Hugo M. Bretón, Principal
Hugo is an entrepreneur, project manager and executive, with experience as a freelance business writer and business consultant. His work has taken him from Mexico to the U.S., South Africa and the Dominican Republic. Throughout his career, he’s defined and implemented ambitious growth and efficiency strategies to drive change in Fortune 500 and emerging companies, using persuasive communication.
He graduated with honors from Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City as B.S. in Electromechanical Engineering in 2000. He holds an MBA and a Masters of Engineering in Manufacturing from the University of Michigan where he was part of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations.
Hugo began his career in McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, joining as business analyst and leaving as a tenured engagement manager. He served clients across many industry sectors, including consumer goods, retail, technology, financial services and energy. Topics he covered included operations diagnostics, lean manufacturing, supply chain redesign, cost and pricing analysis, and sales stimulation programs. A highlight of Hugo’s career with McKinsey was developing lean capabilities for a team of over 30 experts across seven production sites of a beverages company. He delivered focused training for capability development, as well as tracking of pilots and implementation.
After leaving McKinsey, he joined Banamex (Citibank) where he transformed the cross-selling direct marketing team, processes and performance management, delivering cross-channel campaigns. He also launched a new onboarding process for thousands of customers and centralized practices for managing prospect contacts. Hugo then joined the retail banking team, implementing multiple projects across more than 1,000 branches nationwide. He redesigned the customer service operating model for branches, call centers and electronic channels. He led the Teller technology platform evolution across Citi and enabled the deployment of global solutions, such as the credit card system.
As a freelancer, Hugo established his business writing practice targeting technology and service B2B firms. Additionally, he has been a resume writer and career coach, helping over 50 clients secure new professional opportunities. In 2014 he founded Octhopus, a startup to accelerate the entrepreneurial and freelancer economy in Latin America through delegation of marketing and productivity tasks.
Throughout his career, Hugo has been recognized as a caring coach and for his ability to develop capabilities with clients and in his own cross-functional teams. His training efforts have yielded productivity improvements of over 30%, cost reductions of over 10% and sales increases of up to 40%.
Hugo has a passion for writing. He develops short stories and works on screenplays and novels. He loves reading, movies and video games. Hugo lives in Mexico City and works with corporate and startup clients from around the globe.