Laura Jaramillo Bernal
Laura specializes in strategy and communications for retail brands. Prior to joining NGPA in a role focused on retail and brand strategy, Laura had a successful career in the media industry.
Laura previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Naim Media, a multinational film production company producing current-events-inspired fiction and nonfiction content focused on the Latin American market for platforms including Netflix, Telemundo, and Disney.
This cross-functional role combined expertise from her prior experience as a Executive Producer of Efecto Naím, an Emmy-winning weekly newsmagazine show on international affairs broadcast throughout Latin America with the demands of startup administration for every new project. Laura led television concepts from storyboard pitches through multimillion-dollar financings all the way to on-site staffing and production during filming.
Her extensive training working with multiple stakeholders, including project capital and local government, in an exacting and deadline-based environment has translated well to her new role in preparing to rapidly open and operate dispensaries to meet the needs of Illinois patients and consumers.
Laura has advised multiple brands in the medical and recreational cannabis and CBD spaces, including branding, communication, marketing and labeling.
As COO of a startup media organization, Laura was responsible for business operations that will be highly valuable to a dispensary operation, including but not limited to: creating, tracking and reporting a yearly budget for the organization, creating and delivering fundraising pitches; recruiting, interviewing, vetting, and hiring employees and contractors; negotiating contracts with providers and clients; overseeing yearly tax reporting; and managing all external communications.
Laura has been selected as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, as one of Huffington Post’s 40 under 40 Latinos in Foreign Policy and as a Michael Rockefeller Memorial Fellow. She has a degree in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.