Ed Flaherty

Ed Flaherty is an experienced entrepreneur. Having built successful enterprises with Rapid Oil Change, Applebee’s and many others. Today, he is the president of Lariat Companies and joins his passion for education and business acumen as the founder of the Flaherty Family Foundation. Almost 30 years ago, Flaherty started the foundation as a way to be thoughtful and intentional about how he gave back to humanity. Today, he and the Flaherty team support over 400 active scholars with an innovative mentoring and scholarship program.

Albert Santalo

Albert Santalo is a computer scientist, internet entrepreneur and angel investor with experience in high growth, venture-backed technology companies. His passion lies in designing products and building companies that disrupt traditional business models. He is an advocate for empowering entrepreneurs everywhere to build Silicon Valley technology companies in their local communities and was standing alongside President Obama at the signing of the Jobs Act in 2012. He is founder and CEO of 8base, a developer acceleration platform that provides web and mobile developers an on-demand enterprise software backend that includes serverless computing and a GraphQL engine. He is also a board member and/or advisor to various technology ventures and has raised in excess of $100 million for his companies.
 

He is the former chairman and CEO of CareCloud, a company he founded in 2009 that is working to modernize the antiquated healthcare industry with a cloud-based platform. CareCloud reached No. 127 on the 2014 Inc. 500 list and is backed by NVP, Intel Capital, First Data Corp. and others. Previously, he was founder and CEO of Avisena, a revenue cycle management company for physicians. Prior to Avisena, he worked at the Hackett Group / Answerthink (NASDAQ: HCKT), a management consulting firm, where he served as a director in the IT Transformation and Strategy Practice. During his tenure at Answerthink, he worked with Global 2000 companies, assisting them with technology strategy and transformation initiatives.
 

He is the lead inventor and holds a U.S. patent for Avisena’s A/R Management Methodology. He holds a MBA degree from Florida International University. He is the recipient of the FIU 2004 Charles E. Perry Visionary Award for outstanding Alumni and was inducted to the FIU Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2006. He also is an active board member of Goodwill Industries of South Florida.

Lloyd M. Sigel

Lloyd M. Sigel has more than 45 years of sales management, marketing management and senior management in specialty food and value added food product manufacturing businesses. Sigel previously served on several advisory boards, including The National Food Distributors Association, The American Meat Institute, The Sloan Endowed Chair for the Food Industry at the University of Minnesota, The Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship Carlson School of Management – University of Minnesota, The Deli Express Corporation, Naples Botanical Garden, The Steak-umm Corporation, Wisconsin Cheese Co., and Little Harbour Homeowners Association. He currently serves on Boards of the Ryan Companies USA, Boelter Companies of Milwaukee, WI, Quaker Bakery Brands of Appleton, WI, and Sofia’s Cookie Company of Minnesota. He is a strategic planning and business succession consultant. He is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization Gold and Chief Executives Organization International.

Joe Martin

Yosef (Joe) Martin is the founder and CEO of BoxyCharm, a Miami-based online subscription beauty service that he launched in 2013. With his unique vision, BoxyCharm has quickly become a major disruptor in the online subscription box industry as the first brand to deliver full-size products to its customers.

Under his leadership, BoxyCharm is growing 100% year-over-year with a steady growth of monthly subscribers and a powerful social presence. With a passion for digital marketing and product trends, Martin strengthened his business by applying advanced marketing strategies aimed at a modern consumer. He developed strong search engine optimization practices so he could better gather an audience; he created a proprietary tracking software so he could easily collect and interpret data directly from consumer behavior; and he amped up social media and influencer marketing campaigns to best engage with the BoxyCharm subscriber.

Today, the company has a community of more than 2.4 million followers across its social media platforms and enjoys more than 10 million monthly visitors online and is the #1 searched beauty box brand on YouTube. In 2018, Inc magazine named BoxyCharm as one of the fastest growing companies in the nation.

Martin has the entrepreneurial agility to quickly recognize whitespace opportunities in the marketplace and then creatively forge new opportunities to engage, excite, and inspire young, millennial consumers.

Born and raised in Israel, Martin moved to Miami where he studied and graduated from the College of Business at Florida International University with degrees in Business Administration and International Business. He currently lives in Miami with his family.

Chad Moss

Chad Moss earned a bachelor of Science in Construction Management from Florida International University in 1994. He began his career as an assistant field engineer, project engineer, project manager, and account manager in the South Florida construction industry. He joined his father at Moss and Associates, one of Florida’s largest private construction management companies, in the role of Executive Vice President. Chad’s responsibilities include managing multiple construction projects, preconstruction buyout, scheduling, contract management, billing, public relations, and new project pursuits.

