We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leticia Latino van-Splunteren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leticia below.
Leticia, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?
I have been part of the Telecommunications industry for over 25 years, and never before have I seen such a dysfunction in the sourcing processes that are in place by many of the top companies in the industry. In a time when all companies exercise bragging rights about their minority and diversity sourcing programs, if one was to take key metrics and measure how successful and impactful those programs are, I am confident that they would show a very different reality than what is being showcased. The concept of fissuring (large companies outsourcing work to several layers of smaller companies) is having a severe and negative impact in the industry and it is, in my opinion, one of the reasons why the US finds itself with Telecommunications Workforce shortage. If smaller, many times minority-owned, companies have to comply with the same contractual and pricing demands made by large nationwide companies, it creates very unfavorable and often unsustainable conditions making it unattractive to them to partake in the industry to begin with.
Leticia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Leticia Latino van-Splunteren is a multi-cultural highly successful corporate executive with over 25 years of experience in technology driven businesses. Leticia’s industry experience spans Technology, Telecom, Software, and Infrastructure with the consistent theme of penetrating new international markets, innovation, growth, and transformation. Leticia is currently President and CEO of NEPTUNO USA, CORP a company that spun off from NEPTUNO GROUP (owned by her family) which has engineered over 10,000 Telecom Towers and Sites in the Americas and has been a well-established Telecom Infrastructure Provider since 1972.
Leticia started her professional Career at Merrill Lynch where she held positions as Junior Broker in Caracas, Venezuela and Operations Specialist at Merrill Lynch Bank in Miami. In 1997 she decided to switch her career path from Financial to Telecom and joined then Infrastructure Giant Northern Telecom (NORTEL). At Nortel she was heavily involved in bid response resulting for Brazil’s B-Band auction process and led multiple large-scale Bids (+300M) for greenfield Wireless Telecom Networks (TDMA, CDMA, GSM, FWA) in the Latin America Region. Her last position as Account Marketing Director, involved consultative Sales and Marketing for Tier 1 US Carriers to assist them in identifying new value-added services offerings and their go-to market strategy resulting in multi-million dollars nationwide launches.
In 2002, Leticia decided to Join Neptuno as Executive VP with the main mission of incorporating in the US, as a strategic pivot resulting from the increasingly challenging socio-political situation in Venezuela, where Neptuno Group was headquartered.
Neptuno has been credited with being one of the very first companies in the world that employed technology traditionally used for architectural and geological purposes and apply it to Telecommunications. Since 2005 Neptuno has created over 3,500 Digital Twins of Telecom Sites all around the world. Leticia is responsible from conceptualization to launch and commercial implementation of the NAAP (Network Asset Administration Program), a platform conceived to help Communications Companies track the complete lifecycle of their assets. Under her leadership, NAAP Software has been sold and implemented in +12 countries.
In 2017 she was appointed CEO of Neptuno USA, and one of her first decisions was to make the company a Minority Owned Business, honoring her commitment to bringing more Diversity and Inclusion into the Telecom Industry and to help prompt real and meaningful change. She has effectively positioned Neptuno to be an active player in the US aggressive Broadband Infrastructure Roll out that is currently taking place, and her vision includes leveraging Government Grants and the Department of Labor Telecommunications.
Leticia served as the Chair of the Job Skills and Training working group of the Federal Communications Commission Broadband Development Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2021 when she then was appointed to the FCC’s Equity and Diversity Committee (CEDC). In 2022 FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel appointed Leticia to the Telecommunications Interagency Working Group which is charged to present a recommendations report to US Congress, in a year’s time frame, in response to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Leticia brings a wealth of experience, the ability to drive and support innovation, and a strong track record of leadership with some of the world’s leading global corporations. She is the recipient of numerous industry awards:
• The Outstanding Business Leaders of 2021 by Business Stalwarts
• 2021- Smart Disruptor by SmartCity Miami
• 2021- Recognized as one of ‘The Most Admired Women Leaders in Business’ by CIO Look
• 2019 Revolutionary CEO’s by Aspioneer
• 2019 Transformational CEO Recognition by CIO Look
• 2018 Women in IoT Award Recipient- Connected World Magazine
Leticia’s commitment to nurturing genuine human connections led her to create the Back2Basics- Reconnecting to the essence of YOU podcast, which has been on air since January 2019 and has featured several high-profile guests including Marketing Guru Seth Godin, Soundstrue Founder Tami Simon, Former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Melissa & Doug Founder Melissa Bernstein and Logitech’s CEO, Bracken Darrell, to name a few.
