Senior Consultant

Luis Vergara is a Senior Consultant with La Piana Consulting. He brings more than 20 years of nonprofit management and consulting experience to the firm, with a special emphasis on organizations serving youth and communities of color. His consulting experience includes organizational development, branding and market research, and strategy development. Luis’ experience includes working with large national and international nonprofits, as well as locally based community based organizations.

Prior to joining La Piana Consulting, Luis was a Strategic Director with Cheskin, a national research and strategy consulting firm where he provided clients with strategic recommendations on brand positioning and identity, as well as program and product development. His clients at Cheskin included national nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies, such as Fed Ex and Unilever, and national advertising agencies.

Luis also has extensive experience in nonprofit management from program coordination to overall organizational management. He served as Executive Director of Youth Radio, a media and youth development organization. At Youth Radio, he played a key role in developing the organization, from a fledgling start-up to one of the most influential youth media organizations in the nation. Luis also served as a Senior Policy Associate with Safe Passages, an intermediary organization of the East Bay Community Foundation, where he assisted public and private partners in creating working partnerships to address community needs.

A graduate of San Jose State University, Luis is bi-cultural and bilingual in Spanish, and his professional consulting work has often focused on serving the Latino community as well as other communities of color.

When not working, Luis keeps busy with his family which includes two young children. He is an avid fan of local sports, and enjoys playing basketball and coaching youth soccer. In his spare time, Luis continues his perpetual quest to find the best Latin Food in the Bay Area.