His South Florida experience includes construction management of retail shopping centers, office buildings, churches and government construction. Recently, Chad completed five United States Immigration buildings for the General Service Administration, the federal agency that provides office space, goods and services to other federal agencies. Based on their vast experience with public infrastructure, Moss and Associates was chosen by the Florida Marlins to team up with Hunt to build the 37,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium in Miami’s Little Havana. Chad is an emerging leader and experienced professional with Leed certified projects (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

His firm has been ranked as the eighth largest Green Builder in the Southeast United States. He is proud of completing five Leed Silver projects in the past year. Chad has been recognized by his industry for excellence in his craft. He received the 2005 Construction Association of South Florida (CASF) Craftsmanship Award for the Publix Supermarket in North Miami. In 2006, the University of South Florida launched the Florida Sunshine State Safety Recognition Awards program. Since then, known for its industry-leading workplace safety programs at public-and-private-sector jobsites, Moss and Associates has received more awards than any Florida-based construction services firm.

In 2008 and 2009, Chad earned four of the prestigious awards for new Publix Supermarkets in Miami and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in West Palm Beach. Chad is a strong supporter of the FIU Construction Management Department. As such he serves on the Executive Committee of the Construction Management Department’s Industry Advisory Council. Chad’s network within the construction industry was a great advantage in leading the Department’s first industry Support Campaign in 2008-2009. In order to maintain the independent entity of the Department, FIU and the South Florida construction industry launched a campaign to raise a minimum of $250,000. As a member of the leadership team, Chad kicked off the campaign with the largest single gift.

Chad’s support of FIU extends to alumni activities as well. Moss and Associates hosted an FIU alumni day at company headquarters to promote and strengthen their relationship with FIU. With 21 alumni in their employ, Moss and Associates has hired more than 35 FIU Graduates over the last ten years.

Chad is actively involved in the Construction Association of South Florida and Associated Builders and Contractors.

Chetan N. Patel

Starting in 1988 with one molding press, Chetan has grown SMC Ltd. into an internationally recognized organization with over 2000 employees working in 11 global locations. Dedicated to single use medical devices, SMC Ltd. provides contract manufacturing for pharmaceutical, medical and diagnostics customers. Oval Medical Technologies, an SMC Ltd. Company, provides patient-centric single-use autoinjector platforms to the pharmaceutical industry. Chetan is a leader, entrepreneur, and visionary in the custom plastics manufacturing industry. His leadership in both technical and commercial activities has propelled the Company to a primary position in today’s marketplace and for future growth. Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering; Master of Science degree in Plastics Engineering, University Massachusetts Lowell; Advanced Studies, St. Thomas University.

Mark Crofton

Mark Crofton is global vice president and leads the Sales Coaching team at SAP SE. The team is responsible for programs that coach SAP sales executives and use data analytics to drive improved performance in the sales force.
 

Prior to his current role, Crofton led the SAP Academy for Sales, the flagship SAP sales training program for Early Talent. Previously, he was VP, sales, Latin America, launching and leading the mobility business in that region. He has also held positions in the North America Sales and Corporate Development organizations. His expertise is in leading sales teams and implementing go-to-market strategy with a focus on attaining revenue targets.
 

Prior to joining SAP, Crofton was a consultant with McKinsey & Company and worked at early-stage venture capital firms in the U.S. and Latin America. He began his career at Thomson Reuters with roles in client services, pre-sales and sales. When he left Thomson Reuters, Crofton was an account executive based in Argentina with territory responsibility for all of Latin America.
 

He has a BA from Tufts University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is fluent in Spanish and German and resides in Miami.

Jonathan Fichman

Jonathan Fichman has over 20 years of financial experience. He is currently a consultant, venture advisor, entrepreneur-in-residence and mentor for several South Florida Universities and startup accelerators. Advised, founded, exited, and/or managed 60 plus startups. Extensive international and domestic experience in diverse industries of public, private and non-profit companies, and serve as a board member of a NASDAQ listed company.

Joel Gandara

They say hard work pays off, and Joel Gandara is the definition of this statement. Born in Cuba, he came to the U.S. in 1980, arriving on an overcrowded boat full of hopes and dreams. Gandara attended Florida International University, earning a BA in international relations with a minor in business. He graduated through the Honors College, and finished with a 3.77 GPA.
 

Gandara grew up with a work ethic that was unmatched. While other kids were handed money, Gandara had to go out and earn it…and that he did, netting $30 a day by organizing his own arbitrage operation. As a fourth grader, he would buy things like stamps and trading cards, and sell them to his classmates.
 

