Cristóbal Escalona

Founder, Atelier Elpis · Strategy, institution building and facilitation · Santiago, Chile · Spanish and English (native)

Profile

Senior operator with more than ten years building organizations, partnerships and new ventures at the intersection of climate, technology and social impact in Latin America. I have built a foundation from a blank page along with its flagship program, acting as the bridge between board, funders, government and communities. I founded and led an innovation lab that explored and scaled solutions for disaster risk reduction and adaptation, rural tourism, and land restoration and carbon, taking one of them to adoption by national government agencies. I bring a venture-building lens, business development experience with international clients (WWF, Pew, GEF) and more than US$7M raised in funding. I specialize in building governance, ESG, risk management and compliance from scratch, and in public-private coordination and participatory processes that strengthen people's agency.

Experience

Founder and Director, Atelier Elpis

Santiago, Chile · Aug 2026 – present

Creative studio and consultancy working on physical and digital devices, games and interactive art, and social interventions. Independent consulting since August 2026; incorporated as Atelier Elpis SpA in September 2026.

• Strategic planning and organizational design for Fundación Santuario del Maipo, a new foundation focused on regeneration in the Cajón del Maipo: facilitated three working sessions on governance, operations and organization, with a full facilitation plan and work plan.

• Mapped legal vehicles and financing options for Instituto Inglés de Rancagua, a school: institutional and legal diagnosis, financial analysis, a benchmark of comparable schools, a public funding review and a hypothetical investment model.

• With Nativa Capital Studio, consulting on the structuring of a Project Finance for Permanence conservation fund for Chile with The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and WWF.

General Manager (founding executive), Fundación Acción Colectiva

Santiago, Chile · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026

• Secured a US$6.4M, five-year funding agreement with BHP Foundation for Norte Inspira, a territorial development program with climate-resilience and heritage pillars across 12 communes in four regions of northern Chile, with 3,600+ direct beneficiaries and a target of at least US$6M in public-private co-investment by 2030.

• Built the organization's corporate governance from scratch: board roles and powers, a delegation-of-authority matrix, an ESG policy framework (environmental management, human rights, Indigenous peoples, safeguarding, data protection, anti-corruption) aligned with GRI and SASB standards, and statutory filings under Chile's donations law (Law 21,440).

• Designed the enterprise risk management system: a risk and controls matrix aligned with the Crime Prevention Model required by Chile's corporate criminal liability law (Law 20,393), and a mandatory due-diligence process for every vendor and strategic partner before contract signature.

• Renewed the organization's US Equivalency Determination, required for US foundations to fund foreign nonprofits.

• Managed a US$1.2M annual budget with a direct team of four and a subcontractor network with individual contracts of up to CLP 300M (about US$315K); selected and implemented the ERP and financial controls, leading the finance team through the transition.

• Managed the funder relationship: milestone reporting, impact reports under tight deadlines, and scope and timeline negotiation anchored in the grant agreement, keeping the relationship constructive.

• Led competitive selection of strategic partners in climate and heritage: a comparative evaluation of four institutions, board-ready dossiers with budget scenarios of CLP 200–400M (about US$210–420K), a due-diligence checklist and reputational-risk analysis; structured a five-year partnership proposal of CLP 198M (about US$210K) with Southbridge, a national insurer.

• Directed a network of five service providers with payments tied to contract milestones, and the roadmap for the program's digital platform, developed in-house to avoid external agency costs.

• Opened institutional relationships with FAO Chile, SUBDERE (Chile's national regional-development agency), municipal governments and regional universities.

• Reported to and managed the Board; led an orderly leadership transition with a fully documented institutional handover, formally received by the board president.

Director, Balloon Lab (innovation, technology and new business), Balloon Latam

Santiago, Chile · Feb 2022 – Aug 2025

• Founded and led the company's innovation and new-business unit under a self-funding mandate, managing a portfolio in disaster risk reduction, rural tourism, and land restoration and carbon; scaled what validated and shut down early what didn't.

