By Sara Melillo

The executive suite is one step closer for Latin American newspaper executive Carlos Marroquin of Guatemala, thanks to the 2004 Ernesto Galvis-Blanco Fellowship.

The fellowship, established to honor former Vanguardia Liberal General Manager Ernesto Galvis-Blanco of Colombia, enabled Marroquin to attend the Media Management Center's Advanced Executive Program (AEP), where he spent two-weeks learning leadership and management strategies for the newspaper industry.

Marroquin, 31, has worked as Assistant Production Manager for Diarios Modernos S.A. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, for the past four years.

"I think the whole idea of the Media Management program activity is to get all the managers to think like a CEO," he said. "For me, it's appealing to be a CEO someday and this gives me a wide perspective on what my company's doing."

The fellowship was named to honor Ernesto Galvis-Blanco, the young general manager of Vanguardia Liberal newspaper in Bucaramanga, Colombia, who was tragically killed at age 30 in an automobile accident June 19, 2002. The scholarship is awarded to a media executive under age 35 from Latin America and covers full-tuition, room and board for the seminar.

Marroquin said he learned of the fellowship when Galvis-Blanco's father spoke to a Latin American press association convention he attended last year. "He made a point that Latin American newspapers need young people with inspiration," Marroquin said.

And Marroquin was certainly inspired by the first two weeks of AEP. He said he's now armed with a number of ideas to try out during his month-long break between AEP sessions.

AEP is an intense education program for senior leaders in the news industries. During two two-week periods, participants learn strategy, marketing, leadership and journalism from a management perspective through rigorous financial, accounting and analytical courses. In addition, the program provides personal improvement programs on communication skills, negotiations and team building.

Marroquin said he will use cost-reduction strategies he learned during the first session to cut 10-20 percent in financial waste stemming from circulation over-forecasting. In addition, Marroquin said he will return to Evanston with financial reports from his company so he can review them with other AEP attendees and instructors. He also plans to visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when he returns to examine their printing processes.

MMC Managing Director Mike Smith said Marroquin’s tremendous dedication to his newspaper in Guatemala helped contribute to his selection as the Galvis-Blanco fellow.

“He (Marroquin) lives in a world that’s quite different from ours,” Smith said. “In December the printing plant where he works was threatened by the government and guards were shot, but he doesn’t allow that to prevent him from seeing through on his obligations to print the paper everyday.”

Smith said Marroquin’s outgoing nature has added greatly to the program thus far.

“He’s like a sponge because even despite the huge success of his company, he wants to make it world class,” Smith said. “He’s always trying to get more from the professors.”