Carlo M. Cuesta, Founder and Managing Partner

In the early 1990s, Carlo Cuesta began his career as a theatrical stage director and arts administrator founding the Playwrights’ Project and serving as producer and general manager of Shakespeare In The Park in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. In 1996, he was appointed executive director of the Playwrights’ Center, a national arts service organization based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul Minnesota. There he help grow the organization’s investment in artist fellowships and successfully led its capital campaign renovating an old Victorian church into a theater center for playwrights. In 2002, Carlo founded Creation In Common with Dana Gillespie (a playwright) and Padraic Lillis (a stage director) with the mission of strengthening communities through shared creativity. Today, he serves as the firm’s managing partner overseeing all consulting engagements.  Over the last 20 years, Creation In Common has delivered strategic solutions that have helped people across all sectors of the nonprofit field more effectively lead and create together. During this time, he became an instructor at the University of Minnesota teaching in its graduate art and cultural leadership program. In addition, Carlo conducts keynotes and workshops for a variety of groups around the country including Association of Fundraising Professionals, Minnesota Council for Nonprofits, and Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence and his articles on nonprofit branding have been featured in the Nonprofit Quarterly. He holds a MBA from the University of St. Thomas and a BFA from Emerson College. Though he is a New Yorker at heart– where he grew up; he is proud to be a Minnesotan– where he today lives with his wife Dana and daughter Isabella.