Roman Cepeda

Managing Director, COO

Román combines engineering, strategy, and multinational management to develop innovations and negotiate solutions.  He serves as ManagingDirector and COO of XPV.

He served over 18 years spanningEast Asia and Latin America at Samsung Electronics, a global top 5 brand, most recently as a Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.  He led Samsung to dominate both the TV and mobile phone segments in Latin America, and aspart of the Global Strategy Group, was a thought leader in global innovation and competitive strategy.  

With over 25 years of international business experience in automotive and electronics sectors, he is culturally attuned to East Asia, North and South America, and has a differentiated communication skill that enables him to contribute thoughtfully.  Román is also a multi-lingual professional being fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese with proficiency in Korean,Japanese and French and loves to travel and immerse in other cultures.  His family shares his knack for multiple passports, with a Korean wife and daughter and a Brazilian son.

He majored in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and one of his early roles was as a Vehicle Engineer withFord and Mazda working in the US and Japan. His advanced degrees include an MA in East Asian Studies and Japanese from the Lauder Institute at Wharton / University of Pennsylvania, where he completed an MBA in Multinational Management.