A journey from Mexico to the UK with Teneo

Roberto Cabral Duran is making the most of working in Teneo’s diverse London office as part of an inclusive global company.

My career has been a journey – I have been with Teneo in the London office for two years and it has been flying by – but it started at home in Mexico. After I graduated with a degree in economics from Universidad Anáhuac, I worked for Reuters in Mexico as a client specialist in government and academia. Then I spent almost five years working in Mexican politics for the country’s main opposition party, which was an amazing and interesting time of my life.

I did a lot of external engagement work for the party, interacting with different communities across Mexico and university groups. We organised the party’s first-ever conference for agriculture, where thousands of young Mexican farmers joined to speak about their issues and challenges. Working on a presidential campaign, including research, policy writing and campaign strategy, was an incredible experience too.

When the party didn’t win the election, it made me start to assess what path I wanted to take for the next stage of my career. I always wanted to live abroad – the US is a great place to work and study, but it’s very close to Mexico culturally, and I wanted to expand my horizons a bit more. So, I did my Masters in Public Policy at University College London (UCL). After I graduated, I undertook research in policy responses to Covid-19, including Spain’s response to the pandemic, before I applied for a consultancy position at Teneo’s London office.

I was keen to try life in a consulting firm, so it was a great opportunity to get the job at Teneo working in the political practice with a strong focus on crisis management. In the two years since I started with Teneo, I have moved to the risk practice, where I am now working as a vice president for our clients in the EMEA region.

Most days start quite early for me – between 7am and 8am, I like to get a sense of the news and anything major that’s going on in the world and catch up with clients in the Middle East and Asia, because they’re already awake. I like working in the office and try to do three or four days a week there. The work is varied – we do a lot of writing for clients, such as reports and insights, as well as plenty of meetings with clients and colleagues.

In terms of diversity, it has been really interesting working for Teneo in the London office. I am only one of a few Hispanic people here, but my colleagues are really interested in my culture and the traditions in Mexico. People from all over the world work here and we have an excellent multicultural employee resource group. This provides a great environment for people to share their stories, and for everyone to learn about different countries and cultures. There is no judgement or negativity – it is very cool. This company takes diversity very seriously.

Teneo is a global company. We do a lot of integrated projects where offices from across different markets work together, such as the London team working with colleagues in Dubai, Singapore and Paris.

I have about a year and a half left on my visa, but it can be renewed. As for what’s next for me, I would like to eventually live a bit closer to home. There are plenty of opportunities in Teneo’s US offices, including the head office in New York, which is really exciting. The American market is huge and dynamic. But for now, I am really enjoying living and working here, enjoying everything London has to offer.

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