The hustling never halted, in fact it did quite the opposite. After high school, Gandara worked up to 109 hours a week, leaving himself just enough time each day to eat and sleep. Joel went on to start his own apparel company, where he was able to turn a profit at flea markets and eventually on Ebay. His business, however, was not enough to count on, and Gandara found a steady job with Carnival Cruise Line. Gandara enjoyed his job and was on a clear path to a promising career, but felt that something was missing.
 

Gandara’s entrepreneurial spirit spoke to him, and he made a life-altering decision. He decided to go full steam ahead with his apparel company. The decision was risky without a steady income, but this never stopped him.
 

Gandara found a brand from Mexico, which offered him distributor pricing, which helped his bottom line tremendously. He would take samples to Las Vegas and began doing tradeshows, offering products to various companies. Over the years, Gandara built a following, and began increasing his sales. After years of selling other people’s brands, he successfully created his own underwear brand. Within his first 13 months of business, the brand retailed $1,000,000.
 

From that success, he and his growing team continued to create and develop more brands. Today, they own 21 men’s apparel brands. In October of 2013, Gandara made another impactful decision. His company began to acquire their ecommerce customers and competitors, and pivoted from a wholesale company to a direct to consumer brand. Now, forming his own capital company, Morro Capital has acquired 10 businesses to date and is in talks to procure more.
 

They say hard work pays off…and Gandara has proven that time and time again, ultimately with creating a company beyond what he could have ever imagined, whose inception was in a flea market! In 2013, Gandara received The Torch Award, his university’s highest alumni honor.
 

Gandara and his wife Jessica married in 2002, and together have four children and live in Weston Florida. After achieving semi-retirement, Gandara now has time to do the things he enjoys, such as lifting weights, running, and continuing his education.

Greg Gould

Greg Gould is an advisor to both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Currently, he is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Quarters, the largest co-living operator in the U.S. and Europe. He is also an advisor to iOV42, a blockchain startup based in Zurich, and advisors other startups, mostly in technology. He is also a board member for PowerMyLearning, a non-profit group that provides technology and best practices to schools, children and families to boost learning outcomes for middle schoolers. Previously, he was a member of the Senior Advisory Circle for Corestate Capital, an alternative investment management firm focused on real estate with approximately $30bn in assets under management. Greg started his career at Goldman Sachs and most recently was Managing Director and Co-Deputy of the Technology Research. During his time at Goldman, he led the research effort for the IPO’s of Accenture, MasterCard and Sabre, among others. He was ranked #1 on both the Institutional Investor and Greenwich investor surveys of sell side equity research analysts. After leaving Goldman, he helped build the internet business for the nationally-syndicated radio show, Car Talk. Greg is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Finance.

Kiomara Hidalgo

Kiomara Hidalgo has more than 20 years of experience in global human resources, strategic planning, talent development and change management at Fortune 500 companies, including the technology, healthcare, education and retail sectors. She is highly experienced in the personnel components of organizational development, mergers and acquisitions, training and development, state, federal and international regulations, mobility management and more. Kiomara received her Bachelors and Master degrees in the Science of Human Resource Management from Florida International University. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
 

Ray Juncosa

Ray is a Florida SBDC at FIU consultant with extensive background in banking, investments and real estate. He is specialized in access to capital and has trained many small and medium sized business owners in how to become bankable; by providing entrepreneurs with the bank's perspective in evaluating the bankability of a given business concern. His experience in financial analysis, lending, trade finance, factoring, residential and commercial real estate financing, provide a strong value added proposition for business owners seeking to build a strong capital structure and viable growth strategy. As a banking executive, he was awarded the BANKSIM award, one of the highest recognitions in bank management. He is a graduate of Barry University as well as the Graduate School of Banking at LSU.

Chris McKenney

Chris McKenney is founder and CEO of Mango Media, an innovative book publisher based in Miami. Ranked the No.1 Fastest Growing Publisher by Publishers Weekly for 2018 and a finalist for Publisher of the Year in 2019 by Digital Book World, Mango has the ambition and drive to reinvent book publishing. In his 30+ year career, McKenney has worked in corporate publishing as well as participated in two publishing technology-based start-ups. He earned a BA degree in history from Brown University and received an MBA degree from UCLA. He is married to the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor Mary Rajkumar and they have two children.

Raju Mohandas

Raju Mohandas is a Florida SBDC at FIU consultant with more than two decades of experience in financial management and business turnaround. In addition to helping businesses obtain growth capital, he is adept at developing business strategies, incubating new business models and building out channel programs. He has extensive expertise in operational and deployment strategies, including budgeting, job costing, strategic planning and project management. Raju graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor's in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Finance. Raju is an alumnus of the SBA Emerging Leaders Program and continues to provide support to other alumni to ensure their business growth and success.
 