• Disaster risk reduction and adaptation: piloted community risk mapping in Hualaihué, northern Patagonia, adapting a UN methodology; the pilot surfaced 87 community-identified risks absent from official maps.

• Scaled that line from a local pilot to adoption by national agencies: designed Redes Resilientes, a community-resilience program with FOSIS (Chile's social investment agency) and SENAPRED (its national disaster agency) for hard-to-reach communities with little state presence, implemented in several communes. Results were published as a policy paper by CIGIDEN, Chile's national disaster research center.

• Designed and ran deliberative processes bringing together residents, the Navy, firefighters, police, Indigenous communities and municipalities.

• Co-created the Communal Resilience Index (IRC), a quantitative tool measuring a municipality's risk-management capacity across five dimensions (regulation, infrastructure, equipment, communications and people), applied in 17 communes from Antofagasta to Tortel and presented on CNN Chile and at the OECD.

• Generated about CLP 90M (about US$95K) in consulting revenue on the design of financial mechanisms: a GEF marine-coastal governance program (contract through WWF) and two consultancies for Pew's Chilean Patagonia program that fed into Pew's new Chile strategy.

• Wrote the approved proposal for a US$500K investment from Argidius, a Swiss philanthropic fund, for the company's expansion into Guatemala (2025).

• Designed and ran with WWF an entrepreneurship training and certification program for 20 people around a marine protected area (Ecoguardianes of Raúl Marín Balmaceda), built around the blue economy.

• Structured the technical and financial pre-scoping of a 5,000-hectare carbon credit project in La Araucanía, contracting the international firm EBP for the modelling.

• Technology for rural tourism: designed Rural App, a digital platform connecting rural entrepreneurs with visitors, validated with national tourism stakeholders and submitted for funding.

• Led international academic exchanges with SMU Cox School of Business and Ivey Business School (Canada), both on disaster risk management.

• Also Director of Social Innovation (Mar – Oct 2022): started the company's impact evaluation with J-PAL (MIT) and kept its entrepreneurship research and training programs running.

Business Specialist, güil Mobility Ventures

Corporate venture capital and venture building (Kaufmann family) · Santiago, Chile · Jan 2021 – Jan 2022

• Developed value propositions and validation tests so each venture could pass the investment gates of the family office and its fund, including investment theses, pitches and B2B and B2C business models in mobility: gender-lens solutions, customs and airport processes, and storage-as-a-service.

• Worked with internal teams modelling cash flows, runway, impact and commercial development, alongside teams from güil-ecosystem startups such as Awto, Kupos, eTrans and Getback.

• Built the venture studio's knowledge-management system, standardizing how learnings were captured and reused across projects.

Senior Associate, Chilean Patagonia Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Santiago, Chile · Jun 2020 – Jan 2021

• Ran operations for a multi-stakeholder US$15M conservation program: budget, expenditure projections, compliance and 20+ contracts (the largest a US$2M grant to WWF), setting measurable goals, timelines and contract monitoring.

• Served as liaison with the institution's legal team on Chilean and US regulations applicable to the program.

• Coordinated and produced the reporting for the program's mid-term evaluation, which it passed; contributed to donor proposals with the philanthropic partnerships team and facilitated internal research review and approval processes.

• Represented the institution in external meetings and activities with contractors, grantees and strategic partners.

Creative Director, and Balloon Lead for the Route of the Parks Fund, Balloon Latam

Santiago, Chile · Jan 2017 – Feb 2020

Lead, Route of the Parks Fund: Protecting Patagonia Forever (Apr 2019 – Feb 2020)

• Coordinated and co-developed, with CONAF (Chile's forestry and protected-areas service) and Pew, the community-development component of the US$80M Project Finance for Permanence fund led by the Government of Chile with Tompkins Conservation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

• The fund protects the Route of the Parks, a 2,700 km network of national parks between Puerto Montt and Cape Horn, with matching investment in its gateway communities; managed high-level counterparts in the public-private coalition alongside the company's executive director.

