Ella Fontanals-Cisneros
"Fontanals-Cisneros didn’t start collecting in earnest until 1999, when, after years of devoting herself to philanthropy, she says, “I decided to do something for myself.” She began by buying up the work of predominantly Latin American artists including Jesús Rafael Soto and Rufino Tamayo. In 2002 she founded the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation...
"The house-flipping phase lasted for five years before she returned to Caracas to be with Oswaldo and devote herself to philanthropy. After the director of a charity she founded ran off with the organization’s money, she embarked on what she describes as a spiritual quest with a guru. “One day, in 1989, I heard in my meditation that I should travel to Jackson Hole,” she says. “I didn’t know where it was, but I heard that people would be waiting there to help me start a foundation. So I took my plane and just went.” In Wyoming she met with local officials and set up the Together Foundation, an international conflict-resolution center that relied heavily on new computer technologies, which led her to get involved with a software company. “I started trying to build the Internet!” she says, sounding like a Latina Al Gore on uppers. “But then AOL came out first.”" Married to Guido Albi Marini , and formerly married to Oswaldo Cisneros . [1]
From 2002: " Mrs. Cisneros actively participated in the United Nations Conference on Small Island Developing States as a member of the Eminent Citizens Group. She acted as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of Habitat II, the United Nations City Summit, held in Istanbul in 1996. Mrs. Cisneros regularly participates worldwide as a presenter and panelist on subjects ranging from the imperatives of on-line information standards to strategies for mobilizing community-based volunteerism and citizen-action groups. Mrs. Cisneros serves on a variety of non-profit boards.In the United States, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of International Education. In Venezuela, her board positions include the International Women’s Forum, Fundacion Antonio Cisneros Bermudez, Fundacion Together de Venezuela, and Mi Compromiso (My Commitment), These foundations are dedicated to bettering the social conditions in Venezuela. Mrs. Cisneros has more than 20 years experience leading successful businesses within the United States and South America. Ella Cisneros Communications (ECC) is a holding company, which controls and directs a variety of for-profit and non-profit communications related companies operating in the United States and Latin America." [2]
- Director (1998), Institute for Sustainable Communities
