Gloria Guevara


Gloria Guevara Manzo is a business executive who began her professional career at NCR Corporation in 1989 and worked in the IT industry in various roles, traveling to more than 20 countries throughout North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Biography

She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Anahuac University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Travel industry

Since 1995, Guevara has worked for the travel industry. She worked for Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Holding for 15 years in a variety of positions. She worked regionally within Latin America and the Caribbean, and later held global responsibilities as Vice President for Customer Solutions and Vendor Management. Gloria was also the CEO of Sabre Mexico, reporting to the board of directors of a joint venture between Aeromexico, Mexicana, and Sabre Holdings.

During Gloria’s time in the private sector, CNN Expansion recognized her as one of the most influential women in Mexico.

Cabinet position

In March 2010, President Calderon appointed Gloria as the Secretary of Tourism, a cabinet position that leads a sector that contributes to 9% of Mexico’s GDP and employs 2.5 million people directly. Two weeks after her appointment, she was also given the responsibility of overseeing the Mexico Tourism Board, where she repositioned the image of Mexico during economic, public health, and national security crises.

Under her leadership in this important Secretariat, the National Agreement for Tourism was created and signed in 2011. The agreement was an unprecedented initiative with a key strategic plan for the country that aligned the entire sector and the Mexican Federal Government; all Governors and Mexican states; Congress; Senators; Unions; Academia; and representatives from the Private Sector, including associations and chambers. This national agreement created the strong foundation in tourism that Mexico needed for the strong growth, and has been used as a model for other countries and as an example by United Nations World Tourism. She worked concurrently to reposition Mexico by launching its rebranding and PR campaign.

She received the Good Neighbor Award from the U.S.–Mexico Chamber of Commerce in 2012, and Virtuoso named the Mexico Tourism board as the best in the world the same year.

Currently she is Special Advisor on Government Affairs to the Harvard School of Public Health, a contributor to the World Economic Forum and part of the World Tourism Think Tank.

References