Speakers

Biography

Luis Almagro Lemes was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States on March 18, 2015, with the unanimous support of 33 of 34 member states, and one abstention. Upon taking leadership of the OAS, he announced that one of the central themes of his mandate will be “more rights for more people,” and that he would work to bring the Organization closer to the new realities in the Hemisphere and contribute to ensuring more democracy, security and prosperity for all.

A career diplomat, Almagro was Foreign Minister of Uruguay from 2010 to March 1, 2015, and has extensive regional and international experience. In addition, he was elected Senator in the national elections in Uruguay in October 2014.

His time at the head of Uruguayan diplomacy was characterized by activism in defense of human and civil rights at the regional and global level, the insertion of Uruguay into non-traditional markets, the diversification of these markets, and the strengthening of the image of Uruguay as a democratic, fair, tolerant, and diverse society, with ever increasing rights for more Uruguayans.

As Foreign Minister for President José Mujíca, he defined several emblematic initiatives that put the small South American country on the global map, from receiving former prisoners from Guantanamo, to welcoming dozens of Syrian families who had been victims of the country´s conflict, to building support in the United Nations so that, beginning in 2016, Uruguay will become part of the Security Council.
Moreover, Uruguay has maintained its presence in Haiti to ensure the continuity of the process of reconstruction in the country following the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Knowledgeable about the new regional alignments, Almagro was an active participant in the consolidation of UNASUR and CELAC and as member of the special UNASUR delegation to Venezuela in 2014 he was recognized as an advocate of dialogue between the government and the opposition to stop the violence at that moment.

As a consensus builder in the region and at the same time a driver of new initiatives, during his term at the head of the country´s diplomacy, he achieved the long-desired entry of citrus products into the United States, a key market for the sector, while moving forward with bilateral cooperation programs in areas of scientific-technical innovation.

For its part, Uruguay developed specific programs of cooperation for development with Bolivia, Paraguay, and several African nations in the context of the vision of international solidarity that characterized the term of the former Foreign Minister.

The candidate for Secretary General of the OAS was also Ambassador to China for five years, after occupying senior diplomatic posts in the Foreign Ministry of his country, and in the Embassies of Uruguay in Germany and Iran.

In 2014 Foreign Policy magazine named him a Leading Global Thinker, one of ten decision-makers in the region granted this international distinction.

Almagro, a lawyer by profession, is married and has seven children. In addition to Spanish, he speaks English and French.

Biography

Marcos Andrés Antil, a Mayan native, came to the United States of America as a child from Guatemala. After learning about opportunities in the technology industry, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from California State University—Bakersfield.

In late 2003, after working for approximately 4 years at a Swiss based company in the US, he founded XumaK, LLC.

XumaK is a digital consultancy company that provides cutting-edge e-commerce, analytics and mobile solutions. XumaK has helped some of the world's largest brands digitally transform their businesses, including Adobe, Wine.com.br, LifeWay, Digicel, Metlife and other commerce-obsessed brands.

The key to this success has been in the selection of a highly qualified multinational team that represents the best in the business, from technical proficiency to industry expertise.

Marcos led XumaK to expand its operations through Latin America and opened its first office in Guatemala, followed by Colombia.

Aside from doing business worldwide, Marcos is heavily involved in his community; especially in his native Guatemala where he plays an important role in promoting free education for children. In 2012, the government of Guatemala declared him an Ambassador for Peace, due to his contributions to education, and his inspirational story. In 2014, Prensa Libre, the highest distributed newspaper in Guatemala; recognized him as Person of the Year for his achievements as an entrepreneur, migrant, and for his selfless work in education for Guatemala. For the same reason, in 2016, Universidad Galileo in Guatemala awarded Marcos a Dr. Honoris Causa, highlighting his altruism work in free education with technology.

Marcos is a columnist at Prensa Libre since early 2015, writing two articles a month in the section called Florescencia.

Biography

Robert Asselin joined BlackBerry in 2017 as Senior Global Director, Public Policy. He was recently appointed Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto and at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa. For the last two years, he served as Policy and Budget Director to Canada Finance Minister.  From 2007 to 2015, Mr. Asselin was the Associate Director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. In 2014, he was a Visiting Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Biography

Mr. Zaré Baghdasarian has more than 30 years of business experience as an Executive Director, Entrepreneur, Operations Manager, Investor, and Private Equity Investment Consultant with a passion for business startups and technology.

He has an expansive education background starting with an Executive MBA from TRIUM, an executive MBA degree jointly delivered by New York University (NYU), the London School of Economics (LSE) and HEC School of Management Paris, a Masters degree in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University, an Executive Management degree from UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a BSEE from Villanova University. He was the Co-Founder of two engineering technology companies, Monterey Networks—a company acquired by Cisco Systems in 1999 to fulfill their optical network strategy, and IRIS Group, which ceased operations in 2001.

Currently he is Co-Founder and CEO for Avata Intelligence. Avata Intelligence has developed robust, next-generation AI technology utilizing proprietary computational game theory developed by the company's world-renowned scientists which produces superior results for real-world problems.

Customers with critical needs in logistics, security and investment planning are currently using Avata's cloud-enabled, distributed and scalable AI technology to preeminently discover actionable strategies in real time for competitive advantages.

Biography

Bob Bennett became the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri, in January 2016 after a 25-year career in the US Army. He leads the Smart City initiatives, a suite of projects including: data analysis, Public Wi-Fi, digital kiosk installation, and smart lighting programs in the city’s downtown core. Kansas City’s initiatives earned an Edison Award (Gold) for “Collective Disruption” and civic innovation in 2017. Bob is currently working on plans to extend Smart City infrastructure throughout the 318 miles of KCMO with an emphasis on Digital Inclusion.

Biography

Doctor in Economics (Ph.D.) (1998), University of California, Berkeley

Economist and Public Accountant, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración - Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay

Professor of Contract Theory, Economics of Regulation and Microeconomics of Banking – Economics Department - Facultad de Ciencias Sociales - Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay

He, systematically teaches courses in Argentina, Perú, Cuba y Paraguay.

Former Head of the Department of Economic Studies, Central Bank of Uruguay

Former Member of the Board of the Communication Services Regulatory Agency (URSEC)

Former Vice Minister of Economy and Finance (2005-2008)

Elise and Walter Haas International Award 2008 of the University of California, Berkeley

President of the Central Bank of Uruguay (2008- 2013)

Minister of  Economy and Finance from December 2013 to February 2015.

President of the Central Bank of Uruguay since April 2015.

Biography

Mr. Best directs Health, Safety, Security and Environmental in the Americas for JLL.  He previously managed Energy & Sustainability Serivces.

Through 2009, as Product Director for Property Management, Mr. Best was responsible for designing and implementing all aspects of the property management service product. In his prior role, he headed Americas Marketing, including Market Research. He also headed Leasing and Management’s Central Services group and was responsible for overseeing Technical Services, Human Resources, Information Management, Quality Implementation and Real Estate Tax Administration. When he joined Jones Lang LaSalle in 1986, Mr. Best served for four years as General Manager of Two First National Plaza, a 350,000 s.f. office building in downtown Chicago.

In 2014, he co-authored “The Green + Productive Workplace,” a book looking at how sustainability, productivity and employee needs are being integrated into the new workplace.  The revised version of the book, “The SMART, Green + Productive Workplace” was published in early 2018.

Prior to joining JLL, Mr. Best was Manager of Strategic Planning for Container Corporation of America, a unit of Mobil Corporation, where he also served as Manager of Marketing and Corporate Communications.

Education and affiliations

Mr. Best holds an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Northwestern University.  He is a LEED® Accredited Professional through the U.S. Green Building Council and a Green Globes Professional through the Green Building Initiative.

Biography

Mark Blanchard is a Vice President and the Miami Metro Executive for AECOM with over 30 years of service with the firm.  As a part of the AECOM Office of Growth, he provides key support to Strategic Development / Governmental Affairs and leads major business development campaigns in support of all Business Lines across the US and major metropolitan areas.  In addition, Mark actively participates in many national geopolitical associations including the National Governors Association, League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors, as well as several other stakeholder organizations as part of his continued support of key clients.

Mark is committed to working to enhance local communities to help make them more livable, sustainable and resilient for generations to come.  In support of local workforce, Mark serves as a key contributor in development of specialty programs for small and minority businesses designed to help stimulate local hiring by creating contracting and employment opportunities on major infrastructure projects.  In addition, Mark is actively engaged in promoting resilient cities programs.  Serving as a key program partner, Mark assists in the development of strategies aimed to address current and future shocks and stresses to major metropolitan areas such as sea-level rise, flooding and storm surge.

As an expert in program development and execution, Mark specializes in the implementation of large capital projects tailored to provide practical, cost effective solutions which meet our client’s infrastructure needs. He is responsible for the management of contract performance, client communication, and the assembly of technical resources for the successful delivery of several programs, supporting a variety of business sectors such as Aviation, Health Care, and Water/Wastewater Utilities.  Serving as Project Executive and client liaison, he oversees the firm’s technical, financial, and quality performance as part of his ongoing commitment to delivery excellence.

Biography

Richard Bradley is Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer of The Worth Group. He is also the #1 New York Times best-selling author of American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr. A seasoned and respected editor and journalist, Bradley’s career has always combined journalism and academia. American Son generated tremendous national attention, including the cover of People magazine and a guest appearance on NBC’s Today Show. Mr. Bradley was also the subject of a Barbara Walters interview on ABC’s 20/20. American Son spent seven weeks on The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list, ultimately climbing to number one. In addition to his jobs as a magazine editor and his book writing, Richard Bradley has authored articles for numerous publications, including: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, George, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Boston Magazine, Salon.com, The Washington Monthly, Worth, and Mother Jones. He has also written a column of media analysis for the website TomPaine.com.

Biography

Mark Brockelman leads the financial aspects of GardaWorld Cash Services as the SVP of Finance. A noted professional in the financial field, Mark Brockelman has held several high-level positions over the course of his career. From Chief Financial and Administrative Officer to Executive Vice President, his titles have conveyed the high level of experience and expertise that Brockelman repeatedly brings to the table. Both on a professional and a personal level, he is dedicated to excellence and devoted to continually developing his skills and capabilities.

Most recently, Brockelman was the Chief Financial Officer of the largest dental laboratory group in North America, National Dentex Corporation. Brockelman was also the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of the Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium. A major asset to the team, he oversaw all aspects of the financial and administrative departments within the organization, including finance, legal, and human resources. Prior to holding this position, Brockelman was the Chief Financial Officer at eScreen, Inc. This organization develops, manufactures, and markets employment-screening products, thereby helping clients to streamline the hiring process and maintain a more efficient workforce.

