international Strategy & Institutional Advisor
Americas Strategy | Executive Advisory |Cross-Cultural Governance | Partnerships
Advising executives, investors, founders, and institutional leaders on complex decisions, governance, cross-border partnerships, and the cultural and sociopolitical forces shaping institutional strategy.
I am a senior executive and institutional advisor with 15+ years of experience across private, nonprofit, Indigenous-led, and international organizations. Having led complex operations, stewarded multimillion-dollar resources, and advised executives and Boards, I bring an understanding of institutions from the inside—and the ability to see beyond their conventional boundaries.
With extensive experience across the United States and Latin America, and additional international advisory and research engagements, I navigate different systems of knowledge, authority, and governance. Grounded in my Kichwa Kañari heritage, raised in NYC, and bilingual in English and Spanish, I bridge institutional perspectives to identify risks, clarify competing interests, and help leaders make informed decisions with lasting implications..
Selected Executive & Institutional Experience
My advisory work is grounded in executive responsibility across international organizations, portfolios, institutional partnerships, and multidisciplinary teams. I combine operational experience with strategic, financial, and cross-cultural judgment to navigate complex environments, evaluate risks, strengthen relationships, and make informed decisions.
International Strategy & Institutional Growth: Guided organizational strategy and expansion as annual expenditures grew from approximately $MMs, navigating institutional priorities, resource allocation, governance, and cross-cultural relationships.
Financial Stewardship & Strategic Planning: Managed monthly operating budgets ranging from $20K to $100K+, integrating financial analysis, forecasting, organizational capacity, and risk considerations into leadership decisions.
Philanthropic Strategy & Institutional Relationships: Cultivated relationships with foundations and institutional partners.
Financial Risk, Federal Compliance & Recovery: Designed a national compliance, reporting, and recovery system for distressed federally investments supporting portfolio oversight.
Executive & Board Advisory: Direct reporting and strategic counsel to NGO Boards on performance, sustainability, governance, compliance, risks, and priorities.
International Partnerships & Institutional Engagement: Worked across Indigenous Nations, foundations, universities, nonprofits, and cross-sector institutions, strengthening relationships, facilitating and aligning strategic interests across organizational and cultural boundaries.
AI Strategy & Collective Responsibility: Advise leaders on understanding and responsibly integrating artificial intelligence into organizational decision-making and workflows, emphasizing shared responsibility, human judgment and accountability.
How I lead & build
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leading across the web
I bring leaders and institutions into meaningful dialogue across cultures, sectors, and systems of authority.
Drawing on enduring knowledge traditions and practical organizational strategy, I strengthen relationships, align diverse perspectives, and create the conditions for effective collaboration.
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Guiding Change
I help navigate periods of uncertainty, transition, and institutional change by identifying underlying tensions, competing priorities, and imbalances of power.
I strengthen communication, clarify decision-making authority, and align responsibilities and resources—supporting resilience without placing unsustainable demands.
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Building Programs and Systems
I advise leaders on the design and development of strategic initiatives, governance frameworks, leadership programs, and institutional systems into clear priorities and accountable execution.
Whether supporting a focused initiative or broader institutional transformation, I align ambition with organizational capacity, financial realities, and long-term sustainability.
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Setting strategic direction
I look beyond immediate challenges to identify the institutional, financial, cultural, and political forces shaping decisions and outcomes. By uncovering overlooked risks, competing interests, and emerging opportunities, I help leaders gain clarity and establish a direction grounded in both ambition and reality.
Who I Work With
I advise leaders and institutions shaping strategy, directing resources, navigating complexity, and influencing what comes next.
Executives & Principals — CEOs, presidents, founders, business owners, and private decision-makers.
Foundations & Philanthropic Leaders — Foundation executives, trustees, donors, and institutional partners.
Investors & Private Enterprises — Investors, family offices, and business leaders navigating strategic and institutional decisions.
Indigenous Nations & Community Leadership — Leaders advancing self-determination, governance, institutional relationships, and community-led priorities.
International & Cross-Sector Institutions — NGOs, universities, research institutions, and organizations working across cultures, sectors, and borders.
My work is especially valuable where different forms of knowledge, authority, capital, and responsibility intersect.
Writing, research and media
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June 2025
Published on Swamphen, a journal of cultural ecology of the University of Sydney, Australia
Keynote Essay : Indigenous Embassy
As Indigenous Peoples, our own orientation to boundaries is incompatible with oppressive constructs because, for us, borders are dynamic, semipermeable sites of relational increase. We will share this orientation from our unique experience of emergent embassy rituals between Cañari and Kara::Kichwa of the Andes::Amazon and Bama/Murri of Australia’s northeast (see Jacobs & Narváez; Yunkaporta).
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October 2026
“Seeds and Structures”
Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta, Gabriela Romero, and Stephanie Beck
Emergence’s seventh print volume will explore the role of seeds and structures in bridging the worlds and sowing a future where we embody an ontology of ecology. Central to this inquiry will be an examination of ancient and existing ways we work with seeds and structures that honor our relationship with Earth.
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The Other Others | November 2024
Indigenous Borderwork & Migration
Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta, with Gabriela Romero anf Nkwi Flores,
A dialogue exploring the relationships between identity, migration, governance, belonging, and community formation across cultures and territories. The conversation reflects on Indigenous approaches to stewardship, kinship, and collective responsibility, and considers how different systems of knowledge inform the ways people organize, lead, and navigate change.
Enduring Perspectives
These perspectives inform how I see our role in the work, our systems and the conditions that allow people and environments to work with respect and even ease.
These enduring learnings come from my Ecuadorian Kañari background and from a lifetime of learning shaped by family, tradition, observation and lived experience.
Much of this was not taught in formal institutions. It was carried through stories, relationships and the ways my family understood responsibility and relating.
These enduring perspectives are frameworks and master tools that help guide my work, leadership and orientation:
Get in touch
Due to the confidential nature of my work I maintain a deliberately limited public profile and rely on direct professional networks and referrals.