I was born and raised in Chile, and I moved to the US when I was 9 years old. While I grew up in Champaign, a small town in Illinois near Chicago, I always had dreams of living in a big city. I went to school for economics, but didn’t become an economist (although I wanted to). Instead, I started my career at my family’s real estate company.

I then moved to Singapore (my first big city!) to work at an investment startup. Four years later, it went belly up. I packed up and moved to New York in July 2013 with not much more than a dream. I really wanted to break into the finance world, and found a job at a hedge fund. That was short-lived and imploded as well.

Eventually I made my way to Google via a referral from a very good friend (thank goodness). After a short stint at Pinterest (for a quick IPO ride), I came back to Google . Today, I manage a Strategy & Operations team in the Trust & Safety organization, a group that fights abuse on Google products. In my free time, I share the experience from my successes and failures to help new entrepreneurs and other business leaders grow.

- Cristian

@cristian.andres.s

I was born in Hong Kong, and my family immigrated to Canada when I was 6. We moved around a lot growing up, but we landed in a college town named Waterloo, where I discovered my love for theatre and design.

I ultimately ended up studying architecture in university where I got to intern around the world but more importantly found my passion for storytelling through designed environments. After graduating, I combined my love for theatre and architecture into a career as a production designer for live entertainment.

Simultaneously, I started a blog to keep myself inspired, which led to my rediscovery of art. When my blog started gaining traction after moving back to NYC in 2015, I realized that my true calling was to make art accessible through the medium of digital media and live entertainment.

These days, I’m the Creative Director at an entertainment company called Fireplay where I’ve had the pleasure of designing spectacles for Carrie Underwood and Billie Eilish. Looking forward, I’m excited to engage more with the art world to tell stories that matter.

- Benny

@bennyor

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