Executive advisory & Institutional intelligence
Americas Strategy | Governance | Strategic Partnerships & Capital Stewardship
Independent strategic advice for leaders navigating complex governance, international partnerships, and institutional change.
who I am
I'm a senior executive and institutional advisor with 15+ years spanning private, nonprofit, Indigenous-led, educational, and international institutions.
I understand organizations from the inside, and I see beyond their conventional boundaries.
Rooted in my Kichwa Kañari heritage and raised in New York City, I bring senior-level experience, financial judgment, and a genuine feel for people, cultures, and what moves them.
In my work across the Americas and worldwide, I bridge systems of power, knowledge, and governance.
what I do
Strategy & Growth: Led strategy and expansion as annual budgets grew into the millions, aligning priorities, resources, and binational relationships.
Financial Stewardship: Managed monthly operating budgets from $20K to $100K+, with forecasting, capacity planning, and risk analysis.
Philanthropy & Partnerships: Built and sustained relationships with foundations and institutional partners.
Compliance & Recovery: Designed a national compliance, reporting, and recovery system for distressed federal investments.
Board Advisory: Served as direct counsel to NGO boards on performance, sustainability, compliance, and risk.
International Engagement: Trusted partner to private investors, Indigenous Nations, foundations, universities, and NGOs, aligning interests and building trust across cultural boundaries.
Thought Leadership: Published work on knowledge across systems and diplomacy building in academia and magazine.
Who I Work With
I advise leaders and institutions shaping strategy, directing operations,, navigating complexity, and influencing what comes next.
Executives & Principals — CEOs, presidents, founders, and private decision-makers.
Multinationals & Corporations Expanding in Latin America — Leadership teams building cross-border operations, partnerships, and entry readiness.
Foundations & Philanthropic Leaders — Foundation executives, trustees, donors, and institutional partners negotiating cross-border partnerships.
Investors & Family Offices — Investors and family offices navigating strategic and institutional decisions.
Indigenous Nations & Community Leadership — 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.
puBLICAtions
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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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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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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
My strategic training is institutional. My strategic instinct is not.
I'm Ecuadorian, of Kañari heritage, and the way I read systems, transitions, and human relationships was shaped by family, tradition, and observation long before it was shaped by any boardroom. Much of it was never taught inside a formal institution. It came through stories, through relationship, and through a lived understanding of responsibility.
These perspectives shape how I see my role in the work, and the conditions that let people and environments move with respect and ease. They are the frameworks I return to most:
Continuous View of Time/Space — Time moves in cycles, not a line. Past and future sit inside the present, and opposing forces work as partners rather than opponents.
The Pleiades: the Chaos Inherent in Transitions
— For 37 days each year the Pleiades disappear from the Andean sky, and chaos is expected. I hold that window open instead of forcing an early answer.
Pachacuti: Turning over of Space/ Time— The moment an era turns over, when what was dominant goes submerged. I read upheaval as a threshold, not a failure.
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.