He is a graduate of Marquette University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance. He is also a certified public accountant (CPA).

Brockelman is married and the proud father of three children (Grayson, Taylor and Kendall). He is also very active in the charitable community, serving on the boards of the YMCA, Miami Dolphins Foundation, Dolphins Cycling Challenge, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Discrimination Free Zone. His former wife, Janell, passed in 2010 after fighting melanoma, and is now a lead advocate with the Melanoma Exposed awareness campaign.

Biography

Leigh-Ann A. Buchanan, Esq., is the founding Executive Director of Venture Café Miami.  In this role, she works to facilitate sustainable growth, increased diversity and inclusion, and greater connectivity within Miami’s innovation and entrepreneurial community.  Since launching in mid 2016, VCM’s innovation programming has attracted over 17,000 attendees, resulting in content partnerships with 350+ organizations and 600+ free educational sessions.  

Leigh-Ann  frequently speaks on and writes about cultivating inclusive innovation communities, experiential leadership development and strategies for social justice innovation.  Previously, she served as legal counsel to entrepreneurs, startups and multinational corporations in a wide variety of complex business litigation matters and commercial disputes.  

Leigh-Ann is the founder of the Nyah Project, an exclusive fellowship which develops diverse youth leaders from underserved communities through transformative experiences abroad, where 100% of Nyah fellows receive college acceptance and 90% win scholarships.

She has been recognized as a Harvard Business School Young Leaders of America (2018); Miami Fellow (2017); Black Enterprise Magazine, Miami Tech Trailblazer (2017); Dade County Bar Association, Woman on the Rise Award (2017); Legacy Magazine, Under 40 Achiever (2017); Miami Girls Foundation (2017); Miami Dade Chamber Young Innovator of the Year (2016); Aspen Institute’s National Working Group on Inclusive Innovation (2016); American Bar Association Top 40 Young Lawyers (2016); Bethune Cookman University, 40 Under 40 (2016); Daily Business Review, Rising Star (2015); Greater Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, HYPE Award finalist (2014); National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division Rising Star Award (2013); and South Florida’s 40 Under 40 Black Leaders (2013).

Biography

Inés Bustillo is the Director of the Washington Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She joined ECLAC in 1989 as Economic Affairs Officer working on a variety of topics including macroeconomic analysis, international trade and finance.
Previously, Ms. Bustillo was Professor of Economics at Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City and Visiting Faculty at The American University in Washington D.C. Other positions held include consultant to the World Bank, the Center for Latin American and Monetary Studies (CEMLA), and Operadora de Bolsa in Mexico City.
She is the author of several articles and a frequent lecturer at universities, think tanks and other venues.
Ms. Bustillo, a national of Uruguay, earned an M.A. and Ph.D degrees in economics from The American University.

Biography

Jim Cantrell is a well-known space entrepreneur, expert in small spacecraft systems and was on the founding team of SpaceX with Elon Musk, serving as SpaceX's first VP of Business Development. Jim has 30 years of experience in commercial space efforts including StratSpace, Skybox Imaging, and the privately developed Lightsail. Early in his career, Jim worked for the French Space Agency CNES in Toulouse, NASA/JPL and has helped grow more than 20 space start-ups to profitability and acquisition through StratSpace where he was the Founder and CEO. Jim has been involved in the corporate development or financing of Silicon Valley's most notable space startups including Skybox, Planet Lab, Rocket Lab, World View, PlanetIQ and Orbital Insight.

Biography

William M. (Bill) Casey is the Americas Vice Chair of EY’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS), which advises organizations on managing their Capital Agenda priorities by raising, preserving, investing and optimizing capital.

Bill launched his career at EY more than 30 years ago, and his history is TAS’s history. As a partner of Ernst & Young LLP, Bill advises clients on capital strategy, mergers and acquisitions, public company spinoffs, IPOs and securities offerings. Bill has led some of the firm's largest client engagements, including cross-border transactions for major multinational corporations and leading private equity firms. He has deep experience in the beverage, automotive, fintech, telecom and professional services sectors.

Prior to his current role leading TAS in the Americas, Bill previously served as EY’s Americas TAS Deputy Managing Partner, Americas TAS Chief Operating Officer and TAS Leader for the Southeast Region. Over the last decade, he has worked to help double the talent and revenues of the Americas TAS practices, which now number more than 4,000 professionals based in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Bill has also helped transform TAS from transaction compliance and due diligence providers into market-leading strategic advisors. Integral to this transformation was the US firm’s acquisition of The Parthenon Group in 2014, which significantly enhanced TAS’s front-end strategic offerings. He was also instrumental in growing EY’s Latin America practice, with more than a decade of transaction work in the region. In 1995, Bill helped launch EY’s TAS services in South America, which has since grown to more than 700 people. During this time he also became an Ernst & Young partner in the São Paulo office; helped develop EY’s TAS practices in Mexico and Brazil; and worked on the largest beverage deal in Latin America.

Bill is a member of the EY Americas Operating Executive and a Certified Public Accountant. He received his Master’s degree in business administration from DePaul University and a Bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Illinois. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese and a competitive triathlete.

Bill's Better Question:
How can companies remain competitive in the face of pervasive, multi-industry disruption?

Biography

Connie is a Partner in the EY Transaction Advisory Services practice with over 25 years of advisory experience working primarily with private equity and corporate clients. She has worked on infrastructure transactions over the last 15 years, including municipal airports, ports, rail, shipping, parking, energy and commodities warehousing/logistics. Connie is the Global Transaction Services Leader for several of the firm’s largest clients and has significant experience advising on large, complex, multinational transactions and coordinating the firm’s network to fully leverage our resources for the successful execution of transaction advisory.

Biography

Mr. Wilfredo Cerrato Rodriguez was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His education includes:

• Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Administration and Business (1993)
• Postgraduate Degree in Business Administration with an orientation in Finance (2003)
• Master's Degree in Business Administration from INCAE's Business School in Nicaragua (2008).

His professional career includes positions in public policy and finance:

• Minister of Finance of the Republic of Honduras from August 2012 to January 26, 2018.
• President of the Central Bank of Honduras starting January 27, 2018.

The main responsibilities and achievements during his tenure as Minister of Finance were:

• Under his management, the Payroll Census was implemented at the executive level in December 2014.
• Project proposal and implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law in April 2016.
• General Coordinator of the Management and Placement of Honduran Sovereign Bonds in the Global Market, for a total value of US$1,000 Million.
• General coordinator for country risk assessments, contributing achieving a credit upgrade for Honduras in 2017.
• Active member of the Economic Council that successfully negotiated and completed an agreement with the IMF approved in December 2014 for a term of three years.
• Lowered the fiscal deficit from 7.9% to 3.2% of GDP in a period of four years (2013-2017).

Biography

Nando Cesarone, serves as UPS President, International operations.  Prior to leading International operations, Cesarone was appointed president of UPS’s European operations in 2016.  The Europe region is UPS’s largest non-U.S. region and generates more than half of the company’s non-U.S. revenue.  Before his most recent position, Cesarone served as president of the UPS Asia Pacific Region.

Cesarone has led UPS Europe to record business performance during the company’s $2 billion, five-year investment in the region’s technology, network and infrastructure designed to further improve speed, capacity and reliability for customers of all sizes doing business in, to, and from Europe.

A native of Toronto, Canada, Cesarone held several key international management positions at UPS, including country manager for Austria, Hungary and Switzerland; vice president of Operations for UPS Canada; president for North-East Europe; and president, UPS Asia Pacific. While in Asia, he expanded UPS’s presence in vital emerging markets, and 21 additional cities in China. He led strategic projects to accelerate intra-Asia transit times for more than 35 trade lanes connecting 41 markets and launched new products including Trade Management Services, and China-to-Europe rail freight. Cesarone, a member of the executive committee of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, received an MBA from Heriot Watt University - Edinburgh School of Business.

Biography

Mr. D’Souza is a seasoned, results-producing leader with experience steering and directing all aspects of risk management, security processes, investigations and intelligence frameworks.  He has extensive international skills through working, travelling and living in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.  He spent eight years with the Toronto Police Service, the majority of which, he was involved in an undercover capacity dealing with major, large-scale investigations.  He has led several cases to successful conclusions through every level of the court system. In addition to working for large multi-national organizations, Mr. D’Souza also spent time consulting on regulatory requirements and laws, as they apply to business, ensuring compliance across a wide cross-section of financial, retail and commercial sectors.

Currently, Mr. D’Souza leads an elite team of global managers, investigators and analysts at Facebook positioned across the globe, to resolve complex internal and external investigations, including but not limited to anti-fraud and piracy, threats to people or the workplace, asset protection, supply chain and data center investigations and misconduct.  His intelligence Team is focused on issues related to geopolitical, counter-terrorism and due diligence analysis.  He also leads all protective intelligence operations for the CEO, COO and company Executives globally.

Mr. D’Souza holds a MBA degree from Columbia Southern, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.  He is a frequently called upon speaker and subject matter expert, accredited as a Forensics Investigator and has been formally trained in Mobile Surveillance, Workplace Violence Detection and Prevention, Major Case Management, Interviewing and Interrogation, Drug Interdiction and Investigation, Death Investigations, Anti-Terrorism and Anarchist Detection, and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED).

Biography

Jaret L. Davis is the Co-Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Miami office, where he oversees approximately 170 attorneys and 200 business staff based in the firm’s founding office and focuses his corporate and securities practice on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital markets
transactions, and large financings.

For over a decade, Jaret has led the efforts of the Miami office and served as one of several leaders leading efforts of the firm globally to be a dominant player in the technology industry. The vast majority of Jaret’s clients are technology players, ranging from information technology companies, to life sciences/biotech companies, to companies focusing on renewable energy sources. During this time, the Miami office has been a thought leader in representing angel investors, venture capital firms, growth equity funds, as well as various technology companies along all intervals of the life cycle, from startup to multi-billion dollar publicly traded companies. He routinely provides representation to publicly traded clients having an aggregate market capitalization of over $20 billion.

Recent notable representations include him serving as lead shareholder of the team which represented Medina Capital in its $3 billion acquisition of a portfolio of 57 data centers across the globe and suite of cybersecurity and data analytics companies. In addition, he served as lead shareholder of the 40+ attorney legal team representing Terremark Worldwide, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed provider of IT infrastructure, in connection with its acquisition for $2 billion by Verizon Communications, Inc. and was a primary shareholder representing Metropolitan Health Networks, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange listed health care provider, in its $850 million sale to Humana, Inc. At the time of its closing, the Terremark-Verizon transaction was Verizon's largest since its acquisition of MCI in 2005, ranking as both the largest pairing of a telco and a colocation provider and the largest transaction in the cloud computing
space.

