As Hispanic Heritage Month brings a vibrant nationwide focus to the cultural, economic, and social contributions of the Latino community, publications and organizations take time to honor those who are charting new paths forward. Among them, Hispanic Executive continues to shine a vital light on the Latino leaders who are actively moving their respective industries forward. These are the strategists, the builders, and the problem-solvers who are fundamentally redefining what modern leadership looks like in an increasingly interconnected global economy.
Published precisely during this period of cultural celebration, the newly released September Executives to Watch 2026 list brings together a dynamic group of nine Hispanic and Latino executives whose high-impact work spans an impressive array of sectors, including technology, legal affairs, human resources, food and beverage, supply chain management, and enterprise marketing. Operating from diverse hubs ranging from the tech-driven corridors of Silicon Valley to the bustling corporate offices of South Florida, and from complex corporate legal departments down to high-volume restaurant kitchens, these exceptional professionals share a dual commitment. They are fiercely dedicated to delivering measurable business results while simultaneously opening doors, mentoring talent, and clearing paths for the next generation of rising professionals.
For organizations and observers looking to expand their professional horizons, the publication routinely invites connections, encouraging industry peers to introduce leaders who embody this spirit of innovation and community impact. Yet the true heart of this year’s roster lies in the individual stories of resilience, cross-cultural adaptation, and relentless execution demonstrated by each featured executive. From transforming human capital strategies for multinational food giants to scaling international culinary empires, these leaders offer a compelling blueprint for modern enterprise success.
Mariana Bedolla: Aligning Human Capital with Business Strategy at PepsiCo
For more than twenty-five years, Mariana Bedolla has dedicated her professional life to proving that human resources is far more than an administrative function—it is a critical business discipline. Educated at the prestigious Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, where she earned dual degrees in human resources management and accounting, Bedolla later expanded her academic credentials at Cornell University. This robust educational foundation paved the way for more than two decades of dedicated service at Xerox. During her tenure there, she steadily assumed roles of increasing responsibility, successfully leading human resources operations across Latin America. Eventually, she rose to the position of vice president of human resources for software services and commercial operations, where she spearheaded comprehensive HR transformation initiatives and cultivated a high-performance corporate culture on a global scale.
In 2019, Bedolla brought her extensive expertise to PepsiCo, initially stepping in as the vice president of human resources for PepsiCo Beverages Canada. Today, she leads the people function for the entire North America region. Along the path to her current executive role, she has completed a demanding headquarters expatriate assignment, led diverse teams across highly matrixed organizational structures, and built deep subject matter expertise in compensation, global mobility, performance management, HR policy, and shared services. Her core professional strength lies in her unique ability to partner directly with C-level executives, translating complex human capital strategies into tangible, measurable business results that propel the enterprise forward.
Juan Carlos Cardona: Crafting Cultural Fluency at Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
For the better part of fifteen years, Juan Carlos Cardona has worked tirelessly to ensure that Hispanic families see themselves reflected authentically in the enduring stories of the Walt Disney World experience. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Cardona earned his business administration degree at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He initially began his professional journey in pharmaceutical marketing before making a pivotal move to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in integrated marketing at New York University. Following his graduate studies, he spent more than six years immersed in the fast-paced world of advertising, leading multicultural marketing campaigns for prominent major clients such as Verizon and Macy’s. He frequently credits this foundational agency experience with shaping him into both a more empathetic client and a significantly more nimble, culturally attuned marketer.
At Disney, Cardona’s professional trajectory has spanned the vibrant landscapes of the Hispanic market, niche audience development, and Latin America. In these diverse capacities, he previously led consumer marketing initiatives for major entertainment properties including Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. In his current role, he directs comprehensive marketing strategy for the Walt Disney World Resort in Central Florida, runDisney events, the company’s water parks, and targeted multicultural audiences. Furthermore, he played an instrumental role in building Pura Magia, a dedicated Hispanic brand platform that now profoundly shapes everything from creative content and media placements to sales partnerships and frontline cast engagement. His overarching advice to fellow marketing professionals is to shed outdated paradigms: he argues that marketers should stop viewing themselves as multicultural specialists, because true cultural fluency is simply what modern, effective marketing requires today.
Juan Chipoco: Elevating Peruvian Cuisine and Community through CVI.CHE 105
Juan Chipoco has achieved a remarkable feat, helping to firmly place Peruvian gastronomy on the national culinary map one exquisitely prepared ceviche at a time. Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Chipoco channeled his passion for his home country’s rich culinary traditions into building his flagship brand, CVI.CHE 105. Over the years, he has successfully transformed the concept into a defining force within South Florida’s vibrant culinary scene. Today, his enterprise operates seven distinct CVI.CHE 105 restaurants alongside two Pollos y Jarras locations across Miami. Demonstrating aggressive and thoughtful growth, his culinary group has two additional CVI.CHE 105 restaurants currently in active development, with one scheduled to open its doors in Atlanta later this year and another planned for launch in Puerto Rico by 2027.
