Mariana Atencio
Peabody Award-winning Journalist
Bestselling Author
Media Entrepreneur
Inspiring Storyteller
and Host/Moderator
Speaks About
- Building Trust
- Authentic Leadership
- Navigating & Embracing Change
- Empathetic Communication
- Building Community
- Inspiration & Motivation
- Personal Development
- Moderating & Hosting
- Hispanic & Latinx Heritage
Mariana in Brief
Peabody Award–winning journalist and bestselling author.
Her viral TEDx talk, “What Makes YOU Special?”, has over 25 million views.
Helps leaders and organizations build trust and strengthen teams in a world where it is increasingly difficult to distinguish what is real from what is fake.
Brings her broadcast experience to host and moderate events – in both English and Spanish – for the world’s most respected companies and organizations.
In a world where so much of what we experience is not what it seems, we’re drawn to authentic people and organizations like a magnet. Their humanity and energy stand out and build trust, connection, and purpose – the foundation of great relationships and outstanding organizational cultures.
Mariana Atencio took the world by storm in 2017 with her viral TEDx talk on authenticity, “What Makes YOU Special?” – now with over 25 million views and translations in 13 languages. Her message: What makes you different is what makes you powerful. She inspires leaders and teams with the courage to embrace a blueprint to thrive through uncertainty, constant disruption, and their own self-doubt.
The authenticity lessons Mariana shares in her speeches are personal. She came to America and tried to fit in as she pursued her career as a broadcast journalist. But it wasn’t until she put self-doubt aside and decided to lean into what made her unique that her career began to take off. Her bestselling memoir, Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real, chronicles that journey and inspires readers to unlock the power of their personal stories.
Mariana built her journalism career first at Univision in Spanish, then crossed over to English at NBC News, where her boots-on-the-ground reporting on immigration, natural disasters, women’s rights, and cartel violence earned her a Peabody Award, a Gracie Award, three Emmy nominations, and the NAHJ Presidential Award. During her career she reported from the front lines of global events in places like Haiti, China, and the Syrian border. Her in-depth interviews span the spectrum – from world and business leaders to cultural icons.
Today, Mariana brings those same skills to the biggest global stages at live and virtual events for the world’s most respected companies and organizations. In her capacity as event host and moderator, she has interviewed heads of state, Fortune 100 CEOs, and global changemakers. She is unflappable as she moves from discussing innovation, the promise of AI, global economic growth, and a myriad of other important topics.
Mariana is an entrepreneur with her own media company and created the hit podcast Startup Series: Latam to spotlight breakthrough entrepreneurs from the Global South.
Whether she’s delivering a keynote, moderating a CEO panel, or leading a purpose-driven conversation, Mariana Atencio is at ease with her role. Her blend of intelligence, preparation, and signature warmth help to elevate events and make them memorable.
Born and raised in Venezuela, she left her home country amid political unrest and came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and serves on the board of the future Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, D.C., a testament to her lifelong commitment to storytelling, representation, and community.
Books and Media
In a world where so much of what we experience is not what it seems, we’re drawn to authentic people and organizations like a magnet. Their humanity builds trust, connection, and purpose.
Mariana Atencio
Speech Descriptions
Real Matters: Building Trust in an Unreal World
(Theme: Trust as a leadership and business advantage)
Curated feeds. Corporate spin. AI-generated everything. Building trust in modern times is harder than ever. It’s also one of the most valuable assets a leader or organization can possess. Employees, customers, and stakeholders are attracted to what feels real – and they can sense inauthenticity in an instant. When leaders show up with authenticity, they create cultures rooted in trust, engagement, and collaboration – the foundations of high-performing teams. Being real is the most powerful way to stand out in an unreal world of filtered perceptions and manufactured narratives. This doesn’t mean rejecting technology – quite the opposite. It means embracing it without losing the human touch in leadership and processes.
Mariana unpacks how trust strengthens team resilience, drives innovation, and builds credibility both inside and outside the organization. Through strategic storytelling and powerful interactive exercises, Mariana delivers practical insights leaders can apply immediately: how to develop trust with those they lead, build authentic brands, and create workplaces where people want to bring their best every day – because when organizations are real, they thrive.
Key Takeaways:
• Identify and leverage your unique leadership abilities to build trust.
• Develop the skills to determine, understand, and guide your team through change effectively.
• Communicate with clarity, empathy, and transparency to navigate uncertainty.
• Unite your teams around a shared purpose to drive collective progress.
• Mariana’s interactive exercises make unforgettable lessons and customized experiences.
Perfectly You: Leveraging the Power Within
(Theme: Thrive personally and professionally by embracing your authenticity)
Everywhere we look, the world pressures us to perform, conform, and be perfect – often at the expense of being true to ourselves. But the truth is, when we show up authentically, we become magnetic and unlock greater resilience, confidence, and purpose. Authenticity not only helps us navigate change and uncertainty – it attracts opportunities and relationships that align with who we really are.
Mariana’s unique energy and interactive dynamics give people permission to drop the masks and discover the bold power of being “Perfectly You.” Through inspiring stories and practical takeaways, attendees will learn how to embrace what makes them irreplaceable and tap into authenticity as a source of strength and well-being to give their best at work and in life. Audiences leave energized, empowered, and ready to stand out – not by trying to be perfect, but by having the courage to be real.
Key Takeaways:
• Harness the traits that make you unique (and “Perfectly You”) to resiliently navigate change and uncertainty with confidence.
• Discover your sense of purpose and increase your personal fulfillment.
• Learn the three-step framework authentic leaders use to cultivate cultures of trust, collaboration, and purpose.
• Foster meaningful relationships to strengthen team culture and team building.
• Mariana’s energy and empathy create breakthrough moments that audiences remember long after they leave.
Communicating Confidently – Cut Through the Noise and Get Heard
(Post-Keynote Breakout or Separate Keynote)
For everyone in business, delivering a message efficiently – internally and in different media – has gotten infinitely more complex in the age of AI. This interactive presentation will help attendees sharpen their communication skills. Mariana equips leaders – from entry level to the C-Suite – with practical tools and tested principles to speak confidently, authentically, and effectively, whether it’s for client meetings, internal communications, Zoom, an important presentation, a traditional media interview, a digital clip and/or a conference stage. Mariana will share tips that took her more than a decade of television and social media experience to learn, working at two of the world’s biggest news networks, in Spanish and English. 45-90 Minutes
Sample Takeaways:
• Learn to distill your main message so it resonates across all platforms.
• Practical tips and pro tricks for in-person and virtual presentations.
• Master the power of persuasion in an era of fleeting attention spans.
• Better storytelling to create connection and leave a lasting impact.
• Establish credibility and build trust in an era of misinformation.
• How to navigate real-time interview scenarios with confidence.
Moderating, Interviewing, and Hosting
With experience as a national network news anchor and reporter, Mariana brings warmth and intelligence to each hosting, moderating, and interviewing assignment. Mariana’s curiosity and poise help her get the most out of those on stage with her.
The breadth of Mariana’s experience speaks to her versatility. She’s moderated conversations on embracing a mindset for change at Microsoft, on the rights of women in Iran, on gender inequality at Foreign Policy magazine’s HERPower summit, on media representation at the Paley Center for Media, on financial literacy at Nasdaq, on building a personal and professional brand at Columbia University, a panel on geopolitics and economics at Citi Private Bank’s autumn dialogues with three heads of state from Latin America, a session at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on global healthcare inequity, plus the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, PepsiCo, JP Morgan, Accenture, Spotify, Google, YouTube, Clorox, AT&T, Spectrum, and more.