In addition to his practice, Jaret serves in a number of civic capacities which allow him to leverage his professional interests to assist the community. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, a thought leader at leveraging telemedicine solutions and serves as a cofounder and General Counsel of the eMerge Americas global technology conference.

He recently served as Chair of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the Official Economic Development Partnership for Miami-
Dade County.

Biography

In 2014, Ethereum launched out of Anthony’s Decentral office in Toronto, which he funded because he recognized its tremendous promise. It is now the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap that has recently exceeded $100 billion.

Jaxx, the flagship software offering out of Decentral, is a multi-platform wallet that supports dozens of digital assets and has around one million monthly active users.

As a passionate community organizer and thought leader in blockchain and decentralized technologies, Anthony previously served as the Chief Digital Officer at the parent company of Canada’s largest stock exchange, the TMX Group.

Anthony is a serial entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. He was featured in a recent Forbes edition on The Richest People In Cryptocurrency. He holds many advisory roles for companies at various stages of growth, invests in a number of different sectors and is in high demand as a speaker around the world. Anthony is happy to share his insight on cryptocurrency, blockchain technology as well as areas of economics, leadership, design and user experience.

He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Anthony has made numerous media appearances, including BNN Bloomberg, Global News, CBC and CTV News.

Biography

Josias “Joe” N. Dewey, Co-Chair of Holland & Knight’s Technology Industry Sector Group, is a financial services and real estate attorney and is considered a thought leader on blockchain and distributed ledger technology.  Mr. Dewey is the co-author of the book, “The Blockchain: A Guide for Legal and Business Professionals,” published by Thomson Reuters. Mr. Dewey regularly represents a diverse group of banks and other financial institutions, from large international banks to local community banks, life insurance companies and investment funds, in financing transactions. His finance practice encompasses a broad range of asset classes and transaction structures, including real estate financing, healthcare real estate finance and asset-based lending, such as receivable, inventory, equipment and working capital facilities.

A substantial portion of Mr. Dewey’s practice is dedicated to blockchain related engagements, including token generating events, virtual currency exchanges, mining operations and investment vehicles managing virtual currency and digital token assets.  In addition to the substantive areas of his practice, including finance and real estate, Mr. Dewey has experience in matters involving the application of several other substantive areas of the law to blockchain and distributed ledgers, often working collaboratively with other lawyers within the Firm who practice in the areas of corporate and securities, investment products and regulation, capital markets, insurance, money transmitter, anti-money laundering and OFAC compliance, intellectual property, private wealth, tax matters and several others.

He has written and spoken extensively on blockchain, distributed ledger technology and the convergence of traditional human-prose contracts and computer code-based “smart contracts”. This includes experience, as a computer programmer, with several distributed ledger protocols, including Ethereum (both public and permissioned versions), R3's Corda and Hyperledger Fabric (IBM Blockchain).

Biography

Arnold Donald is President & Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation & PLC, the largest travel and leisure company in the world.  Their portfolio of ten cruise brands -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises UK, P&O Cruises Australia and Fathom are based throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Together these brands maintain a fleet of over 100 ships and serve more than 11 million guests annually.  Carnival Corporation & PLC also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon with 10 hotels plus rail and bus services connecting guests with the northern interior.  Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & PLC is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100 indices.

Mr. Donald has been President & CEO of Carnival Corporation since 2013; prior to that he served on the board for 12 years.  In January 2017 he was appointed Chair of Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA).  He currently serves on the board of Bank of America Corporation and Crown Holdings, Inc.

Mr. Donald spent more than twenty years at Monsanto Company as Corporate Senior Vice-President, and President of the Consumer and Nutrition sector and President of the Agricultural sector.  After leaving Monsanto, Mr. Donald was Chairman of Merisant Company whose products included the leading global sweetener brands Equal and Canderel.

Immediately prior to Carnival, Mr. Donald was a founder and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Leadership Council, a professional network and leadership forum for African-American executives of Fortune 500 companies, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the largest charitable funder of diabetes research in the world.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Mr. Donald received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College, a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St Louis, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Donald has a strong commitment to higher education and serves on the boards of two of his alma maters, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and Washington University in St. Louis, in Missouri.  He is also on the boards of the Greater New Orleans Foundation and St. Louis based BJC Healthcare among others.

Biography

Dental Surgeon, with postgrads studies in esthetic studied in the University of California in Los Angeles, United States of America.  Has taught at university level and postgraduate.  Also has experience and extensive knowledge of the Public Administration, performing managerial and management positions and ad-honorem level in areas of municipal management.

Due to his social projection and altruism, he has obtained honors and recognitions in the country, such as:  Ambassador of the Peace appointed by the Government of Guatemala in 2010; also has obtained recognition from cultural organizations for activities that has carried out within Guatemalan society.

He has participated in congresses and representations at an international level, and as a special guest, in various activities related to his social projection.

Julio Dougherty has knowledge and studies in Public Management, studies obtained in the School of Government of Guatemala, a specialty that focuses on the correct and efficient administration of State resources, in order to meet the needs of the administrators and promote the development of the country.

Currently, he occupies the position of Vice Minister of Integration and Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy of Guatemala, Office that has within its main functions, the negotiation and administration of the International Trade Agreements; the improvement of the Process of the Central American Economic Integration; the Central American Customs Union; and, the momentum of the Customs Union process between Guatemala and Honduras, among others.

Actually, he is a member and supply member of several Commissions, Councils and Boards of Directors at the national level, in which the Executive Organism has participation, such as the National Trade Facilitation Commission, INTECAP, National Electrification Institute, National Petroleum Commission ; National Commission of Maritime Administration, among others.

Biography

Biography

Sam Fleming is US Economics Editor at the Financial Times, based in Washington DC. He previously worked as the newspaper’s Financial Policy Correspondent in London, where he started in October 2013. He worked as Economics Editor for The Times of London from 2010 and 2013. Between 2006 and 2010 he was Associate City Editor and Economics Correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper, also in London. He started his work in journalism at Bloomberg in 2001, where he covered industry, the stock market and latterly economics until 2005. Between 1997 and 2000 he worked at Slaughter and May, a London-based corporate law firm, qualifying as a solicitor in 1999. He studied law at the College of Law, London, from 1994 to 1996. His university degree was at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1994. He was born in London in 1973.

Biography

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading urbanists.

He is founder of the Miami Future Initiative and a distinguished Fellow at Florida International University. He is a University Professor at University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management and a Distinguished Fellow at NYU.

He is author the award-winning book, The Rise of the Creative Class and most recently, The New Urban Crisis. He serves as senior editor for The Atlantic, where he founded CityLab, the leading news site on urban development

He is an entrepreneur, as founder of the Creative Class Group which works closely with leading companies and governments around the world.

Biography

Dr. Frenk became the sixth president of the University of Miami in August of 2015. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and as Professor of Health Sector Management and Policy at the School of Business Administration.

Prior to joining the University of Miami, he was the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Julio Frenk served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured Mexicans.

He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions.

Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint Ph.D. in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from seven universities.

His scholarly production, which includes over 160 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited more than 15,000 times. In addition, he has written three best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico. He serves on the boards of the United Nations Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He has received numerous recognitions, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health, the Bouchet Medal for Outstanding Leadership presented by Yale University for promoting diversity in graduate education,

Biography

Rodolphe Gelin was born in 1965. He graduated from the School of Civil Engineering in 1988 and holds a DEA (Research Master’s Degree) in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Paris VI.

He joined the French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique: CEA) after completing his studies. He worked for 10 years on the control of mobile robots for service applications, cleaning and helping the disabled. In 1998, he became the leader of the laboratory service robotics and in 2001 he was appointed head of cognitive service robotics and interaction at CEA LIST (technological research division) in Saclay. Between 2006 and December 2008, he was responsible for the Interactive System program where he developed important partnerships within the industry. As part of the European CARE project he handled the European professional service robotics roadmap. On behalf of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), he led the working group on the definition of the robotic vocabulary.

Rodolphe Gelin is the author of the books "Robot, friend or foe? ", “How can reality be virtual?” and “The robot, man's best friend? ".

Since December 2008, Rodolphe has been responsible for the collaborative projects at Aldebaran Robotics. He has led various teams at Aldebaran in several national and European collaborative projects. He is most notably the head of Romeo2 project involving 18 French partners, industrial and academics, in the implementation of a large robot for assistance to the elderly.

Biography

Laura González Estéfani is the CEO & Co-Founder of TheVentureCity, a tech ecosystem accelerator headquartered in Miami with offices in Madrid, San Francisco and Sydney. TheVentureCity funds and supports data-driven tech startups around the world. Laura spent nearly nine years with Facebook in various roles supporting overall growth strategies. Laura led the Growth, Mobile & Partnerships team for Latin America, spearheading the Internet.org and connectivity initiatives from Silicon Valley and later Miami. Before Facebook, Laura held management roles at eBay, Siemens and Ogilvy Group and co-founded Esplaya.com, the first international beach tourism digital platform.

Biography

Ana Paula González is the Head of 500 Startups Miami. 500 Startups a Silicon Valley-based, early stage tech VC fund whose mission is to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. To date, 500 Startups has invested in over 2,000 companies in 60+ countries around the world.

Previous to 500 Startups, Ana spent 4 years at New Ventures, developing the impact investing field in Latin America, by leading investment and acceleration programs for social and environmental companies throughout the region. Ana started her career at The Boston Consulting Group, where she worked with clients in Private Equity, financial services and non-profit sectors. Ana holds an MBA from Columbia Business School with honors and a Bachelor in International Business from Tec de Monterrey with honors.

Biography

Robert J. Grammig is a partner and leader of Holland & Knight's Corporate, M&A and Securities Practice Group. Mr. Grammig has practiced for more than 30 years in the areas of public company mergers and acquisitions, securities law, general corporate law and international business transactions. He serves on the firm's Directors Committee and is currently the Chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Grammig has represented both companies and underwriters in numerous public company offerings. He has also led legal teams on behalf of acquirors, target companies and special committees in a large number of publicly announced merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Grammig regularly advises boards of directors, audit committees and special committees regarding corporate governance matters, including defending against shareholder activism and advising during proxy fights. He has devoted a substantial part of his practice to international business transactions, representing both United States and foreign entities, including representations involving significant transactions in Asia, Europe and Latin America. He served as general counsel to the Host Committee for the 2012 Republican National Convention. Mr. Grammig regularly participates as a panelist in KPMG's Audit Committee Institute. and also serves as secretary of the Florida Chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce.

