The Adweek 50: Honoring Media, Marketing and Tech’s Indispensable Behind-the-Scenes Stars

Isaac is a Brazilian marketing master and economist, who has spent most of his 25+ career years working with brands such as Coca-Cola, Bellsouth International, and Sprint-Nextel, in several different functions and covering multiple geographies.

His career began as an analyst, media and brand manager at British American Tobacco in Brazil. He then headed various key marketing strategies for Coca-Cola and BellSouth International in Brazil and the United States. Isaac also led multicultural marketing for Sprint-Nextel, for which he was recognized by Ad Week’s “Marketing y Medios” as U.S. Hispanic Marketer of the Year in 2006.

Over the past decade, Isaac transitioned from the client side to the agency side of the business by joining alma as SVP, Managing Director. Today he is the co-president of the agency acting as Chief Operations Officer.

Isaac also serves as the chair of the board of the Culture Marketing Council (CMC) and is a contributor for Forbes, where he publishes monthly articles on multicultural marketing insight and trends.

Born to Romanian parents and raised in Mexico City, Luis Miguel Messianu has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments of the U.S. Hispanic market during an advertising career that spans three decades.

His trajectory is defined by a conscious effort to help pioneer the melding of marketing niches into a nuanced and evolving total market. His award-winning work for multinationals such as McDonald’s, State Farm, Clorox, MillerCoors, Sprint, Blue Cross Blue Shield, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Goodyear, Quaker, and L’Oréal, is a testament to that effort.

In 1994, when advertising to U.S. Hispanics was an afterthought in a business plan, Luis Miguel started his own Hispanic agency, winning soon after the McDonald’s and State Farm accounts. Numerous award-winning campaigns later, both clients still trust their multicultural strategy to Luis Miguel’s creative shop, alma, which is now the largest multicultural agency in the country.

Luis Miguel’s contributions to the industry have been recognized by many organizations. In 2015, he was named Legend Honoree by ADCOLOR and in 2019 he was inducted into the Culture Marketing Council (CMC) Hall of Fame.

Luis Miguel has always been passionate about mentoring and educating a new generation of Multicultural advertising professionals and has been a member of the Miami Ad School Board and faculty since the school’s inception. He is also the Chairman of the Advisory Board at the newest Miami Ad School in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. He recently completed with honors his Executive MBA at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

With over 19 years of experience in the marketing/advertising industry, Leo has been with Alma for the past 14 years. The other five were between Leo Burnett WW as Regional Finance, and Contacto Marketing and Communications (Agency owned by Leo Burnett) as Chief Financial Officer. Leo was selected by CFO of Leo Burnett World Wide as one of two Brand Managers to lead the Sarbanes Oxley initiative across the Globe.

Leo also has over ten years of experience in Governmental accounting, handling Federally Funded programs (mainly by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Health) as Senior Financial Accountant. In addition, he also served as Controller of a gaming Resort and Convention Center.

Some of the brands Leo has worked with throughout his career include McDonalds, Sprint, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Philip Morris, General Mills, PepsiCo, State Farm, Procter and Gamble, Kellogg’s, Diageo, Sony Ericsson, DOH – Tobacco Free Florida, Clorox, Anheuser Busch Corporation, Hyundai, NY Lottery, Capital One Bank, Marshalls/TJX Companies, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Visa International, and more.

Michelle started her career with a summer job at a small Miami agency and never left. Her 30+ years of leadership and ability to master creative excellence and business results in equal measure have been instrumental in that agency evolving into alma, the largest, most awarded multicultural advertising agencies in the United States. Today, Michelle is a partner at alma and its SVP of Operations & Production where she has built many of the key departments from the ground up, including: Communications/PR, Human Resources, Project Management and an internal Production Studio.

She manages the day-to-day business and leads the production team to deliver executed solutions with the best creative craft for brands such as McDonald’s, State Farm, Netflix, Sprint, Pepsi, Clorox among others. Her accolades include 23 Cannes Lions wins and being named to Ad Age’s prestigious A-List six times since 2010. Among her other accomplishments are winning multiple Effies, Clios, One Show, ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards and AAF Mosaic Awards. She is also a member of the 4A’s Southern & Florida Region Board of Directors.

Michelle is extremely proud to work with a team comprising over 31 different nationalities and feels that diversity is the creative force behind extremely successful campaigns.

Alvar is a Catalán driven by curiosity and adrenaline in equal measure. His appetite has led him to dominate agencies in Europe, South America and now the United States, earning major awards for clients everywhere he has been.

Currently, Alvar is alma’s creative guru. On the Directory Big Won ranking, his team developed the most awarded radio and print campaigns of 2016 and were in the top 10 most creatively awarded agencies in the United States that same year. Alvar has also led the agency to land numerous creative and effectiveness awards, including Cannes Lions and Effie Awards.

Throughout his career, Alvar has led creative development for companies such as McDonald’s, State Farm, Clorox, Sprint, Jeep, MillerCoors, Netflix, Ford, Volkswagen, Unilever, HSBC, BBVA, Santander, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Nike, Pfizer, and Cadbury Adams. He was named “Creative of the Year” at El Ojo de Iberoamérica in 2016 and 2017, and has participated as a judge at Cannes Lions, Clio, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, El Sol de Iberoamérica, FIAP, Effie Awards, Wave, Círculo Creativo, among others.

Before joining alma and moving back to the states, Alvar served as General Creative Director at Bassat Ogilvy Madrid and was a member of the Executive Committee at Group Ogilvy España. He also served as Vice President and Executive Creative Director of JWT Mexico.