Charly joined Amp Up NYC in February 2014 as its director, and was named Little Kids Rock’s Chief Operating Officer in June 2014. Charly brings over twenty years of experience in team leadership, operational management, marketing and youth development to Amp Up NYC. Most recently, prior to joining Amp Up NYC, Charly served as the Chief Operating Officer at America SCORES, a nonprofit organization that uses sports and creative expression to engage, empower and inspire thousands of at-risk public school youth in low income communities around the country. Prior to America SCORES he served as a Vice President at LeadDog Marketing Group, an award-winning marketing company he helped found in 1999. At LeadDog, he shepherded the infrastructural development of the company as it quickly grew in revenue, clients, services and employees, directing various operational functions along with supervising both administrative and account teams. While at LeadDog, Charly also served as an adjunct professor at NYU. Before moving to New York in 2000, Charly was the Director of Operations at a promotion agency in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Producer for the 1996 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games and other major sporting events, including the MLB All-Star Game. His professional career began in the area of informal education, serving as a regional Assistant Director, Senior Advisor and Program Director for a national Jewish youth organization, where Charly primarily worked with elementary school and high school students.

As a first-generation Cuban-American, Charly’s native language is Spanish. He began playing piano with a private Cuban teacher at the age of five and later, in public school, learned to play the drums. As an adult he focused on Latin percussion, and currently plays timbales in a Latin Soul band and in his own Latin Jazz quintet. He has studied music theory, solfege and performance in private lessons, school settings, rehearsals and workshops (including at the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Spanish Harlem, a Berklee City Music Network member).