• Analyzed and applied international conservation-planning standards (Open Standards) to integrate conservation and community development at national scale.

Creative Director (Jan 2017 – Apr 2019)

• Helped raise CLP 300M+ (about US$315K+) through national and international proposals, and produced impact reports, assessments and territorial plans for clients and funders.

• Co-led organizational-development projects and consultancies with Ashoka, B Lab (the company was named “Best For The World” in 2021 and 2023) and Roots of Impact; led processes with Columbia University, including Theories of Change.

• Created the company's corporate brand and directed its visual and communications development (institutional materials, campaigns and programs); produced large-scale convening events.

• Created and facilitated entrepreneurship and innovation methods for rural entrepreneurs, based on human-centered design and Lean.

Earlier experience

Entrepreneurship, strategic design and teaching · Santiago, Chile · 2013 – 2019

• Proyecto RE, Co-founder (2017–2019): venture selected for the first cohort of Fundación Mustakis's Hub (2017); designed, launched and sold Premisas, a board game based on polysyllogisms to develop critical thinking, and ran Philosophy for Children workshops with original kits and audiovisual materials.

• EmpreDiem, Strategic Designer (2016): visual and communications development of the program portfolio, plus methodological design and facilitation of entrepreneurship initiatives.

• Brand design: professional internship at Grupo Formax (Frontman agency, 2016) and brand redesign for Café del Museo (2015–2016).

• Universidad del Pacífico, Teaching Assistant (2013–2014): Color and Drawing.

Speaking and representation

• OECD Rural Development Conference, Rio de Janeiro, 2025: invited panelist on harnessing AI for rural innovation.

• OECD international webinar, “The Path to Economic Resilience in Rural Areas”, 2024.

• CNN Chile / Futuro360, 2025: interview on the Communal Resilience Index.

• CIGIDEN policy paper, 2024–2025: co-author of the prologue, and co-host of the launch with SENAPRED and ONG FIMA at Chile's National History Museum, Santiago.

• COES International Conference, “The Future of Social Mobility”, 2025: round-table host.

• The Rural Road to Health podcast: guest, on rural resilience.

Advisory boards

• Environmental Advisory Council, Santiago Metropolitan Regional Government (2026).

• Advisory Council, Observa Ciudadanía, a civic watchdog (2024).

• Ethics Committee, Sistema B Chile, the governance body of Chile's B Corp community (2019–2020).

Networks and fellowships

• Senior Fellow, Melton Foundation: a global network of 600+ leaders; selected through the Global Solvers Accelerator (2025).

• Fellow, The League of Intrapreneurs (2026).

Education

• Diploma in Impact Investing, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (2021), including sessions with funds and investors such as Kayyak Ventures.

• Diploma in Design, Innovation and Technology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (2020–2021).

• BA in Design and Visual Communication, Universidad del Pacífico (2012–2016).

• Additional training: negotiation and conflict resolution; collaborative governance (sociocracy); human research ethics (certification); BlueDot Impact, Future of AI course (2026); Centre for Effective Altruism, Career Bootcamp (2026).

Skills

• Strategic leadership and board management; operating rhythm (plans with owners, executive briefs and follow-through).

• Fundraising, impact investing and funder relations; business development, partnerships and new markets.

• Corporate governance, enterprise risk management and compliance; ESG and sustainability reporting (GRI, SASB); SDGs, B Corps; monitoring and evaluation.

• Financial, administrative and contract management; due diligence.

• Climate: adaptation, disaster risk reduction, restoration and carbon.

• Venture building and startup evaluation.

• Innovation management, design thinking and facilitation (Lean, sociocracy); participatory and deliberative process design.

• Brand, visual communication and game design.

• Advanced use of AI tools in daily work.

Languages

Spanish (native) · English (native) · Japanese (basic)

linkedin.com/in/cristobalescalonareyes