From her earliest days, Mariana Atencio was drawn to people and stories. Combining them into a career in journalism was a natural fit. It was there Mariana honed an essential skill for her work – the ability to build trust and connection on purpose. That work gave Mariana a window to study human nature and organizations that led her to become an expert on trust.

The journey there wasn’t so simple. It began when she was mugged on a mountain trail in her native Caracas, Venezuela. As she knelt with a gun pressed to her forehead, she realized Caracas was a deteriorating place and she decided to pursue journalism in America.

Mariana knew America from spending summers there with her younger sister. Years later she spoke on the TEDx stage about those trips and the feeling of being an outsider struggling to adjust to a new country. That TEDx talk, “What Makes You Special,” catapulted Mariana onto the global stage and has been viewed more than 25 million times. It established her as a global authority on the power of authenticity as a trust multiplier.

A scholarship to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism School paved the way for Mariana’s 15-year career. She went on to become a hard-working news anchor for Univision and a national correspondent for NBC News, also filing for ABC. Her reporting has been honored with a Peabody Award, a Gracie Award, and three national Emmy nominations.

Mariana reported from environments where the stakes were high and lives were upended – anything from Cat 5 hurricanes to international conflict zones. “I would engage people at one of the worst times of their lives, and I needed to build trust fast so they understood I was trying to bring their story and an understanding of their situation to the viewers,” she said.

Mariana also interviewed top leaders from politics, culture, sports, and business – from Pope Francis and the King of Spain to icons like Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. Mariana translated their lessons into practical, leadership-ready frameworks. Today, she brings those tools to organizations and leadership teams, helping them close the Trust Gap so decisions move faster, collaboration strengthens, and execution becomes more consistent especially during periods of change.

The success of Mariana’s TEDx talk led her to expand her message in her bestselling book Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real, showing why “being real” is not a soft skill but the secret weapon in a world saturated with noise and AI-generated content.

Since leaving network news, Mariana has become a sought-after speaker on leadership, organizational culture, trust, and executive communication – as well as a host and moderator for high-profile gatherings, where she is known for guiding leaders in deep and candid conversations that deliver real insight. She is also the creator of The Trust Advantage newsletter.

Mariana is a frequent on-air analyst across major news networks, a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and serves on the board of the future Smithsonian American Latino Museum in Washington, D.C.