Coffee With: Grupo Salinas Public Relations Director Nathalie Rayes

Nathalie Rayes
Location: Boston, MA
Job: Public Relations Director, Grupo Salinas
Education: B.A. in Sociology and M.A. in Public Policy with concentrations in International Relations & Education, UCLA
Twitter: @NathalieRayes @GrupoSalinas

Tell us about Grupo Salinas and your role there.

Grupo Salinas is a Mexico-City-based conglomerate formed by a several companies from different sectors – from broadcasting and retail to financial services and telecommunications. We have 90,000 employees in Mexico, the U.S., and South and Central America. Part of my focus at Grupo Salinas is on creating relationships and dialogue to foster the critical U.S.-Mexico relationship through non-political means, which can mean leading delegations between the two countries or running education and leadership programs to help inform good policies and initiatives. I also oversee our U.S. philanthropic arm, Fundación Azteca America. More than $1.3 billion are traded on a daily basis between the U.S. and Mexico. Yet many Americans – even a lot of international reporters – have never been south of the U.S. border. We collaborate with existing nonprofits to create a community of Latinos in the U.S. who are civically active and engaged.

How did you begin your career and get involved in international relations?

My family immigrated to the U.S. from a small Venezuelan village — a pueblo — when I was nine years old. I spoke no English, but as so many immigrants know, you come to this country and just have to make it work. That’s what I did. The immigrant story is one of bravery – of taking a leap of faith and leaving everything you know behind. My parents took that leap for me, and it came with a lot of responsibility and culture shock. We didn’t have experience navigating American systems. But I made my way to college and working in international relations came pretty naturally. After graduating from UCLA, I thought I’d take a year off to study for my LSATs. Around that time, a UCLA counselor mentioned to me that L.A. City Council member Mike Feuer was looking for a field deputy in the San Fernando Valley. I had no idea what a council member did, and The Valley sounded like a different country to me. But I showed up to the interview prepared, and before I even made it home, someone from the City Council’s office called my house and told my mom they wanted me to start the next day. So I did.

Do you believe in always taking a call or interview?

Going to that first City Council interview was one of the best decisions of my career. Always give yourself an opportunity to try something new, even when you’re not looking. And when you are looking for opportunities, make sure to tell everybody. Tell them and you can create a little army of people who are helping and looking for a job with you. I can pin every job I have had back to a specific conversation or suggestion from somebody. I don’t think we work alone. It takes a village.

How did you decide what to pursue after that first job in city government?

In graduate school, I spent a summer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt as a Department of State Fellow – another amazing opportunity that a professor had told me about. I returned home to Los Angeles feeling energized and ready to pursue international relations. But then I got a call from Mike Feuer, the City Council member I had worked for right out of college, asking me to work with him on his policy team. “This is a great job. The world comes to you. You shouldn’t be chasing the world,” he told me. That piqued my interest enough that I sought advice from my professor at the time, former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. He told me to take the role – that city government was “where the rubber hits the road” and that I would have a great mentor in Mike and get invaluable experience. He was right. I worked with Mike and then became deputy chief of staff to former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn.

What is your favorite memory from your advocacy work over the past year?

Taking a group of kids from Mexico and L.A. to the White House to play classical music for President Obama on Cinco de Mayo. Grupo Salinas runs an intensive after-school program, Esperanza Azteca, that teaches classical music to kids from some of the poorest neighborhoods. Today there are more than 80 of these orchestras throughout Mexico, with a few in El Salvador and one in Los Angeles. Most of these kids had never left their neighborhoods. When you allow people to see what’s possible – when you show them that you believe in them – they can inspire us all.

What should an ambitious young professional trying to map out his or her career keep in mind?

There’s this misconception that we all need a single mentor – I don’t think that’s true. I think everybody can mentor you. Experienced people generally want to offer advice and help you out. You just need to ask. I have people I turn to for particular things, and those people have changed throughout different chapters of my life. Think of the world as your mentor. You have something to learn from everybody – and probably also something to offer – so open yourself up.

Also remember to keep doors open and jump at the opportunities that come. Trying something new is really important, even when there’s sometimes not a monetary gain. I don’t think you get to what you love immediately. Finding that takes time.

Images courtesy of Nathalie Rayes