Our Board -

Cici Rojas
Partner and President
Tico Pro/Sports

Cici has 20 years of corporate client cultivation, engagement, and retention experience. Her tenures range from CEO and Sr. Leader roles for local, regional and national Hispanic and Women’s Business and Advocacy associations, to Healthcare, Political, and Civic Leadership roles. She serves on several local, and national boards to positively contribute to the Kansas City region. She loves “trying” to play golf, spending time in the community for various causes and issues, and hanging out in KC’s eclectic live music and restaurant scene.

Chef Grace Ramirez
Culinary Innovator, Entrepreneur and Cultural Advocate

Grace Ramirez is an award-winning chef, entrepreneur, humanitarian, educator, author, and TV personality who has become a global leader in celebrating Latin American cuisine and culture. With a career that seamlessly blends culinary expertise, business innovation, media presence, and social advocacy, she has established herself as a powerful voice for representation and inclusivity. Grace is deeply committed to shaping the future through food, education, and cultural preservation.

As an entrepreneur, Grace is the visionary behind La Latina Cocina, a food concept that lives inside 85+ universities across the country, bringing authentic Latin American flavors to students in food halls nationwide. Her dedication to food and education drives her mission to make culturally rich and nourishing meals more accessible to the next generation.

A champion of education and community engagement, Grace was appointed to NYC’s Chefs Council, where she develops healthy, culturally relevant recipes for the New York City Department of Education, impacting millions of students. Her passion for social advocacy extends to her work with Aid for Life, where she supports workforce development initiatives to uplift underserved communities.

Grace’s humanitarian efforts have earned her widespread recognition, including the “Excellence in Philanthropy” Award at the 2023 Grace Awards by St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction. She has been named one of Cherry Bombe’s 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality, recognized as one of People en Español’s Most Powerful Latinas, honored as a COVID-19 Hero by the City of New York, and awarded the Distinguished Latina Star Award by the Puerto Rican Bar Association for her volunteer work with World Central Kitchen.

Her commitment to amplifying Latino culture led her to co-create Times Square’s largest cultural event to date—the first-of-its-kind Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration, where thousands gathered to experience traditional altars, music, and art in the heart of New York City.

In addition to serving on the board of Aid for Life, Grace is now a proud Co-Chair of the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, furthering her mission to celebrate, elevate, and preserve latino heritage for future generations.

Sergio Fernandez de Cordova
Founder of PVBLIC Foundation

Sergio is a global leader in public-private partnerships, multilateral diplomacy, and technology-driven solutions. As Founder of PVBLIC Foundation, he has led initiatives impacting over two billion people, shaping policy, investment, and governance models that drive economic resilience and sustainable development.

His entrepreneurial journey began at 12, setting the foundation for a career built on innovation, impact, and leadership. He has worked across government, diplomacy, and private sector engagement, bridging policy, technology, and sustainable financing.

For one year, he served as UN Ambassador & Permanent Observer for OIJ, representing 22 member states and advocating for youth participation. His diplomatic role strengthened multilateral cooperation, working with heads of state, UN agencies, and global institutions to create scalable, technology-driven impact.

Through PVBLIC, he has pioneered next-generation financing and governance models, mobilizing capital, data, and innovation for global development. His leadership has driven major initiatives, including the SDG Data Alliance, Development Bank for Resilient Prosperity (DBRP), PVBLIC One, SDG Media Zone, SIDS ABAS Center of Excellence, and Family Offices for Sustainable Development (FOSD). These efforts help governments and private stakeholders harness data as an asset, drive investment, and implement sustainable economic strategies. He has also supported platforms like the SDG Fund’s Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG).

His career spans entrepreneurship, investment, and public-private governance, having led ventures that collectively raised close to $1 billion. As co-founder of Fuel Outdoor, he led the American billboard industry into the digital era, modernizing regulatory frameworks before exiting in a landmark sale to Van Wagner Communications. He later co-founded P3 Global Management, shaping global smart city policy and urban innovation, leading to a successful exit to Portobello Capital.

Since 2007, his leadership has been consistently recognized worldwide for advancing global diplomacy, multilateralism, and sustainable development. He has received international honors, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, knighthoods from Spain and Ethiopia, and recognition from His Holiness Pope Francis for his commitment to economic inclusion, policy innovation, and public-private cooperation.

He holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Rutgers University, completed the Birthing of Giants® program at MIT, and earned executive diplomas in International Law and Diplomacy from UNITAR.