Biography

Billy Grayson is the Executive Director for the Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance at the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization that focuses on land use, real estate and urban development.

As Executive Director for the Center for Sustainability, Mr. Grayson manages a team leading programs on climate risk and resilience, health and wellness, and building energy and environmental performance. ULI works with members, community leaders, coalition partners, and other key stakeholders to build awareness around sustainability issues in the built environment, and to provide our members with the tools and resources they need to cost-effectively drive sustainability into their projects and operations.

Mr. Grayson has over a decade of experience leading energy and sustainability initiatives in real estate, distribution, and supply chain operations. As Sustainability Director at Liberty Property Trust, Mr. Grayson led a 700-building initiative that included green building construction, energy efficiency retrofits, and sustainability-focused property management strategies and tenant engagement. As Vice President, Social and Environmental Sustainability for the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), Mr. Grayson led a global compliance program working with electronics manufacturers in China, Malaysia, Korea, and around the world to identify and mitigate environmental and human rights risks in their shared supply chain, as well as programs addressing climate change mitigation. As Sustainability Director at WESCO, Mr. Grayson developed an operational sustainability program that reduced energy, water, and waste more than 15%, and launched a global marketing initiative for WESCO’s sustainability-focused energy technology products and services.

Mr. Grayson holds an MBA and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Maryland and a Bachelors in Environment, Economics, and Politics (EEP) from Claremont McKenna. He is a LEED AP and former Board member of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council and NAREIT Sustainability Advisory Committee.

Biography

Rebeca Grynspan is the Secretary General of the Ibero American Conference an international multilateral institution which brings together the 19 Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Latin America plus Spain, Andorra and Portugal.
She was unanimously elected in an Extraordinary Meeting of 22 Foreign Ministers held on February 24, 2014 in Mexico City and took office as Ibero-American Secretary General on April 1, 2014.

Rebeca Grynspan was born in Costa Rica, on December 14, 1955, and prior to this appointment she held the post of Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since February 2010. As a recognized leader in promoting human development, she has greatly helped to focus the attention of the world and Latin America on critical issues such as the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equity, South-South cooperation as tool for development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, among others. Previously, from 2006 to 2010, she was Deputy Secretary General of the UN and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before joining the United Nations, she served as Vice President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs of her country and Deputy Minister of Finance; also, she was a member of the High Level Panel on Financing for Development convened by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2001.

Grynspan is a member of Global Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development at the World Economic Forum.

She has contributed to key UN initiatives such as the Millennium Project on Poverty and Economic Development, and the High-Level Panel on Financing for Development. She was also delegate to the United Nations Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, a group composed of representatives of the Haitian government, the U.S. President Bill Clinton and other relevant international members.

In June 2014 Rebeca Grynspan was elected Chairman of the Board of the International Institute for Environment and Development, an influential policy research organization working at the interface between development and the environment.
In 2014 and 2015 she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America.

Biography

Mr. Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on April 19, 1957. He obtained his B.A. in Economics at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, and later pursued graduate studies in Economics at the Arizona State University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Guajardo was Chief Economist of the Brazil Section, and Associate Economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund (1988-1991), before becoming Director of the North American Free Trade Agreement Affairs Office, based at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D. C. (1994).

At the Federal Government, Mr. Guajardo has held different positions. From 1994 to 1997 he was Chief Clerk at the Foreign Affairs Ministry; in 1997 he became Undersecretary of Tourism Development; and in 1998 he was appointed Technical Secretary for Planning, Communication and Liaison for the Trade and Industrial Development Ministry, positioned he held until 1999.

Mr. Guajardo was elected Federal Deputy in the LVIII Legislature (2000 – 2003), before being appointed in Nuevo Leon as Head of the Governor’s Executive Office (2003 – 2006). In 2006, he ran as candidate for Congress for the First Local District of Monterrey, position that he won, becoming leader of the Minority Group of the Nuevo Leon State Congress, in the LXX Legislature.

His latest positions were as Federal Congressman for the Second District of Nuevo Leon; Chairman of the Economics Commission; Member of the Treasury and Public Credit Commission; and President of the Mexico-U.S.A. Friendship Group at the LXI Legislature of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies; Coordinator of the Entrepreneurial Liaison in the Presidential Campaign of Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto; and Vice Coordinator of Political Economy in the Transition Team of President-elect Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto.

He has been a full time Professor at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León; and Assistant Professor at the Arizona State University and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania.

On December 1st of 2012, Mr. Guajardo Villarreal was appointed as Secretary of the Economy by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Biography

Rachel is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences and has been President and CEO since its inception. She has a research background in CRISPR-Cas biology, and is also a co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics. In 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the "30 Under 30" list in Science and Healthcare, and in 2016, Fortune Magazine named her to the "40 Under 40" list of the most influential young people in business. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-derived technologies, and she has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College, and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Biography

Frank Holder leads BRG's Global Investigations & Strategic Intelligence (“Global.i”) practice as well as the Latin American region. With over 25 years of experience, he has directed corporate investigations and security consulting assignments across the globe. The investigative matters include large-scale internal fraud and public corruption investigations, product protection, litigation support, due diligence, and hostile takeovers. As a security expert, he has designed the security for international airports, seaports, and complex multijurisdictional distribution networks.
As a strategic consulting industry leader, Frank draws on decades of client service experience to provide cutting edge strategies and integrates investigative skills with technology and financial expertise to address and resolve critical problems. Frank has assembled and experienced international management team strategically located in financial centers around the world to work with BRG’s clients to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Before joining BRG, Mr. Holder was the chief executive officer of Holder International, which was acquired by FTI in 2007. Before founding Holder International, he was the president of Kroll Inc.’s Consulting Services Group, responsible for operations in more than 35 countries. Prior to that, he was the head of Kroll’s Latin America and Caribbean region. Before joining Kroll, he was the president of Holder Associates in Buenos Aires, a risk mitigation and business intelligence firm.
Mr. Holder began his career with the U.S. Air Force as a political-military analyst for the U.S. embassy in Argentina and as a special agent for the Office of Special Investigations at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, with responsibilities in areas including counterintelligence and force protection.
Mr. Holder is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He is an accomplished public speaker with numerous presentations throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil on a broad range of topics such as money laundering, risk management, homeland security, and operational risk. He has written articles on similar topics for U.S. and Latin American newspapers and professional journals. He has taught courses in political science and law on the Inter-American system at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires.

Biography

Vicki Holt has been President and Chief Executive Officer at Protolabs since February 2014. Prior to joining us, Holt served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Spartech Corporation, a leading producer of plastic sheet, compounds and packaging products, from September 2010 until Spartech was purchased by PolyOne Corporation in March 2013. Prior to Spartech, Holt worked at PPG Industries, a leading coatings and specialty products company, serving as Senior Vice President, Glass and Fiber Glass, from May 2005 until September 2010. Holt is also is a member of the board of directors of Waste Management, Inc.

Holt’s leadership, strategic planning, operational and international experience provide valuable insights to our board of directors. As CEO, she also is responsible for determining our strategy, articulating priorities, and managing continued growth.

Biography

With a long and innovative involvement in commerce and entrepreneurial activities, Mark has honed his business skills across a broad spectrum of grass roots start up’s to Boardroom debates in larger corporations.

For several years Mark was a prominent global adventurer which allowed him to promote philanthropic programs while at the same time attempting to set Guinness World records.

He successfully led a world record breaking paramotor expedition in Australia before attempting to fly a paraglider from the summit of Mount Kilimnajaro, the tallest free standing mountain in the world.

Mark is also more than familiar with the rigours of global transportation and the inability to often guarantee an arrival at your destination. PAL-V is a partial solution to that problem.

In the past four years he turned his attention to flying cars and became pivotal in rolling out the PAL-V in to a brand new transportation market in The Americas.

Mark has a clear focus and understanding of what separates innovation from invention.

Biography

Robert Steven Kaplan has served as the thirteenth president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas since September 8, 2015. He represents the Eleventh Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and oversees the 1,200 employees of the Dallas Fed.

Kaplan was previously the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School.

He is the author of several books, including What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner; What You're Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential; and What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential.

Prior to joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan was vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. with global responsibility for the firm's Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions. Previously, he served as global co-head of the Investment Banking Division. He was also a member of the firm’s Management Committee and served as co-chairman of the firm’s Partnership Committee and chairman of the Goldman Sachs Pine Street Leadership Program.

During his 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, Kaplan served in various other capacities, including head of the Corporate Finance Department, head of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking as well as head of the high-yield department in Investment Banking. He became a partner in 1990. Upon joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan became a senior director of the firm.

He serves as chairman of Project A.L.S. and co-chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing non-profit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues. He is also a board member of Harvard Medical School.

Kaplan previously served on the boards of State Street Corporation, Harvard Management Company, Bed Bath & Beyond and Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. He was also a trustee of the Ford Foundation, co-founding board chair of the TEAK Fellowship, co-founder and chairman of Indaba Capital Management, LP and chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee at Google, Inc.

Kaplan was appointed by the Governor of Kansas as a member of the Kansas Health Policy Authority Board.

Born and raised in Prairie Village, Kansas, Kaplan received a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Biography

Mr. Kinchen currently serves as Regional Director for Black & Veatch Water, and currently manages the business oversight of alternative delivery (DB, CMAR, P3) projects in Black & Veatch’s North American water market.  As part of his responsibilities, Mr. Kinchen is responsible for business development, management oversight of strategic team relationships, proposal strategy development, conceptual design development review, sustainable design strategy and evaluation, oversight of design management, design-build execution oversight, and operational support.  He has served as Project Executive over operations on multiple design-build projects for both Municipal and Federal construction projects.  He has 30 years of progressively increasing responsibility and experience, with professional assignments including all forms of alternative delivery, hard bid and cost plus projects in the municipal water and wastewater, federal, heavy civil, heavy industrial, commercial, institutional, and transportation areas of construction including premier projects for multiple top tier design & construction companies including Skanska, Balfour Beatty, Atkins, and Rust Engineering.

Biography

Pete leads Haskell’s Infrastructure & Transportation Group, which is dedicated to creating exceptional facilities for federal, state and municipal clients through design-build, construction management at-risk delivery and other forms of integrated delivery.   Pete’s career spans over 20 years and includes the successful delivery of numerous projects across both vertical and horizontal markets with an emphasis on water and wastewater treatment, aviation facilities, municipal buildings, higher education student housing, roads, bridges and public infrastructure.

Since starting with Haskell, Pete has been responsible for developing project opportunities and markets as well as strategic planning and financial performance of much of the firm’s public practice.  He builds teams that include master planning, design and construction for the successful delivery of projects through forms of integrated project delivery.