In 1988 he started a company that was ranked in the top 100 nationwide in the industry. Raju has devoted the last 20 years to working with small businesses in facilitating financing for their business growth, as a consultant for their sales/marketing and operations, and as a turnaround professional. He has successfully restructured and helped small businesses obtain capital for their assets and operational needs. As the founder of BridgePoint Financial Group/BridgePoint Investments he has been able to secure capital for SME to ensure the growth and sustainability of their business. He has been involved in building the organization internally from sales, operations, financial structure, personnel, and marketing to ensure the business scalability.

Gabriel E. Montoya

Gabriel E. Montoya is currently CEO of Dvdendo, an automated savings and investment platform serving the U.S. Hispanic and Latin Americans markets, providing access to well-diversified portfolios with very low minimums to inexperienced or first-time investors.
 

Previously, Montoya was chief business development officer at OpenEnglish, the premier online English school in the Americas, where he remains as an advisor and investor. Before that, he was co-founder and CEO of NextU the leading Latin American online educational platform focused on teaching the digital technology skills most sought after by employers.
 

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Montoya was senior vice president and chief investment officer of the Cisneros Group of Companies, where he was responsible for the Cisneros Family Office. Montoya also held many other senior positions during his 20-year tenure at the Cisneros Group, including leading roles in corporate strategy, operations, corporate finance and M&A transactions. Montoya was also president of the London International Bank & Trust.
 

Montoya has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Miami Science Museum, member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Perez Art Museum of Miami, member of the Board of Trustees of St. Philip’s Episcopal School in Coral Gables, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Miami Science Barge.
 

Mr. Montoya has a BS degree in systems engineering from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, and earned a MBA degree from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela.

Ricardo Newark

Ricardo Newark is Newstrop Consulting founder and president. Newstrop Consulting delivers integrated and customized solutions to growth, profitability and cash flow issues, bringing the “know how” of large enterprises to medium and small -sized businesses. In addition, Newark is a part time consultant with the Miami Small Business Development Center, an arm of the U.S. Government Small Business Administration.
 

Newark has a successful track record in multinational companies with a varied experience across geographies, including the U.S., Europe, Latin America, India, Russia, China, Japan, the Middle East and Africa.. During his extensive career he has worked in several areas, including general management, operations, finance, marketing, integrated supply chain and business development.
 

Prior to founding Newstrop Consulting, Newark spent most of his business career at Xerox Corporation, which he joined after working for Chrysler and Philip Morris. At Xerox he was vice president and general manager of the Latin markets and of the Distributor Group, chief financial officer of the International Group and integrated supply chain vice president for developing markets. He also worked in several other headquarters and field positions.
 

Newark holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was designated a Baker Scholar. He is current board member and former president of the Harvard Business School Club of South Florida. He also holds an industrial engineering degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 

Newark taught business administration at the University of Buenos Aires and has conducted multiple seminars at the Florida International University College of Business, including third party financing, sustainable growth and integrated supply chain He has published a book titled “Investment Development and Evaluation.”
 

Newark is fluent in English and Spanish and has working knowledge of French, Italian and Portuguese.

George Ray III

George Ray III is a Florida SBDC at FIU consultant who specializes in pre-ventures and launching start-ups and franchises, including food, clothing and professional-services companies. He also develops sustainable growth strategies for existing businesses. He has received national recognition from The White House Fellows Programs and is a graduate of the United States Congressional Black Caucus ("CBC") Leadership Institute. Additionally, George has served on the Miami Dade Economic Development Trust where he advised the Miami Dade County Commission on economic development policies. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Continuing Education, where he earned a professional certification in Franchise Management. George also has an MBA from FIU and Bachelor's degree in public administration from Talladega College. He has been an Adjunct Professor for over 10 years at MDC, lecturing in sales, marketing and customer service.

Nancy Richmond

Nancy Richmond is a professor and leading speaker in social media, innovation and marketing. Her passion is to empower and train leaders in effectively leveraging social media for their target market. She teaches social media and marketing classes for the College of Business at Florida International University.
 

Richmond offers keynote speeches, consulting and training sessions. She has helped thousands of individuals and companies in the areas of social media and leadership development. Richmond has worked with leading universities including MIT, Harvard University, Florida International University and Northeastern University. She has served as a speaker and consultant for Campbell Soup Company, NBC 6/Telemundo, and National Association of Colleges and Employers. Richmond has been called on for her expertise in social media by corporations, business owners, non-profit organizations, human resource professionals, marketing experts, and educators.