Guest Speaker

Cristina Benitez

All attendees of HABLA will receive a copy of Latinization

For over two decades, Cristina Benitez developed a wide range of branding and marketing programs that targeted the growing Latino population in the United States. In 1998, she founded Lazos Latinos, a specialty Hispanic, strategic branding and advertising company based in Chicago. Formerly senior vice president of ethnic marketing at DraftWorldwide, Ms. Benitez directed Hispanic direct marketing campaigns for Sprint, AARP, PacifiCare, HFC and Miracle-Ear. While at Draft, she spearheaded Dimensión Draft, the agency’s nationally recognized study on Hispanics and direct marketing. This research was the first of its kind to examine direct opportunities targeting Hispanic consumers. Cristina’s prior Hispanic advertising experience was VP Account Services at FOVA, Grey Advertising’s Hispanic agency in New York. In this capacity, she introduced many products into the Hispanic market such as Cover Girl, Pantene, Kraft General Foods, and Dannon Yogurt among others.

In 2005, Lazos Latinos added “Latinization” to help Fortune 500 companies understand and develop their Hispanic employees. Her workshops, Linking Latino Values to Leadership, have helped companies such as Deloitte, Kraft, P&G, Abbott, Exelon, General Electric, PepsiCo and Shell. Cristina’s expertise across all aspects of advertising, her passion for Latino leadership development and her culturally diverse background as a bilingual native of Florida make her an invaluable and highly successful motivational speaker. In 2007 Paramount Market Publishing released her first book, Latinization…How Latino Culture is Transforming the U.S., which was their best selling book of the year. She is currently finishing her new book, Latinization and the Latino Leader, due for release in November 2010.

In July 2010 Ms. Benitez was named Director of Latino Studies at DePaul University where she teaches Hispanic marketing. She is also a frequent speaker at national conferences on “Trends in the U.S. Hispanic Market”, “The Latinization of the United States”, and “Harnessing Latino Influence for Employee Development.”

Ms. Benitez lives in Chicago and is active civically as a Board Member of The Chicago Public Library, The Luna Negra Dance Theater, and serves on the Audience Development & Diversity Committee of the Museum of Contemporary Art. In November 2008, Ms. Benitez was honored as a recipient of the 2008 ATHENA award for assisting women in achieving their full potential and providing opportunities for the growth and development of women owned businesses. In September 2009. Ms. Benitez received the Latino Author’s award from Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White at the state’s Hispanic Heritage event 2009.