Luis R. Cancel
Artist, arts administrator, and distinguished public servant

Harvard University – Master of Arts in Public Administration, 1990
New York University – Master of Arts in Art Administration, 1987
Pratt Institute – Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1975

Luis R. Cancel – artist, arts administrator, and distinguished public servant has a distinguished 30- year career as the head of various not-for-profit and public agencies. Until recently he served as the Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco, appointed to that position by Mayor Gavin Newsom in January 2008. In that capacity, he oversaw the San Francisco Arts Commission (www.sfartscommission.org) until July 2011 when he resigned after Mayor Newsom was elected Lt. Governor of California. While serving in San Francisco, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Mr. Cancel to the National Museum of the American Latino Commission (2009-2011), established by Congress and the President to study the potential creation of such a museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution.

From 2005 until December 2007 he was Executive Director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in New York City, where he raised $14.04 million in capital renovation grants. He has served as an independent curator and consultant in the areas of institutional development and strategic planning for various foundations and government agencies (see ECC below). In 2009, he became a founding member of Rio Cidade Criativa (Rio Creative City www.cidadecriativa.org/en/), a decade-long initiative based in Rio de Janeiro to foment the arts and community development in the city that is being impacted by hosting the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016).

Formerly, Mr. Cancel was Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/home/home.shtml). Appointed by Mayor David N. Dinkins in December 1991, Mr. Cancel became the first Latino ever to hold that position as the fifth Commissioner in the agency’s history. During his tenure (1991-1994), he worked closely with Mayor Dinkins to raise the level of city support for the arts and sciences, increasing the agency’s operating support budget from $69 million to $89 million, making it the nation’s third largest public agency supporting arts and culture. In addition, Mr. Cancel oversaw the Capital Improvements budget of $100 million. As Commissioner, Mr. Cancel worked with leaders from all of the arts disciplines to document the economic contributions of the arts to New York City’s economy.

In 1978 he was named Executive Director of the Bronx Museum of the Arts. He was the youngest Museum Director and the only Latino in the country to direct a county museum. During his tenure (1978-1991), he was responsible for the Bronx Museum becoming one of the most respected and innovative cultural institutions in New York City. He guided the Museum’s expansion from the Bronx County Courthouse to a 42,000 square feet (3,902 square meters) permanent building and successfully oversaw a $6.5 million capital campaign and renovation project. Under Mr. Cancel’s direction, the Bronx Museum subsequently developed a master plan for a second physical plant expansion of $22 million and Mr. Cancel secured municipal capital support of $18.75 million for that project.

While Directing the Bronx Museum, Mr. Cancel received a Museum Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to research Latin American art. He traveled extensively throughout Latin America and established important contacts for the Museum with major collectors, galleries and museums. He also curated several major exhibitions including: the First, Second and Third Emerging Expressions Biennials: The Artists and the Computer; Devastation/Resurrection: The South Bronx; Krishna Reddy, a Retrospective; and the highly acclaimed Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970.

The Bronx Museum received extensive national and local media coverage for its exhibitions and public programs. Mr. Cancel has conducted numerous print and broadcast interviews on a wide variety of topics and has been featured as the cover story for the Sunday Arts and Leisure Section of The New York Times (September 25, 1988).

He was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Council for the Arts (ACA is now known as the Americans for the Arts), having been appointed to that post in April of 1994. ACA was a national membership organization, founded in 1960, whose mission then and now is to promote public policies that advance and document the contributions of the arts and artists to American life. During his tenure, Mr. Cancel helped ACA to focus its activities and become an arts information provider. In 1994 he conceived and established ACA’s pioneering Internet Web site, ArtsUSATM (www.artsusa.org).

Mr. Cancel has maintained an active consulting practice via Entrepreneurial Cultural Consulting (ECC), which he originally founded in 1995 as Esperanto Internet Services (EIS) to facilitate network communication between individuals of diverse nations and cultures. EIS positioned itself to benefit from the growing need to translate information over the Internet. This information technology company provided multilingual, Web site design; quality translations in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish; and proofreading services. EIS assisted clients with the design and development of those multi-lingual Web sites and EIS sold its domain name www.esperanto.com to the International Esperanto Society in 2007.

