Diego T. Ruiz draws on over three decades of international experience in business, finance, media and government to advise clients on public policy, legislative and regulatory affairs, and strategic communications and reputation management. He has counseled CEOs and Board members, presidents and cabinet ministers, candidates and C-suite executives.

Having held senior leadership roles at the highest levels of the private and public sectors, Diego has extensive experience running multimillion dollar P&Ls, as well as shaping the government policies and public perceptions that can impact them. 

In government, Diego served in the Bush and Obama Administrations as Executive Director (chief operating officer) of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the principal federal regulator of all US public securities markets and the financial reporting of public companies. In this capacity, he helmed the agency through the 2008-9 financial crisis, the Bernie Madoff scandal, and passage and implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Earlier in his government career, he was Deputy Chief for Strategy and Policy at the Federal Communications Commission, managing an “in-house think tank” staffed by a multidisciplinary team of economists, lawyers, and engineers to frame the country’s media and telecommunications regulatory environment.

Before founding Granada Global Strategies, Diego headed up global government relations for SC Johnson, the family-owned maker of household, cleaning and personal care products, leading advocacy and public affairs with governments and civil society stakeholders in Washington, statehouses, and capitals around the world.

Diego was Vice President, Public Policy and Government Affairs for PepsiCo, the global food and beverage leader, managing relations with governments in Latin America and the Caribbean and heading up the company’s international affairs office in Washington, DC. In this capacity, he developed and managed relations with Western Hemisphere leaders and stakeholders at the national and local levels, and with US legislative and executive branch officials, the diplomatic corps, and multilateral organizations.

Before serving in government, Diego was a media executive for almost a decade with Univision Communications, the country’s premier Spanish-language media company. He led its Northern California TV station group based in Sacramento — then the fastest-growing Hispanic market in the country — to the #1 position among all stations, English or Spanish, in Prime Time and Total Day ratings. Diego also launched and ran Univision.com as its founding General Manager, leading the portal to become America’s number-one Spanish-language website within six months of launching. He started his career at Univision as Station Manager of its flagship station in Los Angeles, KMEX-TV, where he developed and launched the network’s first local morning newscast, subsequently rolled out to multiple Univision markets.

Diego was a senior advisor in the US House of Representatives. He was a political consultant on national and foreign races, including the campaign of the first Latina elected to the US Congress, and the 1990 Nicaraguan presidential election, which marked the first time in history that a communist regime was ousted at the ballot box. 

Diego received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from the University of Virginia, and has completed advanced studies at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.