His professional association work includes serving on the National Board of the Design-Build Institute of America where he served as the Chair in 2015 as well as previously serving as the President of the Water Design-Build Council. Pete is a published author and national speaker.

Pete holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech; a licensed General Contractor in multiple states and a Designated Design-Build Professional.

Biography

Nicolas Kopp is the U.S. CEO of N26 in New York. He is responsible for bringing N26’s mobile-first banking app to the U.S. market. As one of the firm’s early employees, Nic joined N26 in 2015 as Head of Business Development and Operations. In this role, he built the team from the ground up, established the firm’s partnership with TransferWise, and was instrumental in developing the premier N26 Black account. Previously, he spent five years in London and Hong Kong in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. 

Biography

Brandon Krieg is the CEO and co-founder of Stash - the financial platform that's revolutionizing the way millions of Americans save and invest for their future. Prior to co-founding Stash, Brandon spent over 15 years in financial services, most recently as head of electronic execution for Macquarie Securities Group. He co-founded EdgeTrade, one of the first and largest electronic trade execution and algorithmic software firms. When Knight Capital Group acquired EdgeTrade, Krieg became their head of electronic sales.

Biography

Dr. Tolga Kurtoglu is CEO of PARC, a Xerox company, which is in "the business of breakthroughs.” Practicing open innovation since being incorporated in 2002, PARC provides custom R&D services, technology, specialized expertise, best practices, and intellectual property to Xerox’s business groups, Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, startups, and government.

Dr. Kurtoglu oversees PARC’s R&D investments for Xerox and its innovation portfolio for commercial clients and government agencies in a diverse set of focus areas and competencies including human-centered innovation services, intelligent agents and systems, clean energy, smart packaging, machine learning and analytics, security and privacy, printed electronics and digital manufacturing.

Motivated by his passion for bringing innovations to market, Dr. Kurtoglu specializes in leading cross-functional teams to apply science and technology to develop creative solutions to real-world problems. Since joining PARC in 2010, he has held various leadership roles focusing on R&D management, product strategy, and technology commercialization. In his early years at PARC, he pioneered the formation of PARC’s digital design and manufacturing (DDM) program. Later he created and led the System Sciences Laboratory by building a technology portfolio across hardware, software, and process technologies. In both roles, he managed multi-million-dollar R&D investments and product strategy encompassing several platforms and market offerings, and led successful transition of inventions from an R&D output to commercial software systems and services. Prior to PARC, he was a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, and a mechanical design engineer at Dell Corporation.

Dr. Kurtoglu’s own research was focused on computation and artificial intelligence applied to design and manufacturing of complex systems, and application of preventive and predictive analytics techniques to engineered systems. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University, both in Mechanical Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in the same field from Orta Dogu Technical University (ODTU).

He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and papers in leading journals and conferences in his field, and regularly serves in organizational leadership roles for the ASME, AIAA, AAAI, Design Society, and Prognostics and Health Management Society. He is the recipient of the IEEE Best Professional Paper Award at the Prognostics and Health Management Conference, IEEE Best Application Paper Award from IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, NASA Ames Technical Excellence Award, PARC Excellence Award, PARC Golden Acorn Award, and the Best Design Award in “Dexterous Robot Hand” Design Competition.

Biography

Mr. Kuryla began his career with Miami-Dade County in the Parks and Recreation Department in 1987. He moved to the County’s Finance Department in 1993 as an administrative officer, where he managed a grants program funded by tourist tax dollars. After approximately a year and a half in the Finance Department, Mr. Kuryla took the position of Section Head at the County’s Public Works Department’s Road, Bridge and Canal Maintenance Division.

In 1996, Mr. Kuryla was promoted to work in the County Manager’s Office as an Assistant Administrator. He was promoted again in May 1998 to the Port of Miami as Assistant to the Port Director, where he oversaw the Department’s local, state and federal legislative agenda.  From February 2001 through February 2007 Mr. Kuryla held the positions of Assistant Port Director for Intergovernmental Affairs and Assistant Port Director for Intergovernmental Affairs and Promotions.

In 2007, Mr. Kuryla was promoted to Assistant Port Director for Maritime Services. In this capacity, he served as co-lead negotiator for the Port on all long term agreements executed with cruise and cargo customers as well as oversaw Port operations, facilities management, berthing, and property management, in addition to the customer service, business development, public information and media relations.  In 2009, Mr. Kuryla was promoted to Deputy Port Director. In this capacity, he was responsible for directly overseeing the Port’s five assistant port directors.

On April 1, 2014, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez appointed Mr. Kuryla to the position of PortMiami Director and CEO, where he oversees operations and capital development for the cruise capital of the world and cargo global gateway.

Mr. Kuryla holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration from Florida International University. In 2010, Mr. Kuryla obtained his Professional Port Manager PPM^® degree from the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA).

Biography

Scott T. Lashway is a disputes and investigations attorney and co-chair of Holland & Knight’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Team.

He is called upon by clients for representation and counseling on their most complex business disputes and class actions, internal investigations and government enforcement matters, as well as to advise on critical legal and compliance risks. Mr. Lashway has significant experience representing clients in matters involving cybersecurity, data privacy and management, and allegations of misappropriation of intellectual property, trade secrets and proprietary business information. He represents clients in an array of industries, including financial services, life and property/casualty insurance, technology, life science, intelligence, transportation and gaming, as well as their individual officers, directors and employees.

Mr. Lashway represents clients before various state and federal regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), state attorneys general, the New York Department of Financial Services, the Federal Trade Commission, Massachusetts Attorney General and the Massachusetts Division of Securities. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Lashway served as senior in-house counsel and head of investigations for a Fortune 100 global financial services and life insurance company, where he was responsible for representing and advising the company, its board and its executive management in the company's complex disputes and investigations. His in-house practice also involved counseling as to the company's significant legal, compliance and business risks. Mr. Lashway's substantial in-house experience provides him with a practical, real-world perspective on the needs of his clients from which he delivers committed, business-focused and efficient client services.

Biography

As Director of Global Projects and Partnerships with WorldGBC, Jonathan leads the collaboration between national Green Building Councils and partners to tackle some of the big issues in green buildings.

Prior to joining the World Green Building Council, Jonathan undertook various climate change, energy efficiency, and renewable energy roles with organizations ranging from national and local governments through to multi-national corporations, non-profits and start-ups. Past roles include work with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and Waterfront Toronto.  Jonathan is a lawyer by training and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Biography

Ana Lehmann is the Secretary of State for Industry of the Portuguese Government.
Before taking office in July 2017, she developed a strongly focused international career of two decades spanning academia, public policy and executive positions in over twenty public and private organizations.
Her areas of specialization relate to the competitiveness of firms and industries, notably companies’ internationalization, foreign direct investment attraction, innovation, industrial clusters and public policy.
She has been a consultant to leading international institutions (OECD, UNCTAD, European Commission, among others) and various national and regional governments in five continents. She held a variety of managerial responsibilities in several companies and foundations, as well as having founded several companies.
She has been CEO of InvestPorto, Vice-President of the Regional Government Authority of Portugal’s Northern Region, President of the Managing Authority of the Atlantic Area Transnational Program of the European Union, Pro-Rector for Strategic Planning/Enterprise Relations (U.Porto) and has been involved in setting up the Portuguese Investment Agency.
She is a Professor of Economics (FEP-University of Porto, Portugal) and has been Head of International Business (Porto Business School).
Visiting Professor or Visiting Fellow in several US/European universities (e.g. Universities of Strathclyde, Reading, Glasgow, Columbia, among others), and President and one of the 20 Fellows of the European International Business Academy.
She has a MSc and a PhD in Economics (University of Reading, UK) and a BSc in Management (U.Porto).
A regular speaker in top-level conferences, she has been an Editor of scientific journals and is an author widely published in her field. She is the author/editor of books such as Rethinking Investment Incentives: Trends and Policy Options (2016), Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm (2011) and Multinationals, Clusters and Innovation: Does Public Policy Matter? (2006).
She has won several awards for scientific merit and career recognition.

Biography

Carlos Lopez-Cantera is the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Florida.

Carlos Lopez-Cantera was born in Madrid, Spain on December 29, 1973. He was born two months premature and was returned to his intended birthplace of Miami, Florida once he was healthy enough to travel. Lopez-Cantera graduated from Miami-Dade College and continued his studies at the University of Miami, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration.

From 2004 through 2012, Carlos served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives.  Over the course of his 8-year term in the Legislature, Carlos served as a member of the Governor’s Property Tax Reform Committee, the My Safe Florida Home Advisory Council and the Miami-Dade County Mayor’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force.  In the Florida House of Representatives, he chaired the Committee on Business Regulation and the Government Affairs Committee.  Carlos served as Majority Whip from 2009 through 2010 and as the Majority Leader of the Florida House of Representatives during the final two years of his term from 2010 through 2012.

In August 2012, the citizens of Miami-Dade County elected Carlos Lopez-Cantera as the Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County.  Carlos campaigned on a platform to make interaction with the office of the property appraiser easier, increasing community outreach and being more responsive to the needs of the residents of Miami-Dade.

Carlos Lopez-Cantera was appointed as Lieutenant Governor on January 14, 2014, and officially began serving on February 3, 2014. He is the first Hispanic to hold this position in Florida.

Carlos has been married to his wife Renee since 2005 and they have two young daughters.

Biography

Diane Magnum is an award winning broadcast journalist who has spent the past 35 years bringing the news to the people of south Florida. WPLG, the ABC affiliate station in Miami, welcomed Diane to its team in 1983. After two years as midday anchor, Diane moved to weekends before settling in as
Channel 10's Monday through Friday main evening news anchor.
Diane also conceived of and spearheaded the Local 10 community service initiative called "Magnum's Force" in which she used the power of television to put together those in need with those who have the means to help. In the seven years that Magnum's Force was on the air, more than six and a half million dollars in goods and services were given away to thousands of deserving families in south Florida.
In 2017, Diane joined the news department at WFOR, the CBS owned and operated station in MIami, as a contributing anchor for the station’s evening newscasts.
She continues her broadcast work there, while also partnering with corporate clients on commercial and in-house video projects, as well as acting as emcee for corporate and non-profit events.
Diane's body of work has been recognized with three UPI awards, two Emmy Awards, a Silver Circle Award, a Green Eyeshade Award for Investigative Journalism, and the first ever Williams S. Paley award given to a local
television station.
Diane grew up in Miami. She attended Killian High School and Florida State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Communications.

Biography

Stefano Mion joined Ardian in 2007 working in the Milan and London offices. Stefano worked across Europe on transactions in different sectors including renewables, roads, airports and regulated assets.