Since then, Mr. Cancel has used ECC to undertake selective cultural consulting projects involving strategic planning, fund raising and institutional development for numerous clients including The Rockefeller Foundation, The US-Mexico Fund for Culture and in 1998 he conducted a feasibility study for the establishment of a Museum of the Americas for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. Other consulting clients include: Thor Equities (NYC); Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo); the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Fundación Eugenio Mendoza (Caracas), The Quipus Cultural Foundation (La Paz), Lord Cultural Resources (Toronto), The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts (Utah).

As a member of the Smithsonian Council (1990-1997), he headed up a review of the Smithsonian Institution’s publishing and electronic projects. As a consultant, he conducted a feasibility study for the establishment of a Museum of the Americas for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. In 1999, he was a consultant to The Rockefeller Foundation, assigned by the Foundation to provide technical assistance to Latin American arts groups.

Mr. Cancel has been a guest lecturer at several prestigious national and international museums and universities including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, The Aspen Institute, and Central University of Caracas. He has maintained an active interest in both the arts and sciences and he has been at the forefront of urging cultural organizations to utilize the Internet and New Media to reach new audiences. He hosted a weekly 2-hour Internet radio Podcast, Loisaida Cultural Wire, on www.eastvillageradio.com, and in San Francisco, he establish and co-hosted CultureWire, a weekly cable TV and Internet-based television program. (www.sfartscommission.org/category/video/)

Mr. Cancel entered Pratt Institute in 1970, where he studied painting and printmaking with a minor in Anthropology. After earning his B.F.A. from Pratt in 1975, Mr. Cancel received a study fellowship from the American Friends Service Committee to research 20th Century Puerto Rican Art. When this research ended, he became the Gallery Director of the Cayman Gallery, the first Latin American art gallery in SoHo, New York. During his 1975-1977 tenure, Mr. Cancel began his continuing affiliation with most of the major Hispanic cultural institutions, including Taller Boricua, El Museo del Barrio, and The Mexican Museum (San Francisco and Chicago).

In 1987 he received a Master of Arts degree in Museum Management/Arts Administration from New York University. During the 1989-1990 academic year, he went on an academic sabbatical from the Bronx Museum, and in 1990, received his second Master of Arts degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Mr. Cancel also studied educational software design and interactive CD-ROM production at the Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Visit Luis’s website www.LuisCancel.com

Ryan Morfin
C.E.O. of Lowndes Square

Ryan Morfin is the CEO of Lowndes Square (“LSQ”), an asset management firm investing on behalf of several family offices in non-correlated asset classes such as commercial real estate, private equity and venture capital. Throughout his career, he has held several executive management roles, including at U.S. and international portfolio companies owned by clients of well-known PE firms and family offices.

Immediately prior to his LSQ role, Mr. Morfin was the founder and CEO of Wentworth Management Services, a holding company that acquired 10 wealth management businesses over a 5-year period creating the 20th largest independent US wealth management firm by revenues. Under his leadership, Wentworth grew revenues by 20x to over $200mm in five years and the platform had over 2,200 financial advisors that managed over $300Bn of AUM. In July 2022, the business was sold to a strategic investor at an all-time high valuation for broker dealer businesses delivering a 15x to his initial investors.
He is currently the host of the Non-Beta Alpha podcast, where he has insightful conversations with thought leaders like Jocko Willink, Dr. Oz, General Flynn and General McChrystal among many other asset management and wealth management CEOs. Ryan does national and local media speaking about economics and capital markets issues as well. Season 4 starts in Q2 2023.
Ryan is also the founding partner of IronGate Capital Advisors, a defense technology investment platform that focuses on funding innovation in the defense department and in the intelligence community. The fund has invested in over 150 companies in the last 5 years and is in the process of launching its second closed end fund.

Mr. Morfin was a founding partner of Maroon Capital Group, a NYC based merchant bank which focused on PE investing. Previously, at Countrywide Merchant Banking, he established and scaled the firm’s expansion into private equity, creating the business plan as well as sourcing, evaluating, and underwriting the group’s investment opportunities. Mr. Morfin began his career at Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the CMBS/CRE CDO group, later becoming an Associate in the firm’s Merchant Banking division. In that role, he worked on the team that made principal investments for various MSRE fund vehicles on behalf of institutional clients.

Ryan is politically engaged in education policy, national security policy and Hispanic political outreach. Mr. Morfin also sits on the Board of Directors for Voz Media, IM Financial Services, Vega Wealth Technologies and Albers Aerospace. Mr. Morfin holds Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from the University of Chicago.