Leticia lives in Hollywood, FL with her family. Learn more about Leticia at: www.leticialatino.com
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
When I first joined Neptuno back in 2001, I wanted to prove myself to my father (who had founded the company 30 years prior). By then I had a Bachelor in Business, two Master’s degree and had spent several years of my early career working for big corporations such as Merrill Lynch and Nortel Networks. I had also just returned from France where I spent half a year learning French (this will be relevant in a bit) despite my family thinking that was a waste of time. The first deal I had lined up was going to be huge and that of course fed my ego and pride. The truth of the matter is that while we negotiated it, my boss (and dad) raised a few red flags, told me he didn’t have a good feeling about it, and that we shouldn’t proceed. I pressured him by stating that to do business in the US (at the time we had only had presence in South America) we had to be more aggressive and take bigger risks. In my defense, my former employer, Nortel, was also part of the deal and I trusted that they had vetted this customer, and project, so we went ahead. Bad, bad idea. We manufactured a stock of telecom towers that the customer never paid for and that of course represented a sizable investment. I got burned big time, and what hurts even now is that the day we agreed to do it, my father told my mom that it was going to happen, but he wanted me to learn a lesson, even at that steep cost. I became a very different negotiator after that experience.
The beauty of this story comes almost a year later when a French Speaking person contacted our company in urgent search of some “ready to ship” towers. Can you guess what happened? My French helped seal that deal and sold the towers that have been collecting dust for a while. Twenty years later, that person and his company are still one of our best clients, one to whom we have sold many many times over. It all came really full circle, but it required conviction, resilience and faith that it all happens for a reason. My best client came around thanks to my worst client, and a business lesson that I will never forget: “When it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it probably IS a duck”.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Three years ago, I decided to be more intentional about not only the company branding but my own. What most of us don’t realize, is that we all have a personal brand, one that if built properly can help magnify the brand of the company you work (if is your own even better). In my personal case, and because I work for the family business, people used to see me, and think Towers. That’s it. But I had much more to offer. Towers and the family business are only one dimension of what I am, so before starting to get very active on social media, I did a month of introspection and deep inner work. I focused on finding: “what was my deeper WHY?, I discovered that I was passionate about three main things: 1) Innovation 2) Diversity and Inclusion, and 3) Workforce Development. Once I established what my “pillars” were, I targeted all my messaging in Social media platforms to be around those subjects and I tried to link it to our company and industry as much as I could. Shortly after I realized people were perceiving me as a thought leader in those subjects and started to receive invitations to speak about them. It all happened very organically once I took the time to really look inwards and uncovered what I wanted to talk about. The inner work is really very key in developing a solid audience and brand. Authenticity is the new super power, and once you show the world what you are really about, magic does happen.
During that process I also discovered that I like prompting change, helping others take leaps of faith, inspiring. That’s how my podcast: ” Back2basics- Reconnecting to the essence of you” was born. It became an outlet for me to satisfy that inner yearning, I didn’t quit my job to be a podcaster, I just found a way to incorporate that passion into my life, and I feel so much more satisfied and happy. The best part? The quality of the social media audience that I have been able to build is so much broader and diverse, combining my “day job” with my other passions, that if I had stuck to creating a message and a brand that related only to our products and services. People connect with people, and as such, showcasing your own humanity on your social media is a key component to success and to building an authentic personal and corporate brand.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leticialatino.com
- Instagram: @letilatino
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Back2BasicsPodcast
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leticia-latino-vansplunteren-795309/
- Twitter: @letilatino