In 2017, he moved to the US as Ardian launched its direct Infrastructure investment activity in the Americas.

Before joining Ardian in 2007, Stefano Mion worked at Merrill Lynch in the European Leveraged Finance Team in London, UBS Investment Bank in Milan in the Corporate Finance Team after 3 years spent at J.P. Morgan in London.

Stefano holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Luigi Bocconi University of Milan.

Biography

Jose Antonio Miranda is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Onshore business in the Americas Region for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, a position he assumed in November 2017.

In January 2015, Mr. Miranda was named Chief Executive Officer of GAMESA, Latin America leading all operations in the region, with special focus on Mexico and Brazil.

Prior to his work in Latin America, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GAMESA China from April 2011 to January 2015.

From September 2007 to April 2011, he worked as Division Manager of Electrical Components, Manufacturing Division of GAMESA. He also worked for multinational ABB in numerous roles, including Business Unit Director of Medium Voltage in Spain. He studied industrial engineering at the Superior Technical Institute of Industrial Engineers of Gijón (Oviedo University) and in 1997, earned his Masters of Business Administration from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid.

Biography

Raul Moas is the Miami Program Director at Knight Foundation where he leads the foundation's initiatives in building a more dynamic, robust and equitable community of entrepreneurs and startups.

Most recently, Raul served as the Managing Director of Miami Angels, Florida's largest angel investor collective which brings together exceptional entrepreneurs and accredited investors to fuel success. Beyond simply providing capital, Miami Angels collaborates with founders to ensure they have access to best-in-class resources, advisors, and follow-on funding.

Prior to joining Miami Angels, Raul served as the Executive Director of Roots of Hope, an international non-governmental organization focused on youth empowerment in Cuba. At Roots of Hope Raul led the creation of programs like StartUp Cuba, which supports emerging entrepreneurs from the island in gaining valuable and practical skills, and social ventures like Discover Cuba, a B-Corp subsidiary which has facilitated hundreds of socially conscious trips and family reunifications.

Biography

Antonio Mora is the Editor-in Chief of the news aggregator website and app, NewsandNews.com, and a Senior Advisor at Terrapin Partners, LLC. He is also a lecturer at the University of Miami School of Journalism. He is a frequent columnist for “The Hill,” and often appears on domestic and international television networks as an analyst on both Latin-American affairs and the media.

Antonio Mora is best known nationally for his four years as the news anchor, senior correspondent and substitute host of “Good Morning America.” He worked for eight years at ABC, covering news from more than a dozen countries on five continents. He also anchored ABC News’ breaking news coverage, served as a correspondent for “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” and was the daily backup anchor for Jennings in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. He began work at ABC as the host of “Good Morning America Sunday,” while serving as a contributor to “Good Morning America.”

Antonio recently served as a guest co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour and, until 2016, was the anchor of Al Jazeera America's International News Hour and the network's 11 p.m. national news wrap-up show. He also hosted Al Jazeera America's long-form interview show, "Consider This," and was one of the hosts of "Talk to Al Jazeera.”

Previously, he was the main anchor at CBS4 News in Miami, after having served as the main anchor at its sister CBS station, WBBM, in Chicago. Earlier, he was the original co-host of “Good Day L.A” at KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, a reporter and anchor for WTVJ in Miami, one of the original anchors for “Nightside,” NBC's national overnight newscast, one of the original announcers for ESPN's international transmissions to Latin America, an anchor for Telemundo's New York station, WNJU-TV, and a reporter/anchor for Univision's New York station WXTV.

Antonio has received two Peabody Awards, a national Edward R. Murrow Award, three national Emmy Awards, and nine local Emmy Awards. He’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former Vice President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and has served as a member of multiple boards of trustees of non-profit organizations. He was named one of the country's “100 Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine in 1999.

He is an experienced moderator who has moderated gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional televised debates in both Florida and Illinois.

Antonio began his career as an attorney for Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He received an L.L.M. from Harvard Law School and a J.D., summa cum laude, from the Universidad Católica Andres Bello in Caracas. He received honorary doctorates from Our Lady of Holy Cross College and Ursinus College.

Biography

Selected as one of the planet’s 100 most promising leaders by TIME magazine (1994) and as one of the key Latin American Leaders for the new millennium by both TIME and CNN (1999), Juan Carlos Navarro is widely regarded as one of Panama’s most prominent national figures. He founded ANCON, Panama’s leading non-profit environmental NGO, in 1985. Navarro was elected by its General Assembly as Regional Councillor for Latin America by IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (Perth, Australia 1990) and reelected for a second term (Buenos Aires, Argentina 1994), the first panamanian to serve on IUCN´s maximum governing body and the youngest individual elected to its Council. He served as Panama´s first Environmental Ambassador, named by the President ad honorem to help formulate the country´s national and international environmental policy (1995 through 1999). Selected by The Nature Conservancy and the MacArthur Foundation as the recipient of its first Inter American Conservation Fellowship (1998), he authored the book Panama National Parks, published in Madrid, Spain, the country’s first comprehensive text on national parks and nature reserves (currently being updated for its third edition). He was honored by The Botanical Research Institute of Texas with its International Prize for Excellence in recognition for his leadership and support of global conservation and humanitarian endeavors (2001).

Navarro was first elected Mayor of Panama City for a five-year term (1999-2004) after winning his party’s primaries (October 1998) and the general election in May 1999. He was reelected for a second five-year term (2004-2009) in May 2004 in a landslide, with 60% of the votes. The youngest citizen elected to the Mayor’s office, Navarro oversaw 6,000 municipal employees and a US$100 million annual budget (2009). Selected by the University of Panama´s Facultad de Administración Pública as the coutry´s Public Administrator of the Year (2001), he was also named Alumni of the Year by Harvard University´s John F. Kennedy School of Government and recognized as one of its most distinguished public servants (2002).

He joined the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) in April 1998 and was first elected to its nine-member National Executive Committee, the PRD’s top governing organism, in August 2002. He ran unsuccesfully for Vice President on his party´s ticket in 2009, and three years later was elected its top leader as Secretary General of the PRD (2012). A year later Navarro was chosen as his party´s Presidential Candidate in primary elections obtaining 94% of the votes (2013), and ran unsuccessfully for President in Panama´s May 2014 national elections, obtaining 28% of the popular vote. He is the author of Voces de mi Vida (Bogotá, Colombia 2014), a biographical narrative. Navarro is currently the founder and CEO of NSOLAR, one of Panama leading solar energy start-ups (2015).

Born in Panama City on 19 October 1961, Juan Carlos Navarro is fluent in Spanish, French and English. He received his B.A. in Geography and Government from Dartmouth College (1983) and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University (1985).

Biography

Allan is the CEO of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), which represents the political, clinical and economic interests of the provinces more than 41,000 physicians, residents and medical students. In this role, Allan is tasked with driving transformation and modernization in the 138-year-old organization.

Previously Allan was appointed the first Chief Investment Officer for the Province of Ontario, in which he led the creation of a customer-focused, cross-functional enterprise generating billions of dollars in new attraction and retention investment to the province.

As president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce for more than five years, Allan led the revitalization of Ontario's most influential business organization, which has 60,000 members in more than 135 communities. In doing so, he established the OCC as an influential thought leader and change agent, with an engaged membership and a sustained financial foundation.

Allan is an entrepreneur with more than 25 years experience in progressive leadership roles in the bio-pharmaceutical sector. Passionate in support of Canadian business and his community, Allan has served on numerous private and not-for-profit boards and committees, including serving as vice chair of the Markham Stouffville Hospital Board of Directors. Allan was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contribution to his community and his philanthropic activities.

Biography

Susan Nickey is a Managing Director at Hannon Armstrong (NYSE:HASI), a leading investor in the sustainable infrastructure markets, including energy efficiency and renewable energy.  

Ms. Nickey has over 25 years of executive leadership in the energy and finance sectors. She has focused her efforts on proving that creative solutions and innovation can make the production of clean energy more profitable, competitive, affordable and mainstream.  Most recently, she founded and served as CEO of Threshold Power. Prior to working at Threshold, she served as CFO at ACCIONA Energy North America from 2007-2010 and before that as Managing Director of Investment Banking in the Project Finance Group of Mesirow Financial.

Ms. Nickey currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Wind Energy Association and its Finance Committee and the Board of Directors of the American Council of Renewable Energy and its Executive Committee.  She has previously served on the Governor of Nevada’s Renewable Energy Development Program Task. She was named one of Women’s eNews’ 21 Leaders for the 21st Century for her leadership in sustainable development.   Ms. Nickey holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Biography

Xavier Mufraggi is a dynamic professional with a strong strategic marketing background in the food, consumer and hospitality sectors. Holding a master’s degree in Business Management from EDHEC, one of the top 5 business schools in Europe, Xavier began his career in Sales and Marketing for Kraft Foods in Europe. After seven years with Kraft, he joined Club Med and after three years with the company, was named CEO of Club Med North America and Caribbean where he now oversees a $290 million dollar operation consisting of 3,000 employees. Xavier succeeded in the turnaround of Club Med’s North American business in 2010 and the region has posted record performances every year since 2012 with excellent prospects for 2018-2021. He also started bold initiatives such as the partnership with Cirque du Soleil and had a key role in Club Med Digital WW transformation. Xavier has lived in France, Africa and the US. As a French/U.S. citizen, he resides in Miami, Florida with his wife and daughters where he actively trains and competes in triathlons.

