Luis Cortes

Thanks to his expertise in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, Luis Cortes guides teams toward awareness that leads to insights.

When you’ve lived on a cruise ship, hosted a national convention, and helped direct an acclaimed comedy show involving Bigfoot, it might be tempting to go on autopilot. But Luis Cortes is too busy training for his first marathon and bringing his playful-meets-thoughtful training style to FutureThink’s audiences around the world.

Aside from co-parenting his beloved Pitbull and three-legged Lab, one of his most rewarding roles has been with the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). The American nonprofit aims to promote Latino leadership in S.T.E.M. fields and Luis has served as host for SHPE’s National Convention.

In Chicago, he previously served as IDEA Director at ComedySportz Chicago, and as the co-chair for iO Theater’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Advisory Council. As a teacher with The Second City’s Conservatory Program in Chicago, Luis has guided students through the process of creating their first comedy revue shows.

When he isn’t providing D&I consultations for small businesses and black box theaters in his community, you’ll find Luis binging “Taskmaster,” the British TV panel show with absurd celebrity challenges. On weekends, Luis and his wife, Elisa, can be found walking their dogs or eating their way through the many family-owned Russian and Latinx restaurants in their Belmont Cragin neighborhood of Chicago.