Marcela Ronquillo Hinojosa

I started my career deeply rooted in philanthropy and contemporary art, which has been a major part of my life. I directed the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts and served on the boards of several museums, not only in the U.S. but in Mexico as well, including the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Museums and the Anthropology Museums in Mexico. I have dual citizenship in Mexico and the U.S., and I've been working in both countries throughout my career. About 12 to 15 years ago, I founded New Space Capital with a group of astrophysicists from MIT, Harvard, and Caltech. Living in South Padre Island, Texas, right where the gateway to Mars is being built at Starbase, I saw the shift when space went commercial with Elon Musk and others creating their own space companies. While I started consulting companies in the space industry, most of my clients became Earth-related companies trying to save the planet. New Space Capital evolved into consulting big companies and airports on developing sustainable ecosystems for waste management and new energies like hydrogen. Two to three years ago, I met one of my mentors and we started Earth Carbon with Rice University, a carbon credit company that works as a mechanism to balance contaminating companies while sequestering carbon to help humanity. I also lead the Rio Grande Valley Philanthropy Foundation, which focuses on STEM education and recently hosted an event with 5,500 kids from local school districts. I previously directed EarthX Latin America and now serve on its advisory board. As a rancher and agriculture professional myself, I bring authentic credibility when working with landowners on carbon credit development plans, helping them preserve their legacy while contributing to planetary conservation.