Biography

Lester Sola is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. He oversees operations at Miami International Airport (MIA) and four general aviation (GA) airports in the Miami area, which together generate $33.7 billion in business revenue and support more than 280,000 direct and indirect jobs. MIA leads the way, handling more than 44 million passengers and more than two million tons of cargo annually, placing it among America’s busiest international passenger and cargo airports.
Mr. Sola has served Miami-Dade County for more than 26 years, most recently as Director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department. As Director of the largest utility in the southeastern United States, Mr. Sola was responsible for: providing high-quality drinking water and wastewater disposal services to more than 2.3 million residents, businesses and visitors daily; managing more than 2,700 employees and an annual operating budget of $796 million; and leading the largest capital improvement program in Miami-Dade County’s history. During Mr. Sola’s tenure at the department from 2015 to 2017, nearly 1,000 projects worth more than $1.1 billion were completed.
During the next 15-20 years, the multi-billion-dollar program to upgrade the County’s entire water and sewer infrastructure will include certification of 63 pump stations out of moratorium, allowing for community growth and economic development. The Department has approximately 900 additional projects in varying stages of progress.
Prior to his appointment to the Water and Sewer Department, Mr. Sola had been the Director of the Internal Services Department (ISD) since October of 2011. ISD is responsible for Miami-Dade County’s procurement of goods and services, small business development, architectural and engineering selection services, capital improvement programs, design and construction services, facilities and fleet management, risk management, parking operations, printing and graphics services, surplus asset disposal and capital inventory oversight. Mr. Sola managed an operating budget of $370 million, capital projects totaling over $400 million, and over 850 employees.
Mr. Sola began his career with Miami-Dade County government in 1992 as a member of the County Manager Management Training Program. He has held several high-level positions including: Contract Coordination Officer in the County Executive Manager's Office; Architectural and Engineering Consultant Coordinator for the County Executive Manager's Office; Assistant to the County Manager; Associate Director for the Aviation Department; Deputy Director for the Department of Business Development; Supervisor of Elections; and Director of the Internal Services Department.
During his more than two decades of public service, Mr. Sola has been responsible for: the reorganization of several County departments; coordination and refocusing of the capital program at Miami International Airport; the establishment of small and minority-based programs for the procurement of goods and services; establishment of centralized systems for the tracking of County capital expansion programs and professional services; and the provision of management direction to County departments, management agreements and agencies such as Aviation, Seaport, Beacon Council, Performing Arts Center and the American Airlines Arena.
Mr. Sola has a master's degree and bachelor's degree in public administration, with a minor in organizational psychology from Florida International University.

Biography

Marc is a leader in EY’s US infrastructure strategy practice working with clients on project selection, risk assessment, financing, and execution. For the past 25 years, he has specialized in developing business strategies for investors, constructors, and operators who are undertaking large infrastructure investments. Marc has led efforts in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. He has led efforts in assessing the market for and deploying smart infrastructure technology in the US and worldwide.  Marc also leads EYs infrastructure strategy practice focused on technology and telecom clients, where he works at the intersection of transportation and emerging technology. Marc has deep experience in all sectors of the infrastructure landscape.  He has worked on toll roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, airports, rail, subway, parking, energy, power, waste, wind, water, housing, social infrastructure, utility services, technology and telecommunications.

Biography

Jeremy Rasmussen is Chief Technology Officer of Abacode, a Tampa-based company that provides managed cybersecurity services to growing businesses across all industries. Abacode employs global thought leaders and industry experts in ethical hacking, corporate governance, and incident response to provide its clients with a holistic view of cybersecurity.  He is also an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida and founder of the USF Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC). Since 2000, he has taught USF courses in cryptography and network security, ethical hacking, digital forensics & investigations, and mobile & wireless security.  He has more than 25 years of experience in performing R&D and developing cybersecurity solutions for government and commercial customers.  Jeremy is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and Project Management Professional (PMP). He was named the 2017 Tampa Bay Technology Leader of the Year.

Biography

Entrepreneur and travel influencer, Bill Panoff, began his career as an entertainer aboard cruise ships, and as CEO of PPI Group has since grown to become a pinnacle in the cruise industry. Panoff serves as editor-in-chief of the #1 Cruise Travel Magazine, Porthole Cruise Magazine, which has recently expanded its online presence in celebration of the 22nd anniversary. Aside from growing PPI Group into a successful custom publishing business, Panoff has expanded the core of PPI Group into digital marketing and advertising with an emphasis on the cruise and luxury space. Panoff credits his success to a combination of hard work, his intimate knowledge of the cruise business, and a desire to make significant contributions to the travel industry.

Biography

Lyon (“Lenny”) Roth has enjoyed an extensive career in law, business and financial services in Canada, Israel and the United States.   He is a graduate of McGill University and Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada.  He was a corporate lawyer at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz in New York, a senior executive at Koor Industries in Tel Aviv and worked in various capacities at Sanford Bernstein, Merrill Lynch and UBS. He was also a partner at OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based global venture platform.

Lyon is currently chairman of Yarotek, a Miami-based solar energy company with over 75 MW of installed capacity, mostly in Puerto Rico, and serves as a senior advisor to IDE, one of the world’s leading water solutions company, based in Israel.

Lyon is a governor of Ben Gurion University, serves on multiple corporate and community boards, is a member of the Israeli Consulate’s Speakers Bureau and speaks frequently on topics relating to Israel, the political and economic climate in the Middle East, energy security and environmental sustainability.

Lyon has traveled to nearly 50 countries and is fluent in English, Hebrew and French.

Biography

Sarah Thomas is the managing director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, part of Deloitte LLP’s Life Sciences and Health Care practice. As the leader of the Center, she drives the research agenda to inform stakeholders across the health care landscape about key trends and issues facing the industry. Market and policy forces include the shift from a volume-based system to one more focused on cost and quality outcomes, the rise in consumerism, and changes coming from new political leadership. Sarah aims for the Center to be a source of clarity for consumers, businesses, governments, and other stakeholders. She has deep experience in public policy – ranging from reimbursement to quality issues in Medicare, Medicaid, and the private health insurance market, including health insurance exchanges and marketplaces.

Sarah was previously vice president for public policy and communications at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), where she was responsible for the development of NCQA’s public policy strategy, its work with the federal and state government, as well as its media and communications operations. She also served as the director of the Public Policy Institute (PPI) Health Team at AARP. She oversaw AARP’s advocacy in areas of cost, access, and quality related to health care reform, Medicare, Medicaid, prescription drugs, private insurance, and public health.

In addition to her nonprofit work, Sarah has 14 years of experience in the federal government. She was deputy director at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and served at the Congressional Budget Office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Sarah has worked for national associations, in state government, and for the Advisory Board Company. She holds a M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Biography

As Global Head of Sustainability at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Alec Saltikoff oversees programs related to energy efficiency, sustainability, renewable energy and maximizing synergies for the firm’s Global Real Estate division. Alec’s areas of focus include implementation of Renewable Energy by 2020 Vision, reducing the firm’s energy costs and carbon footprint through utilizing alternative energy procurement methods, synthetic PPA’s, maximizing building efficiency, energy investment projects, and cutting overall real estate expenditure through promoting and driving a sustainable, responsible, and cost efficient operating environment for the firm’s global real estate portfolio.

Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, Alec was at Trinity Wall Street, where he managed energy procurement, sustainability, engineering and building efficiency programs for the entire Trinity Real Estate portfolio.  Alec’s focus on innovative, sustainability-driven methodologies resulted in achieving Energy Star and LEED EB Gold and Silver certifications for key Trinity’s properties with the added recognition of 2010 and 2015 BOMA Pinnacle Awards and 2010 ENYA Award. As a result of these efforts, Trinity’s real estate portfolio was successfully purchased in 2016 by Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, at record-setting cap rates.

Prior to joining Trinity Wall Street, Alec held various managerial positions at Johnson Controls and Andover Controls, where he was responsible for development and execution of energy management, building efficiency and sustainability projects and strategies for leading commercial real estate clients.

Alec is a graduate of the executive management program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, where he was awarded an Executive Certificate in Leadership and Management.  Alec holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College.  Alec possesses the following industry certifications: Certified Business Energy Professional (BEP), Certified Energy Manager (CEM), Certified Energy Procurement Professional (CEP), Certified Energy Auditor (CEA), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP).  In 2016, Alec was awarded the prestigious Energy New York Award in Leadership.  He is also a member of several boards of directors of leading industry organizations and chairs various energy industry committees.

Biography

Brendan oversees strategic development and integration of rating systems at USGBC. In this role Brendan collaborates with teams developing tools that transform the way we design, build and operate the built environment. He led the effort to establish the system goals for LEED v4 and is building on this work as the foundation to integrate other programs USGBC collaborates on.

Brendan is a board member of the New Buildings Institute and is deputy director of the center for cycling technology at USGBC. Additionally, Brendan volunteers as a board member of the foundation USGBC is partnering with to build the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Brendan is proud to serve as an advisor to the Honor’s College at his alma mater Purdue University. He is also a licensed Professional Engineer and a LEED Fellow.

Biography

Since 2017, Professor John A. Quelch has served as Vice Provost of the University of Miami and Dean of Miami Business School.
He was formerly the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Professor Quelch is the first person to be Dean of three leading business schools on three continents. He served as Dean of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and Beijing; as Dean of London Business School in the United Kingdom; and as Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School. At CEIBS, he raised the school’s MBA Financial Times ranking to number 15 in the world. At London Business School, he raised the global ranking to number 8.
Professor Quelch is the author of 25 books on strategic marketing, global branding and consumer-centric healthcare. He has been a director of ten publicly quoted companies including Reebok, Pepsi Bottling Group, Aramark and WPP, the world’s largest marketing services company. He has given speeches and seminars in more than 50 countries and has consulted to many multinationals including Sinopec and Tencent. He is senior strategy advisor to JD.com.
Professor Quelch earned degrees from Oxford University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School and Harvard School of Public Health.

Biography

Damian J. Thorman is Vice-President and Chief Innovation Officer of Miami-Dade College. Mr. Thorman oversees innovation, economic and social entrepreneurship and creative disruption at the College.  Damian comes to the college with a mix of government, philanthropic and private sector experience. He has served in senior leadership positions in all three branches of government.  Most recently, he was appointed by President Obama to lead the White House Social Innovation Fund.  Prior to that he served as a deputy director and assistant prosecuting attorney and senior congressional aid.  Mr. Thorman was also the National Program Director for the Knight Foundation and National Director of Policy for the Kauffman Foundation where he helped developed the foundation entrepreneurship programming.  In addition to serving on the White House Deputies Committee on Evidence-Based Research, he co-founded the New Americans Campaign, was deputy director and prosecutor in Jackson County Missouri, Chaired the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and co-founded the University of Missouri Innocence Project.  He received an MBA from Rockhurst University and Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri.

Biography

Eric Sain, a sales associate and district sales manager with Illustrated Properties in Palm Beach, is the 2018 president-elect of Florida Realtors®, the state’s largest professional association with 180,000 members. “Our state’s real estate market will continue its strong performance in the coming year,” says Sain, who is active in residential sales. “Demand remains high for residential and commercial properties from buyers seeking a better life in Florida.”

A leader in regional, state and national real estate organizations, Sain has served as chairman of the Realtors® Association of the Palm Beaches and was its “Realtor of the Year” in 2010. He has been a director and district vice president of Florida Realtors, and served on many of its boards, forums and committees. He is also a director of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) and is the 2018 liaison to NAR’s Realtor Party Disbursement Committee.

Sain says there have been many magical moments in his real estate career. “I recently helped a young couple find their first home and get approved for financing,” he says. “The closing was delayed a few days by Hurricane Irma, but when they finally got their keys, they were so happy to become owners. To celebrate, their whole family joined together to paint and personalize the house.”

