Employee Experience Institute

Dual CMO/CPO for founder-led companies  |  A market-sound people system with its own P&L

My name, Estela, means star — I think of it less as a description than a compass. A star doesn’t perform for attention; it holds a fixed point that lets others find their way. That’s how I lead. I’m a dual CMO/CPO for founder-led companies. I build people systems with their own P&L

My philosophy: I believe in people‑first business cultures, intentional brands, and high‑value operating models with their own P&L.

Most founders run two disconnected functions — a marketing engine and a people engine — under different, or no, senior leadership. I build a single point where both are architected as one growth system: employer brand and customer brand as one signal, talent strategy and revenue strategy on one forecast, culture as a governed input to margin rather than a soft adjacent concern.

Today, I’m building a practice that treats a company’s people the way the best-run companies treat their revenue — with rigor, data, and genuine care for the humans and planet growth depends on.

For 20+ years, I’ve built the infrastructure behind enterprise growth across financial services and healthcare, in regulated, multi-site, M&A-intensive environments where the mandate is always the same: move from ambiguity to clarity. I’ve partnered with three CEOs at once and led through nine acquisitions and a pandemic — growth and humanity are never in competition. They only look that way when a company hasn’t built the system that lets both live in the same room.

Brand and culture aren’t separate disciplines competing for budget — they’re the same signal, told to two audiences, built by the same hand.

Award-winning People & Culture executive and Founder of the Employee Experience Institute — MSc, Information Technology Management; BSc, Marketing; CHRL, Prosci®, CTDP®. Bilingual English/Spanish, direct Mexico/LATAM experience.