Bio
Deacon Charlie is the founder of the Black/Brown Collective a Los Angeles-based business accelerator focused at the intersection of emerging platforms & emerging audiences.
Deacon Charlie was previously Chief Revenue & Partnerships Officer at mitú, the nation’s leading media brand for Latino youth, where he led all aspects of revenue generation, including global advertising, content licensing, and direct-to- consumer businesses. He oversaw the sales, strategic alliance, licensing, business development, account management, sales marketing and revenue operations departments and was part of the company’s executive team.
Prior to mitú, he was Executive Vice President for Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the US. He led the interactive team, overseeing the digital advertising businesses and managing the unit’s offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and Dallas, as well as the various support departments dedicated to the group. He was a member of Univision’s Executive Council – a small group of the most senior leaders of the company – who steered enterprise-wide initiatives. Prior to that, Deacon Charlie was Vice President at The Walt Disney Internet Group. While at Disney, he focused on emerging markets & platforms and managed the sales offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. He was an active member of the Disney Multicultural Council, Retail Council, Global Taskforce as well as a member of Disney’s Idea Lab, and recipient of their Leadership Award on multiple occasions.
Deacon Charlie is also Vice Chairman of Catholic Answers, the world’s most respected English-language apologetics and evangelization apostolate. He is Chairman of the National Communications Committee for the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (C.A.L.L. – founded by Archbishop Gomez & Archbishop Chaput). He is Chairman of the Vida Initiative, an apostolate founded by Astrid Bennet Gutierrez (EWTN) dedicated to raising pro-life leaders from the Latino community. He is also President of SOFESA, a non-profit organization founded by his wife that assists homeless and low-income kids in Southern California.