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As a Smith undergrad, however, her Hispanic side reemerged when she con-nected with Latina classmates. “Dolores was always very proud of her heritage,” says Nan Heald, a former classmate who is now runs Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Portland, Me. “What motivated people,” Heald adds, “always fascinated her.”

Kunda’s first big assignment in Hispanic marketing didn’t foretell success. After she finished Northwestern’s Kel-logg Graduate School

of Management, she was sent to Mexico City by Chicago-based Burnett in 1990. A job overseas—particularly in Latin America—was akin to being sent to “Si-beria,” Kunda says. As if to seal her fate, the entire staff quit when she showed up. “I was a high-ranking woman from the head office,” she explains.

Rather than give up herself, Kunda put together a new marketing team with local talent. By the time she returned to the U.S. in 1992, she had quadrupled billings and introduced five brands in Mexico for client Kellogg. “For her, it does not mat-ter if you are the guy who serves coffee or

the president of the agency,” says Marco Colin, now president of Leo Burnett in Mexico. “She only cares about ideas.”

Kunda launched Lapiz, which means “pencil” in Spanish, in 1999. At first a Burnett division, Lapiz is now a separate unit of Publicis Groupe, Burnett’s parent. Although Publicis does not break out Lapiz’s numbers, Advertising Age magazine forecasts 2006 revenue at $7 million, up 16% from 2005, ranking it among the top 10 Hispanic agencies in the U.S.

Kunda’s life in dual worlds has helped her keep a team together in an industry notorious for high turnover, says Juan Carlos Ortiz, co-president of Leo Burnett North America. The industry has noted her talent, naming her 2007

Chicago Advertising Woman of the Year. “For the Puerto Rican office to have the knowledge and talent from the Lapiz office will be an added value for them,” Ortiz says. “She will be a great bridge between Chicago and Puerto Rico.”

That may be, but the long-distance commute is exhausting. “Everyone thinks Puerto Rico is off the coast of Mi-ami. It is not. It is closer to Venezuela.” Still, traveling is smarter than never leaving her desk in the Loop. “When you are in advertising, you cannot just sit in your office and navel gaze.” ^ –With Margaret Littman

By Tracey Robinson-EnglishDolores Kunda is in a sweet spot. His-panics have become the largest minority in the U.S., and as more and more com-panies are discovering, they have a lot of disposable income. Kunda, the chief executive of Lapiz Integrated Hispanic Marketing, knows how to get them to spend. That’s why her firm has landed Allstate, H&R Block and three General Motors divisions as clients in the past year, and why she recently took over the Puerto Rico office of Lapiz’s bigger affiliate, ad agency Leo Burnett.

“This country is changing dramati-cally,” Kunda says. “You take a look at the major cities in the U.S. and put to-gether the Hispanic, African American, and Asian populations, and the white Anglo population is a minority.”

pRoud hERiTagEBeing at the forefront of Hispanic marketing is a shift for a woman who says she did not fully identify herself as Hispanic until she went to Smith Col-lege, where she earned a BA in English. The daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and Ukrainian father, Kunda, 52, grew up in a predominately white, middle-class suburb outside Washington in the 1960s. As a preschooler, she recalls, her first language was Spanish. But to fit in, she dropped Spanish for English as soon as she entered grade school.

Chicgo’s Bridge To Latin AmericaHerself half Latina, Leo Burnett’s Dolores Kunda is an ace at marketing in Mexico and Puerto Rico

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BW ChiCago l january, 2008

She runs both the Lapiz marketing firm and Burnett’s puerto Rico office

44.3 miLLion

The estimated num-ber of hispanics in the u.S.—or 15% of the population.

Data: U.S. Census Bureau