Francisco de la Cerda

What story is this organization really telling? And have the leaders inside it found their own voices yet? Those two questions have followed Francisco for more than twenty years, across teams at LATAM Airlines, Scotiabank, Siemens, Siemens Energy, and the International Copper Association, working across Latin America, North America, and Europe.  Most recently, he led global strategic communications at the International Copper Association, where the team positioned copper as a key enabler of human development through the award-winning "Copper: The Human Element" campaign. Before that, at Siemens AG, he delivered a keynote on personal purpose to more than 1,600 delegates at One Young World — a moment that crystallized something he now believes deeply: purpose drives strategy, and gives it meaning.  What two decades in this work taught him is that reputation isn't built through messaging. It's earned through consistency, and over time, it becomes something more valuable still: trust.  That belief is also why he trained as an executive coach at INSEAD, and why he eventually co-founded ExCarta. He has spent years sitting with people long enough to help them find what was already there — the stories they hadn't noticed were worth telling, the voice they hadn't yet trusted as their own.  Francisco is a lawyer by training, with an MBA and an LL.M. in Business Law — degrees that taught him to argue a case, which turns out to be useful when you're helping a leader find theirs. He currently serves as a member of the Corporate Affairs Council at ICARE Chile, the country's leading business think tank.  Outside of work, he reads constantly, plays tennis badly but happily, takes photographs, pays an unreasonable amount of attention to cars, and is teaching himself drums.  

Gabrielle Peterson

Gabrielle has dedicated herself to taking the most complex, urgent challenges of our time—climate, conflict, industrial transformation—and making them impossible to ignore. Over a decade, her path took her from the halls of the United Nations to managing communication portfolios of Fortune 500 companies, from editing the Cambridge Review of International Affairs to the stages of global diplomacy. The through-line has been the same: the power of a well-crafted narrative to persuade minds, bring critical ideas to light, and inspire action where inaction had taken hold. That's why Gabrielle co-founded ExCarta, an international strategic communications firm using storytelling to bridge the gap between vision and impact, where she currently serves as Co-CEO. Before ExCarta, as Global Director of Communications at ICA, she led communications strategy and content across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The Copper—The Pathway to Net Zero series launched the first-ever roadmap for a net-zero copper industry, tripling global media mentions. Her work has been recognized by the PRCA, ICCO, Hermes Creative, and DotComm Platinum Awards. She was named Communications Professional of the Year at the International Business Awards, Thought Leader of the Year at the Women in Business Awards, and profiled in "Who's Who In America" for inclusion in the Library of Congress. A global advocacy leader, Gabrielle founded the Climate Peace and Security Working Group within the UNFCCC's official youth constituency, addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on climate security as the global youth representative for climate issues, and contributed to the COP Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace—a framework that mobilized billions for fragile and conflict-affected regions. She is a twice-invited delegate to the Nobel Peace Summit and a regular voice at global security forums. She holds an MSc with Distinction in International and European Politics from the University of Edinburgh and conducted doctoral research in International Relations at Cambridge. She previously taught performance and managed the USC Department of Theatre and Dance.  Forever curious, she has traveled to more than 45 countries in pursuit of adventure, history, and the cultures that connect us. A creator at heart, she is a trained actor, singer, and writer, and has worked as a theatre performer, director, and playwright. Storytelling, in all its forms, is at the core of her mission: tell stories to help people.