Ariela Nerubay

CMO Curacao

As the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Curacao retail stores, Ariela Nerubay has been instrumental in driving the company's business strategy, brand positioning, and online expansion efforts. Since joining, the company has experienced an impressive 10-30% YoY growth in both customers and sales. Over the past five years, Ariela has led the charge in repositioning the Curacao brand and expanding its target audience, resulting in the attraction of new customer segments and increased scalability. Ariela's efforts have included designing programs aimed at improving customer experiences, streamlining creative production processes, and promoting a culture that prioritizes customer-centricity, data-driven decision-making, and agility. Drawing from her extensive experience in entertainment, startups, and retail, Ariela has played a pivotal role in transforming Curacao from a traditional retailer to a digital-forward brand. Currently, Ariela is focused on designing and implementing Curacao's marketing technology stack, which aims to provide hyper-personalized customer experiences through first-party data enrichment. Additionally, she has created and leads the company's first Customer Advocacy Group, which is dedicated to evaluating and improving both on and offline customer journeys. Ariela also serves as the leader of Curacao's Community Foundation. With over 20 years of experience in marketing, Ariela is an award-winning executive who specializes in targeting the multicultural consumer. She has worked with several esteemed brands, including Wal-Mart, Comcast, Allstate, Univision Communications, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Studios, and Sony Pictures. During her tenure at these companies, Ariela has been responsible for spearheading marketing efforts aimed at reaching the U.S. Hispanic customer. In addition to her role as CMO at Curacao, Ariela also serves as an adjunct professor at USC's Marshall School of Business and Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Boys and Girls of America, where she is involved in the Impact and Youth of the Year Committees. Prior to joining Curacao, Ariela served as Vice President of Multicultural Marketing at The Walt Disney Studios, where she led the multicultural strategy for several films including the re-launch of the Star Wars franchise. She also spent 12 years at Univision Communications, where she held multiple senior executive positions, including General Manager of Univision Cable Networks. In this role, she built the marketing department from scratch and was responsible for leading channel distribution sales, public relations, advertising sales promotions, B2C and B2B advertising, and marketing efforts for five Spanish language music and movie cable networks. Under Ariela's leadership, her marketing departments received more than 24 industry awards, including NAMIC's (National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communication) Excellence in Multicultural Marketing Awards, The Cablefaxies, and CTAM's (Cable and Telecommunications Association of Marketers) Golden Palm and CTAM Mark Award. Ariela herself has been recognized for her work with a "Luminary" award by the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communication, a "Successful Latinas in Business Award" in the Media and Communications category by the National Latina Businesswomen Association, and was selected as one of the Most Influential Minorities in Cable by Cable Fax Magazine. Before joining Univision, Ariela worked for six years on the agency side of U.S. Hispanic advertising and PR efforts for several Fortune 500 companies, including Miller Brewing Company, Allstate Insurance, Washington Mutual Bank, Comcast, Adelphia, Cox, Charter, Time Warner, and HBO. Prior to that, she served as a marketing specialist for Wal-Mart headquarters in Mexico City, where she was a member of the team that launched Walmart's first private label credit card in Mexico. Ariela's broad expertise encompasses the entire marketing landscape, from client and agency to media. Ariela lives with her husband and three daughters in Long Beach, California.