MIAMI, FL (MARCH 11, 2025) —The Latin Recording Academy® announced new serving Board members for the next three years. The new Trustees include Gabriel Abaroa, Jr., Pedro Blanco, multi-Latin GRAMMY® winner Gustavo Borner, Rafael Fernández, Jr., Dr. Chelsey Green, Jorge Hernández-Toraño, and Latin GRAMMY winner Berta Rojas, who will assume the great responsibility of helping chart the course of the organization and ensure its continued success.
Luis Álvarez-Fiol, Eduardo Bergallo, Paty Cantú, Alexandra Lioutikoff, Rico Love, Rafa Sardina and Manuel Tejada have reached their serving term limits and have retired from the Board.
“Our deepest gratitude to all our former Trustees! I am honored to give a warm welcome to a very talented and diverse group of professionals joining our Board,” said Eduardo Hütt, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Latin Recording Academy. “Each of our new Trustees has been serving the music community over the years in different roles, and I look forward to working closely with them as we continue to grow, evolve and strengthen our organization.”
The Board of Trustees, in partnership with CEO Manuel Abud and The Latin Academy Executive Team, works to uphold the organization's mission to nurture, celebrate, honor and elevate Latin music and its creators.
ABOUT THE NEWLY ELECTED TRUSTEES:
Gabriel Abaroa, Jr. is a seasoned entertainment executive, attorney and the first President Emeritus of The Latin Academy, where he also served as President/CEO from 2002 to 2021. Currently, Abaroa is a co-founder and CEO of Incurator LLC. Previously, he founded Legal Corp, a law firm providing services to multinational and independent record labels in México. He is a musician and record producer of children’s music, and was a professor of entertainment law for five years at the Anáhuac University. Abaroa is a dual member of the Recording Academy and The Latin Academy, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, serves as Board member of NALAC and is an international jury member for Premios Platino. He also participated in the Hispanic Committee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Pedro Blanco is the President and CEO of Blanco-Lorenz, a global content branding studio with 25 years of experience in the industry. Blanco and his company specialize in content development and packaging for streaming platforms, digital media, television and film, and have collaborated with leading companies such as HBO, Spotify, ViX, A+E Networks, Netflix, BBC, ESPN, FOX, Warner Bros. Television, TelevisaUnivision, NBCUniversal, Disney and Telemundo. He has also directed over 50 commercials and has been behind the lens for music videos featuring artists like Marc Anthony, Alejandro Sanz, Gente de Zona, and Fonseca. In addition, Blanco has served on the Latin GRAMMY TV Committee since 2003. His work has earned him honors from the Global Entertainment Marketing Academy, the Mark Awards and the Streamy Awards.
Gustavo Borner is a renowned producer and sound engineer, winner of six GRAMMYs® and 14 Latin GRAMMYs. With four decades of experience, he has worked on productions for artists such as Phil Collins, Santana, Juanes, Fito Páez, Vicente Fernández, Luis Miguel and Plácido Domingo, totaling over 40 million records sold. He has worked on all Latin MTV Unplugged productions since 2004 as an engineer, mixer or producer. Borner has also worked on television projects for the Latin GRAMMYs, MTV Music Awards and “Sep7imo Día”, the Cirque du Soleil show dedicated to Soda Stereo. His talent has left a mark on film soundtracks, including Birdman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad, and video games such as Spiderman. Borner has served The Latin Academy as an active member of the Circle of Producers and Engineers (CPI) since 2019. In 2018, he received the AES Fellowship Award for his achievements in audio production and worldwide dissemination of audio knowledge. Since 2000, he has operated Igloo Music in Burbank, California, a complex with 18 studios.
Rafael Fernández, Jr. is the Senior Vice President of State Public Policy and Industry Relations at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), where he directs government relations activities across all 50 U.S. states, while also serving as the Director of Latin Music. Previously, Fernández held the position of Vice President of Latin Music at the RIAA and has been with the organization for nearly 24 years. Under his leadership, the RIAA has been an active supporter of The Latin Academy and its Person of the Year Gala.
Dr. Chelsey Green is an artist, entrepreneur and educator who combines classical and contemporary to make music uniquely her own. Dr. Green and her ensemble, Chelsey Green and The Green Project, have released five studio projects, debuted on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart, and actively perform concerts, music festivals and educational workshops around the world. Dr. Green has appeared on stage and screen with artists of various genres, including Stevie Wonder, Lizzo, Samara Joy, The War and Treaty, Esperanza Spalding, Kirk Franklin and many more. Committed to music education, advocacy and youth arts access, Dr. Green is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Recording Academy.
Jorge Hernández-Toraño is an attorney specializing in general business law, corporate transactions and entertainment law. After 31 years as a partner at the international law firm Holland & Knight, Hernández-Toraño retired from full-time legal practice in 2024. Throughout his career, he has represented GRAMMY-winning artists and producers and negotiated recording contracts, publishing agreements, tours, radio and television appearances, and sponsorship deals. Hernández-Toraño served as counsel to The Latin Recording Academy® from 2002 through 2023. He has also represented major record labels and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Recognized in rankings such as The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers, Hernández-Toraño was named one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the U.S. entertainment industry by Hispanic Business Magazine. Committed to his community, he served as Trustee and General Counsel for United Way of Miami, is a past President and former Board Member of the Cuban American Bar Association and chaired the Miami Business Forum.
Berta Rojas is one of Latin America's most celebrated classical guitarists. With a career spanning over three decades, the Paraguay-born artist has released 14 studio albums and performed in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls. Her exceptional talent also led her to academia at Berklee College of Music, where she serves as an associate professor, becoming the first Latin American instructor invited to join the institution's guitar department. In 1992, Rojas earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a concentration in guitar from the Universidad de la República in Uruguay, and later completed a master’s in music, specializing in guitar, from Johns Hopkins University. She has received four Latin GRAMMY nominations and won Best Classical Music Album in 2022 for Legado. In 2023, she was honored with the National Order of Merit in the Gran Cruz, Paraguay's highest civil and military decoration.
The full list of the Latin Recording’s Board of Trustees can be found here.
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ABOUT THE LATIN RECORDING ACADEMY:
The Latin Recording Academy® is an international nonprofit dedicated to nurturing, celebrating, honoring, and elevating Latin music and its creators. Established as the global authority on Latin music, the membership-based organization composed of music professionals produces the annual Latin GRAMMY® Awards, The Biggest Night in Latin Music®, which honors excellence in the recording arts and sciences, in addition to providing educational and outreach programs for the music community through its Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation®. For more information, please visit LatinGRAMMY.com.
MEDIA CONTACT:
The Latin Recording Academy
Iveliesse Malavé
ive@grammy.com
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