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 is the VP of Engagement at Cultural Strategies and Director of Community Engagement at United Way Capital Area/Hands On Central Texas in Austin, TX. 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, 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.
Flor Lozano Longarini, strategic planning consultant
Flor is a Mexican-born, fully bilingual, bi-cultural marketing professional with extensive strategic planning, brand communications and consumer research experience. Her expertise has spanned a broad range of consumer categories including CPG, HBC, Beverages, Retail, and Hospitality. Flor’s qualitative and quantitative research has provided consumer insights used to craft creative briefs and multi-vehicle campaigns that supported brand objectives for Walmart, Sam’s Club, Sunsilk, ConAgra, Moet-Hennessy, Gillette, Budweiser, Nestlé, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, and Coors Light. Her findings and integrated marketing strategies have strengthened brand equity in the Hispanic market and supported the launch of product innovations. She is keenly adept at conducting exploratory research (focus groups, consumer ethnographies and analysis of social media) to develop a market-appropriate consumer profile that leverages similarities with general market campaigns and maintains consistency with a brand’s character.