EP 56: “Strategic Moves” featuring software marketing expert Diego Cepeda

For nearly 40 years of existence, Diego Cepeda has led a life of constant adventure.  He holds 4 nationalities all in one body -- two of them North America and two South America.  He has lived all over the place between way north Canada, the real OC - Orange County, New York, Memphis, Michigan, Chicago, and Texas!  It was during his middle school days Diego befriended Sean Thomas and had to settle on being the second best athlete, second best leader, and second best on the dance floor.  The friendship has continued for about thirty years, which seems like a really long time to have a friend.  As a kid he had visions of being an anthropologist, architect, astronaut, chemical engineer... and finally settled on hotel management by the time he graduated high school in Memphis, Tennessee.  To learn the ropes of the hospitality industry, Diego attended Michigan State University, learned what good basketball and hockey look like, and post-graduation went to start his career in Chicago.  Diego spent a nib above 9 years in Chi-Town mastering the world of food, starting with working as a room service manager serving celebrities at a top ranked hotel, The Peninsula Chicago, followed by being the head restaurant manager on a dining cruise ship , and then during the recession transitioning to doing market research for the food industry while starting up a European bakery with a truly unique French chef. Towards the end of three years of operating the bakery, Diego wrote a movie script about the stressed days as an entrepreneur intermingled with the chef's unbelievable life happenings. After selling his interest, Diego pursued business school. Diego had decided enough of an agitated hustling life, and time to go back to school to master marketing. Diego arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan in August 2012 as the start of life changing experience at the University of Michigan, where he pursued an MBA.  2 years later after gallivanting, throwing international parties, studying to the wee hours of the night at the dead silent law library, working in a casino in Santiago, Chile, and recruiting, Diego landed a marketing role at Dell Technologies in Austin, Texas.  At Dell, Diego met his wife Tong Zhang, and they live a happy Texan life with a mini dachshund Bebe.  For the last 7 years, Diego has hopped around from Dell to a few other software companies delving into all corners of marketing, and now is happily product marketing at Snow Software. To contact him directly email him at [email protected]