Chipoco’s culinary leadership and cultural advocacy have earned him widespread acclaim. In 2025, he received a prestigious Special Congressional Recognition honoring his substantial contributions to the culinary industry and his unwavering efforts in promoting Peruvian cuisine throughout the United States. Additionally, he has been recognized among Ronald McDonald House Charities’ 12 Good Men and has earned the esteemed Marca Perú distinction for representing his native country with exceptional excellence. Beyond the demanding environment of his restaurant kitchens, Chipoco serves as a guiding force behind the Juan Chipoco Foundation. This philanthropic organization actively supports children and vulnerable communities throughout South Florida and Peru via targeted initiatives focusing heavily on food insecurity alleviation, healthcare access improvement, youth mentorship, and educational support. His compelling personal and professional journey as both an immigrant and an entrepreneur has firmly established him as a powerful model of perseverance and fierce cultural pride for the communities he proudly serves.
Phil Fernandes: Navigating Global HR Operations at AT&T
Phil Fernandes embarked on what would become a transformative international journey when he traveled to Australia for a simple six-month trip to improve his English language skills—a stay that ultimately extended into a five-year chapter. Born and raised in Brazil, Fernandes originally earned a degree in psychology in his home country in 2010. That international detour unexpectedly marked the true beginning of his thriving human resources career, which kicked off at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Upon eventually relocating to the United States, he deliberately shifted his professional focus toward talent acquisition. His early American career included agency-side recruitment work—notably managing technical recruitment for Microsoft across both Latin America and North America—before transitioning into demanding corporate HR roles at PepsiCo, TikTok, and H-E-B. Along the way, he further burnished his credentials by earning a graduate certificate in industrial and organizational psychology.
Based today in Dallas, Texas, Fernandes leads high-volume call center hiring operations for AT&T across the entire country, overseeing a massive recruitment apparatus that accounts for roughly 80 percent of the telecommunications giant’s total annual hiring needs. Having lived and worked across three distinct countries, Fernandes has cultivated a rare ability to adapt swiftly and successfully to new business environments and unfamiliar industries. He openly credits the guidance of a vital mentor during his tenure at PepsiCo, alongside the steadfast support of his wife, with helping him accelerate his professional progression. His core career philosophy is refreshingly direct: take complete ownership of your career path, lean into the difficult problems that others actively seek to avoid, and remain relentlessly intentional about the quality of work you produce every day.
Silvia Fernandes: Shaping Legal and Operational Excellence at ARCTRUST
Silvia Fernandes is a seasoned executive who aims to use her hard-earned professional narrative to actively open doors for the next generation of legal and business professionals. She formally launched her legal career as a law clerk stationed within the general counsel’s office at Ernst & Young. Following that foundational experience, she spent several successful years as an attorney at the firm Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, where she concentrated heavily on complex commercial real estate financing and high-stakes corporate transactions. In 2016, she joined the ARCTRUST Group of Companies as associate general counsel, steadily rose to the role of general counsel in 2020, and today serves as the firm’s chief legal and operating officer. In this dual executive capacity, she oversees overarching legal strategy, ensures rigorous regulatory compliance, and manages day-to-day operational execution across the firm’s diverse real estate investment platforms and affiliated private real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Fernandes’s academic credentials match the high caliber of her professional achievements. She earned her Juris Doctor from the Seton Hall University School of Law, a Master of Laws in Taxation from the prestigious New York University School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Furthermore, she is admitted to practice law across multiple jurisdictions, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States. Beyond her rigorous corporate responsibilities, Fernandes maintains a deep commitment to community service and leadership development, serving actively on the executive board of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association and bringing her enduring passion for mentorship to every professional and civic endeavor she undertakes.
Rochelle Gonzalez: Safeguarding Global Entertainment and Public Safety at Live Nation
Rochelle Gonzalez plays an essential behind-the-scenes role in making the magic of live music possible, managing the complex legal architecture of the industry one contract at a time. Serving as Senior Counsel within the corporate legal department of Live Nation Entertainment—recognized globally as the leading live entertainment enterprise—she is responsible for reviewing, drafting, and negotiating critical commercial agreements for the parent company and its numerous global affiliates. Within this high-pressure environment, she specializes particularly in complex technology and artificial intelligence agreements, operating seamlessly on both a national and an international scale. She originally joined Live Nation in 2018 after serving as a contracts manager at the University of Southern California, having earned her law degree from the Chapman University School of Law. For Gonzalez, her dedication to the live entertainment sector is both deeply personal and professional, having fostered countless unforgettable concert memories shared alongside her own family.
