35 Facts About Pilar O'Leary

Pilar Frank O'Leary is an international business consultant, former lawyer, corporate executive and not-for-profit director.

Pilar O'Leary is Founder and President of PFO Advisory Group, which primarily advises institutions working with Latin America and Spain on policy and business development matters.

Pilar O'Leary resigned from her role with the Smithsonian after accusations she solicited personal gifts during her role there.

Pilar O'Leary co-produced the Showtime television documentary film, The Accordion Kings: The Story of Colombian Vallenato Music in collaboration with Colombian music artist Carlos Vives for the network's Smithsonian Networks channel.

In 2018, for her volunteer service to the country of Colombia, Pilar O'Leary was awarded the Order of San Felipe Arcangel by the government.

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Pilar O'Leary's mother, Irma Melo Frank, is a native of Bogota, Colombia and Senior Associate Dean for International Programs at Georgetown School of Medicine.

Pilar O'Leary grew up in a bilingual household with two younger brothers in McLean, Virginia.

Pilar O'Leary is fluent in English, Spanish and French and proficient in Portuguese and Italian.

Pilar O'Leary was selected to participate in the competitive United Nations summer internship program in the Office of the General Counsel of the UN in New York.

In 2000, Pilar O'Leary moved back to the Washington, DC area and went to work for Fannie Mae, initially as Associate General Counsel in the company's legal department before being recruited to serve as Director of Operating Initiatives and Special Assistant to the company's then Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Mudd.

In 2005, Pilar O'Leary was appointed Director of the Smithsonian Latino Center as a non-government employee, serving as senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Smithsonian on relations with US Latino and Latin American communities.

Pilar O'Leary was tasked with increasing the domestic and international public recognition, programming and fundraising for the Smithsonian Latino Center.

Pilar O'Leary established a new advisory board composed of high-level representatives from the corporate, academic and government sectors and raised millions of dollars to support the center's programs and operations.

Pilar O'Leary significantly augmented the Smithsonian Latino Center's relevance and public visibility with numerous Latino government, cultural and corporate organizations, including embassies and museums across the US, Latin America and Spain, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and Carlos Slim's foundation, among numerous others.

Pilar O'Leary strengthened the management and impact of the Latino Initiatives Pool, an annual federal allocation to support Smithsonian Latino programming.

Pilar O'Leary's staff worked with museum colleagues to create bilingual educational guides for such exhibitions and conducted considerable public outreach to increase Latino audience participation.

Pilar O'Leary established the Smithsonian Latino Center's Young Ambassadors Program, a national leadership initiative for Latino high school seniors which was ultimately recognized as a "Bright Spot in Hispanic Education" by the White House in 2015.

Pilar O'Leary supported and led the development of an interactive educational website as well as the first stages of a Latino Virtual Museum to highlight the Smithsonian's Latino and Latin American collections.

Pilar O'Leary co-produced the award-winning documentary film for Showtime Television : The Accordion Kings: The Story of Colombian Vallenato, featuring Grammy award-winning Latin recording artist Carlos Vives.

Pilar O'Leary has done outstanding work in enhancing the public outreach and visibility of the Smithsonian Latino Center.

Pilar O'Leary collaborated with Grammy Award-winning music producer Andres Levin and his not-for-profit Music Has No Enemies along with recording artist will.

Pilar O'Leary served as Talent Director of the Latino Inaugural Ball for President Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration which featured appearances and performances by Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Yerba Buena and others, many of whom Pilar O'Leary personally recruited.

Pilar O'Leary became involved with the Spanish Catholic Center of the Catholic Charities Foundation which supports local Latino immigrants and co-founded The Washington Ballet Latino Dance Fund, a program that provides scholarships to talented young dancers from Latin America as well as funding free dance programs at Washington DC area public schools in low-income minority neighborhoods.

Pilar O'Leary achieved positive coverage of the program in many media outlets including The Washington Post, CNN, Univision, Fox News, Telemundo and many other major media outlets.

In 2013, Pilar O'Leary began consulting for Facebook on its government engagement strategy in Colombia and across the Latin American region.

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Pilar O'Leary advised Facebook executives on a number of policy issues related to those markets and facilitated meetings with top government officials from Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

In 2014, Pilar O'Leary began advising the International Women's Media Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

Pilar O'Leary was tasked with leading the research and development of a proposal to expand IWMF's work into 5 countries in Latin America and along the US Mexico Border.

Pilar O'Leary led the development of several important partnerships for the organization in the Americas including many Latin American embassies, Facebook, Instagram, Mashable, 21st Century Fox, Univision, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, Revista Semana and others.

In 2016 Pilar O'Leary formally created the PFO Advisory Group and began consulting full-time, advising entities working with Latin America.

Pilar O'Leary is involved in a number of charitable organizations supporting the arts, education and Latino causes domestically and internationally.

Pilar O'Leary previously served on the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and Transformer as well as the Women's Committee of the Washington Ballet.

Pilar O'Leary has been a speaker on Latino political and cultural issues and has been recognized in numerous news publications for her work.

Pilar O'Leary has spoken at The White House, the Girls Scouts of America, the US State Department and other major organizations.

Pilar O'Leary was the 2008 commencement speaker for the New World School of the Arts in Miami.