Mariana Cotlear Vega

Brand Strategy Leader

I'm a Brand Strategist and team leader with a passion for helping people and brands grow and a deep commitment to using the power of brand to help make the world a better place.

I currently work as a Strategy Director at The Martin Agency, where I help fight invisibility for our clients and unseen audiences.

I've been fortunate to work on exciting challenges alongside brilliant, passionate people throughout the course of my career. Before Martin, I was an SVP, Strategy Director at Edelman, where I led a globally recognized team of strategists and helped evolve the agency into a creative powerhouse. There, I led global branding initiatives, product launches and consumer campaigns with clients including Victoria’s Secret, John Deere, Unilever and the U.S. Department of Labor.

Prior to Edelman, I worked with game-changing start-ups at Red Antler, and at Chipotle, where I led the NYC marketing and developed social purpose brand campaigns to spread the company's Food With Integrity message. I also helped launch FoodCorps, a national nonprofit dedicated to connecting kids to healthy food through AmeriCorps national service.

Fancy pieces of paper from Georgetown and Columbia University claim that I'm an expert in cultural anthropology, political science, and public health; what that really means is that I'm deeply curious about people, the way the world works, and using research to challenge or validate my thinking about how to impact human behavior.

In my free time I like to make beautiful things with my hands, write about strategy and leadership on LinkedIn, and coach aspiring strategists on how to break into the field.

Fun Facts:

• I’m Peruvian-American by way of the UK, where I was born (kinda by accident). I got neither the citizenship nor the British accent, but I feel like it should give me extra Planner street cred anyway.

• I once started a t-shirt company called Epicurean Apparel. After launching but before realizing I was not passionate about operations, my marquee shirt got featured on the cover of Food Arts Magazine, a career highlight.

• My first job out of college was as the personal assistant to José Andrés, and yes, it was a lot like the food version of The Devil Wears Prada.