Alongside her demanding corporate legal practice, public service has remained a steadfast pillar throughout Gonzalez’s career. Since 2017, she has dedicated her time and expertise to serving on the Los Angeles County Business License Commission. Today, she holds the leadership position of vice president, representing the Fourth Supervisorial District. In this vital civic capacity, she helps deliberate and decide on complex matters regarding the formal granting or denial of business licenses within unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, taking decisive action on matters that directly impact the health, safety, and overall welfare of the county’s residents.
Dominik Holasek: Transforming IT Financial Operations at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Dominik Holasek has successfully forged his professional path at the intricate intersection of data analytics and corporate finance, specializing in the conversion of vast technology spending into clear, strategic business insights. Born in the Czech Republic, Holasek graduated from a Spanish-language high school before pursuing and earning a master’s degree at Colorado State University, effectively leveraging his trilingual capabilities throughout the trajectory of his career. He built his rigorous analytical foundation through initial financial analyst roles at TIBCO Software and subsequent finance leadership positions at UserZoom, prior to taking the helm of IT financial operations at Juniper Networks—an enterprise that is now a key part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
Today, Holasek oversees IT financial operations at HPE, drawing vital financial conclusions that actively help shape the organization’s broader global technology strategy. As a Certified Technology Business Management Executive, he maintains an active, influential voice within the TBM Council community. Within that professional ecosystem, he helps lead peer forums focused on IT cost transparency and financial planning, and his industry expertise has been highlighted in the council’s prominent member spotlight. Furthermore, he consistently gives back to his broader community by assisting Latino small business leaders with critical budgeting and financial planning through targeted volunteer opportunities and community engagements.
Alejandra Ospina Rodriguez: Building Global Cold Chain Logistics at Maersk
Alejandra Ospina Rodriguez has built an impressive corporate career out of stepping into new environments and building complex operational functions entirely from scratch. Raised in Colombia, she pursued her academic interests by studying environmental and industrial engineering at the Universidad de los Andes. Her early corporate exposure included an internship with Procter & Gamble in Panama, setting the stage for her entry into Maersk eleven years ago through the company’s competitive international graduate program. Early operational and strategic roles based in Panama and Peru placed her directly in front of senior stakeholders from the very beginning of her career, providing her with invaluable, hands-on experience spanning sales, procurement, and P&L ownership. These foundational assignments also granted her a comprehensive, big-picture perspective on how multinational teams successfully design and execute global strategy.
Approximately five years ago, Rodriguez relocated to the United States, where she has continued her pattern of launching brand-new operational functions, assembling high-performing teams, and driving initiatives across warehouse operations, e-commerce, and vendor management in close collaboration with international colleagues situated as far away as China and Europe. Today, in her capacity as Regional Head of Cold Chain Logistics for North America, she leads complex cold chain operations across the entire regional footprint, maintaining a sharp focus on strengthening the vital supply chain connections linking Latin American agricultural growers directly to consumer markets across North America. On the domestic front, she and her Brazilian husband are actively raising their children in a multilingual household where English, Spanish, and Portuguese are spoken fluently, carrying their rich combined family cultures across three countries.
Guillermo Porcaro: Scaling Enterprise AI and IT Operations at Medallia
Guillermo Porcaro has spent nearly eleven years at Medallia successfully making the professional leap from an individual technical contributor to a high-level executive leader. A native of Argentina who earned a systems degree from Universidad Kennedy, Porcaro built his early technical career through hands-on roles at prominent companies including EY, Chevron, Philip Morris International, and IBM. Following his transition to Medallia, he steadily expanded his scope of leadership, serving as the Argentina site leader and successfully directing major corporate office build-outs across such international metropolises as Sydney, London, New York, and Tel Aviv.
Today, Porcaro leads Medallia’s sprawling IT operations and engineering teams. In this capacity, he oversees two direct-report directors who manage everything from internal employee collaboration infrastructure to the critical software tools required across the workforce. Under his strategic guidance, his team has spearheaded a major operational transition, systematically replacing costly paid software subscriptions with advanced artificial intelligence tools built entirely in-house. This strategic shift has already yielded more than $400,000 in immediate cost savings, with even greater financial efficiencies forecast over the coming year. Furthermore, his relocation to Silicon Valley naturally turned him into a passionate advocate for cultivating Latin American technology talent. By purposefully opening up technical vendor engagements in Argentina and Mexico, he tapped into exceptional time zone alignment, deep technical expertise, and a high level of professional commitment that consistently delivered strong corporate results—proving to the broader industry that the region remains a powerhouse of digital innovation.
