Lili Gil, crossing over from the Board Rooms to the Airwaves.

Liliana “Lili” Gil Valletta has a background and story that makes her unique. An immigrant from Colombia- who came to the U.S. without speaking English- Gil grew to become one of the youngest executives in corporate America at prestigious corporations like Johnson & Johnson, Walt Disney World – Celebration Health, among others. After making waves at Johnson & Johnson as cofounder of the now 10-year-old Hispanic Employee Resource Group “HOLA” and championing the corporate Hispanic Market Strategy “Proyecto MAS”, Gil realized her passion, experience and knowledge could gain a much broader stage.

In 2009 Lili joined three other former corporate executives Armando Martin, Manny Fields and Enrique Arbelaez to cofound XL Alliance and its digital subdivision Acento Group; a marketing firm of cultural navigators and experts developing strategy and business solutions for C-levels, brands and companies to drive business. Recently Gil was also selected by the World Economic Forum as one of only 190 Young Global Leaders across 65 countries.

However, Gil herself never imagined that three years after departing from her fast-track career at Johnson & Johnson, she would cross over to become a known expert and media contributor. What started as a small “pet project” for Gil with her Flip camera, quickly evolved into the online show Moments2CultuRise on YouTube. The short, insightful and even entertaining vignettes were quickly noticed by many including the New York Daily News which featured Gil’s channel as an innovative way to reach businesses.

With the support and sponsorship of President and CEO of HispanicAd, Gene Bryan her stories and video reports found a home in the online publication. Thanks to HispanicAd’s reach, Gil’s content and videos are used by many marketers as tools to educate executives and conduct internal meetings.

Her videos also caught the attention of television executives and networks now turning to Gil to address complex issues in the market, community and politics. Characterize by a fact-driven approach that elevates the importance of Latinos as a market, community and voter group; Gil has expanded her reach from impacting board roams into reaching the mainstream airwaves. Her unique non-journalistic background and immigrant profile give her a new level of credibility that comes from her practical business and life experience.

In only three months Gil has become a columnist for the Huffington Post’s Latino Voices, a contributor to Fox News Latino/ Fox News and has already been approach by the big three networks to evaluate options to become a regular contributor. Gil is also the host of the Miss Dominican Republic US pageant.

“I feel responsible to represent and elevate the Latino agenda with a data-driven approach that makes it hard to argue…”says Gil. “I am humbled by the opportunity to educate people at all levels and hope they have at least one aha! that helps break stereotypes and drive action!”

Congratulations Lili and thank you for representing our market with the importance it deserves.