carlosfernandoperezbotero
APPLICATION / HEAD OF BRAND AND CREATIVE · MISTRAL
Frontier intelligence.
Open, and close to people.
Make the frontier personal, open, and ownable.
Mistral is building a different relationship between people and this technology: access, adaptability, ownership, control. The job is making that position unmistakable on every surface, model release to keynote to hiring page: the first frontier AI brand that feels personal, open, and ownable. What cannot be copied is already here: frontier science and real joy in the visual world. Nothing needs reinventing. It needs augmenting, and never sanding away.
I do one thing well: I take powerful, technically complex products and turn them into globally resonant brands without sanding away what made them special. For Apple, the world's most advanced technology told as simple, emotional stories. For Samsung, one brand across dozens of markets and a relentless launch calendar. For Airbnb, the in-house team I built behind expansion across five regions, and the launches that introduced Services and the reimagined Experiences. Your founders trained inside the American giants and came home to build the answer; I recognize that move because it is my own.
On AI, I will be as straight with you as I am with my own team: nobody has automated a creative department, and whoever claims otherwise is selling something. We use the tools where they genuinely help, and judgment stays human. Trust will be won by the company that tells the truth about what the technology cannot yet do; that is brand behavior, not a slogan.
One honest note: my home is brand and creative leadership, not media plans and demand generation, and I partner well with those who own them. A personal note, because it is true: two years at Publicis in New York, a French company, and I loved it. My son studies at a French school, we are in France twice a year, and Paris is my family's long-term plan. New York was home for almost two decades, and I will be happy to go back.
Find the truth.Make it beautiful.Put it in the world.
Sincerely,
Carlos
Four questions. One answer.
Q1: WHAT DOES A FRONTIER AI COMPANY LOOK AND FEEL LIKE?
Like a place people can enter. Serious about the science, warm in the voice, confident enough to be fun, and unmistakably not another American lab. Your tensions, playful and formidable, French and global, are not problems to resolve. They are the brand.
Q2: HOW DO WE MAKE TECHNICAL INNOVATION RESONATE GLOBALLY?
The work that travels is the work that is true where it lands. That takes understanding, not adaptation. At Apple I took iPhone and iPad into Latin America, a region the brand had never spoken to in its own voice, and kept every story unmistakably Apple. At Samsung, one brand held across dozens of markets. At Airbnb, the five regions I lead today.
Q3: HOW DO WE BUILD TRUST AT SCALE?
You answered this before you had a brand team: your first frontier model arrived as a bare magnet link, no launch film, no waitlist, just the weights, handed over. Openness is trust in its most practical form. My job is keeping that nerve legible at global scale.
Q4: DEVELOPERS LOVE, ENTERPRISES TRUST, TALENT JOINS?
One belief, heard differently in every seat: enterprises hear control, developers hear invitation, talent hears mission, the world hears personality. And I would augment the fun. It is the rarest asset in this category, and nobody doubles down on joy while bluffing.
Serious about the mission. Clear about the technology. Open in the invitation. Playful in the expression.
You build small models that outperform giants.
I build small teams that do.
2018–2019 · TBWA\MEDIA ARTS LAB
Built for Apple.
A creative hub for Latin America, built from zero, embedded with Apple's org.
2022–2023 · OGILVY, FOR SAMSUNG
Samsung, global.
One coherent brand across dozens of markets and a relentless launch calendar.
2023–NOW · AIRBNB
Airbnb, five regions.
The team behind expansion across five regions, and the launches of Services and Experiences.
THE FULL RECORD, IN ORDER
Eight capabilities. One direction.
Loved brands, led from inside
Airbnb, Apple, Samsung, served at the highest level
Teams built and developed
From zero at Apple's LATAM hub and at Airbnb; a global team of 50+ for Samsung
Global by lived experience
EMEA, North America, APAC, LATAM, led daily, in two languages
Storytelling and editorial instincts
25 years of complex products told as stories people remember
Launches turned into moments
Galaxy flagships; Services and the reimagined Experiences
Founder-level partnership
Seoul daily; Airbnb's executive team; for Apple, clients from Miami to Cupertino and Media Arts Lab in L.A.
AI: real practice, honest limits
Daily use of what genuinely helps; the truth about limits
High bar, low ego, fun
Your words and mine; ask any team I have led
SELECTED BRANDS
Airbnb · Apple · Samsung · HPE · Nike · Coke
LANGUAGES
English and Spanish, native and bilingual
EDUCATION
Politécnico Grancolombiano, Bachelor's, Marketing & Advertising
AUSTIN, TX · RELOCATING TO NEW YORK
Find the truth.Make it beautiful.Put it in the world.