neighboring Taskforce, 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 in Austin American-Statesman’s Top Blogs & the Austin (Twitter) List, Austin Social Media’s Top 100 List and Austin Under 40 Awards. Armando writes for GivingCity Magazine, blogs at ElMundodeMando.com & TacoJournalism.com and has been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, NPR’s MarketPlace, Austin American-Statesman and Austin Monthly.
Liliana Ary, vp media & public relations
A native of Mexico City, Liliana has worked for various Texas media outlets over the last six years. She served as the former Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the Spanish-language newspaper Rumbo where she was responsible for promotions and public relations in the Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley markets. Previously, she served as the Promotions Director at Amigo Broadcasting as well as BMP Radio in Austin, Texas. More recently, Liliana was responsible for coordinating community relations and organizing all aspects of Univision Radio’s events in the Austin market which entertain between 35-50,000 attendees. She earned a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Communications, specializing in Radio and Television and a Masters Degree in Marketing from the Mayab University. Liliana’s leadership has been recognized by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with a “2008 Community Service Award”, the Austin Women in Radio and Television “Award of Excellence”, the Austin Partners in Education and City of Austin “Salute 2009 A Community of Heroes Award”.