Natalia Delgado

  • Director, Cuba Capacity Building Project

Natalia Delgado's varied legal and business career includes acting as a senior executive of a public company, a board member of one of the largest transit systems in the world, and partner of a nationally recognized law firm. Delgado is known for her leadership skills, personal integrity, and ability to easily grasp business issues and achieve practical solutions to complex business problems.

For seven years, Delgado was a member of the five-person executive team of Huron Consulting Group Inc., participating in day-to-day business operations, charting business growth, investor relations, and public disclosure. In her role as a chief legal officer of Huron, Delgado created the legal and corporate governance structures necessary for the business to launch itself as a public company and to expand nationally and internationally. During her tenure, Huron grew to provide services to a variety of industries subject to diverse regulatory frameworks.

Delgado has also engaged in the private practice of law for almost 25 years as a corporate and securities lawyer, including as a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago. She handled a wide variety of transactions in the financial services, insurance, technology, real estate, defense, and retail industries. Her clients included The Mills Corporation, General Dynamics Corporation, the City of Chicago, LaSalle National Bank, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Fitchburg Gas & Electric Light Co., and the True Value Company.

She served for five years on the board of the Chicago Transit Authority with a workforce of more than 12,000 employees. At the transit authority, she headed the budget and procurement committees. She also implemented a “managing by objectives” program in order to increase accountability and reduce bureaucracy within the agency.

Delgado directs the Cuba Capacity Building Project at Columbia Law School, an initiative designed to foster the development of the legal institutions necessary for Cuba to transition to a more market-based economy. She has served on several boards, including the National Women's Law Center, the Young Women's Leadership Charter School of Chicago, and the Appleseed Foundation.

Ms. Delgado, a Cuban-born American, graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and Oberlin College.