Biography
José Villa is the founder and President of Sensis, a cross-cultural marketing agency driving behavior change. Jose founded Sensis as a Web development firm in 1998, and one of the first agencies focused on the multicultural digital market. He has since grown Sensis into a full-service advertising agency with over $25 million in revenue and a national footprint including offices in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Atlanta, GA, and Austin, TX. Sensis clients include UCLA Extension, the CDC, E-Verify, AltaMed, Baxter, Sempra Energy, and WGBH. Jose has more than 18 years of experience in advertising, digital communications and multicultural marketing across a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, higher education, CPG, beverage, pay TV, government and non-profits. He has pioneered a new “cross-cultural” approach to reaching the diverse American mainstream and been on the forefront of the debate regarding the “total market approach.” His thought provoking analyses and vision of advertising at the intersection of technology and culture are published regularly on MediaPost, AdAge, HispanicAd.com, and his blog ThinkMulticultural.com. Jose is also a regular speaker at advertising and digital conferences such as SXSW, MediaPost OMMA, Hispanicize, and Multicultural Retail 360.A thought leader in cross-cultural and digital advertising, Jose has co-authored innovative research on the Hispanic digital market, including the “Hispanic Persona Project” and the “Hispanic Mobile Report.” Jose also co-authored a ground-breaking 5-part study into multicultural Millennials entitled the “Hispanic Millennial Project.” Most recently, Jose is the co-author of the innovative new study on cross-cultural youth entitled the “We are Gen Z” Report. José is a national board member of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a board member of LAUP and an Advisory Board Member for UCLA Extension. Jose has an Economics degree from Harvard University and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.