In the community, Sain was appointed to a governor’s task force for housing remediation in 2009 and is vice chair the West Palm Beach Flood Plain Management Committee. He also belongs to numerous other business and civic organizations.

As vice president of the state association, Sain will focus on enhancing Florida Realtors’ services, support and advocacy programs for real estate professionals. “Our industry continues to evolve, and real estate professionals can never stop learning,” he says. “In addition, advocacy is one of our most important services, and Florida Realtors will continue to serve as an effective voice for homeowners and local communities throughout the state.”

Biography

Naveen Singla leads the Data Science Center of Excellence for Monsanto. His team is passionate about driving better decisions using data and analytics. The Center works to develop strategies and solutions for solving real-world issues, such as food security, by delving into how machines learn structure from data.

Singla has more than a decade of experience finding meaning in data for applications in the areas of biometrics, high-frequency stock trading and agriculture. During his tenure at Monsanto, he has served as the director of analytics, where he helped grow the value realized from data science and establish a data-driven mindset by developing strategies, influencing leaders, and implementing solutions for improving food security. Prior to that, Singla led Predictive Analytics and was a strategic scientist working to improve decision-making processes in the R&D pipeline. He also established a learning program and culture for Monsanto’s data science community of 500 employees.

Singla holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, India, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

Biography

Business oriented IS professional with over twenty (20) years of IT security experience encompassing more than fifteen (15) years leading information security, risk & compliance teams at an Enterprise level for one of the Nation’s most highly regarded Health Care and Higher Education institutions.  Proven ability to build world class IS Security capability leveraging in-depth knowledge of current IS best practices and compliance regulations such as FERPA, HIPAA, HITECH Acts and PCI, coupled with personal commitment of policies and controls, in parallel with strong focus on developing and mentoring team members.

Miami Dade College – February 2016 – Present – AVP, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

Bachelors of Business Administration – Nova Southeastern University

Masters of Business Administration (concentration in Leadership) – Nova Southeastern University

Guest Speaker:  InfoSec2018 March 2018, SINC USA February 2018, CIO & CISO Solutions Tour December 2017, SFISSA Biennial Security Conference March 2017, IT Palooza December 2016, University of Miami’s Cyber Security conference in October 2015, Miami HIT Summit February 2015, Nova University, Florida International University and St. Thomas University

Biography

Katherine joins from Advanced Microgrid Solutions, a company she co-founded which is now a leader in energy storage solutions for utilities and large commercial and industrial customers. During her tenure, AMS secured 120MW in utility contracts and enterprise-level agreements with Walmart, California State University and Shell Energy North America. Her previous positions include VP and Director of Evolution Market’s western power desk, Principal of Energy Procurement at Pacific Gas and Electric, and finance roles with RBC Capital Markets and UBS.

Biography

Sameer Sharma is the General Manager (Smart Cities) for IOT Solutions at Intel. He leads a global team that drives new growth categories for Intel in Smart Cities such as End-to-end Video, Connected Lighting, Environmental Monitoring, Traffic Management and Smart Parking.  His team works with ecosystem partners and cities to enable new solutions and business models.

Sameer is a thought leader in IOT and Mobile ecosystem and has driven multiple strategic initiatives over the past 18 years. At Intel, he has played leadership roles including Global Chief of Staff for Intel Mobile Communications Group, where he led strategy. During this time, he helped launch the first Intel Global LTE modem, first Intel-based smartphone in the US and helped grow Intel-based tablet volume by 3X.

Sameer has an MBA from The Wharton School at UPenn, and a Masters in Computer Engineering from Rutgers. He holds 9 patents in the areas of IOT and Mobile.

Biography

Stavros N. Yiannouka is the CEO of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a major initiative of the Qatar Foundation. WISE is a multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary platform dedicated to building the future of education through innovation. WISE flagship programs include an annual summit dubbed the ‘Davos’ of education and the WISE Prize for Education, the first global prize of its kind to recognize an individual or team for making a major contribution to education. To find out more about WISE please visit www.wise-qatar.org.

Prior to joining WISE in August 2012, Stavros was the Executive Vice-Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) at the National University of Singapore. He joined the LKY School in June 2005 to spearhead the implementation of an ambitious growth strategy, which he had helped develop as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Today, the LKY School is widely recognized as the leading global policy school in Asia. Together with Kishore Mahbubani et al. Stavros is the co-author of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy: Building a Global Policy School in Asia, World Scientific (2012). To find out more about the LKY School please visit www.lkyspp.nus.edu.sg.

Before joining the LKY School, Stavros spent five years with McKinsey & Company from 2000-2005 serving private and public sector clients in Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Canada, predominantly in finance, healthcare and education. Prior to joining McKinsey, Stavros practiced corporate law in the City of London from 1995-1998 with the firms Gouldens and Mayer, Brown & Platt. Stavros holds an MBA (with Distinction) from the London Business School and an LLB (with Honours) from the University of Bristol. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and an Adjunct Professor and Advisor at the LKY School.

Biography

William Talbert III, CDME, has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) for the past sixteen years, and Chief Operating Officer for the previous nine. Major accomplishments include: assisting with the passage of the Travel Promotion Act of 2010; negotiating interlocal government funding agreements; and preparing four successful Super Bowl bids and three Pow Wow bids.

Under Mr. Talbert’s leadership, the GMCVB was awarded a prestigious accreditation from the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program in November 2007. Mr. Talbert is a current member of the following bodies: the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board; the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) Board; the Advisory Board, Brand USA; the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of VISIT FLORIDA (of which he is also Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair. He is also past Chair of several prestigious marketing organizations.

Mr. Talbert holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Florida Atlantic University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida. In 2006, he earned the Certified Destination Management Executive (CDME) designation - the highest educational achievement in the destination marketing industry.

Biography

Jean Rosanvallon is a 1974 graduate of France’s business school Hautes Études Commerciales.

In 1975, he was recruited by Dassault Aviation to coordinate the Company’s Falcon business jet programs between its Paris headquarters and its U.S. subsidiary, then called Falcon Jet Corporation, based in Teterboro, NJ, a joint venture between Pan-American World Airways and Dassault Aviation.

From 1974 through 1984, Jean Rosanvallon came to the United States as Assistant to the President of Falcon Jet Corporation, and was later promoted to Vice President, Finance.

From 1984 through 1994, He was Vice-President of Marketing based in Paris.

Returning to the U.S. in 1994 as Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Jean Rosanvallon was responsible for consolidating the worldwide sales and marketing of Falcon business jets.  He was named President of Dassault Falcon Jet in November 1996.

Biography

Raviv Turner is the CEO & Co-Founder of CaliberMind, which helps business-to-business organizations derive strategic Insights from their data by using the latest AI technologies to accelerate business growth. A former military intelligence officer, C-level technology leader and entrepreneur with more than a decade of experience, Raviv has developed and led high-performing product teams for both global 2000 organizations and start-ups, specializing in building high growth software products. Since launching CaliberMind in 2016, Raviv has been a highly sought-after industry thought leader, selected as Inc Magazine's 'Top Tech Leaders to Watch' and quoted by Forbes, Inc., and Huffington Post.

Biography

Andres interfaces with regulators and policymakers around the world as the Global Head of Policy for Citi FinTech, a new unit that spearheads Citi Global Consumer Banking's transformation into a mobile-centric "Bank of Tomorrow". He joined Citi from an international personal-finance startup and has served in a variety of digital roles, first for Citi Latin America, then for Citi's U.S. consumer businesses, and now globally.

Before Citi FinTech, Andres was Global Head of Emerging Platforms and Services for Citi's Consumer businesses. Earlier, as Citi's first global head of mobile banking, he invented Citi Mobile Snapshot, a 2014 breakout feature patented in the US, Mexico and Singapore. In 2015, Andres turned Citi into the world's first bank with an Apple Watch app.

Prior to becoming a banker, Andres was an international correspondent and senior news executive. He had tea with mass-murderer military dictators; was driven, blindfolded and at gunpoint, around the capital of Paraguay after midnight; was arrested in Tierra del Fuego on suspicion of being a British spy; and raced in a car at 120 mph along the edge of a minefield in Croatia. He finds most days in banking very manageable.

Biography

An American by choice, Eduardo Padrón arrived in the United States as a teenage refugee in 1961. Since 1995, he has served as President of Miami Dade College (MDC), the largest institution of higher education in America with more than 165,000 students. He is credited with elevating MDC into a position of national prominence among the best and most recognized U.S. colleges and universities. An economist by training, Dr. Padrón earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. In 2018, he was elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of America's oldest and most prestigious organizations. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., for being a prominent national voice for access and inclusion in higher education. In 2009, TIME magazine included him on the list of “The 10 Best College Presidents.” In 2010, Florida Trend magazine placed him on the cover of its inaugural “Floridian of the Year” issue. In 2011, The Washington Post named him one of the eight most influential college presidents in the U.S. Also in 2011, he was awarded the prestigious 2011 Carnegie Corporation Centennial Academic Leadership Award. In 2012, he received the Citizen Service Award from Voices for National Service, the coveted TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence, and the Aspen Institute Ascend Fellowship. In 2015, he was inducted into the U.S. News & World Report STEM Hall of Fame. Dr. Padrón’s energetic leadership extends to many of the nation’s leading organizations. He is the past chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) and is a past chair of the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and former chair of the Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF). During his career, he has been selected to serve on posts of national prominence by five American presidents. Internationally, President Padrón’s accomplishments have been recognized by numerous nations and organizations including the Republic of France, which named him Commandeur in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques; the Republic of Argentina, which awarded him the Order of San Martin; Spain’s King Juan Carlos II, who bestowed upon him the Order of Queen Isabella; Spain’s Prince and Princess of Asturias, Felipe and Letizia, who presented him with the Juan Ponce de Leon 500th Anniversary award; and Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who appointed him Honorary Consul in Florida of the Kingdom of Morocco in 2016. Dr. Padrón’s pace-setting work at Miami Dade College has been hailed as a model of innovation in higher education. He is credited with engineering a culture of success that has produced impressive results in student access, retention, graduation, and overall achievement. MDC enrolls and graduates more minorities than any other institution in the United States, including the largest numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans. Under Dr. Padrón’s leadership, Miami Dade College has received national recognition for its longstanding involvement with its urban community, its catalytic effect for social and economic change, and the marked difference the College has made in student access and success through pace-setting initiatives. He currently serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Urban Institute; RC 2020; the International Association of University Presidents; and Achieving the Dream. In past years he has held leadership positions on the boards of the Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta, Miami Branch (past Chair); the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities (Chair); the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the White House Commission on Educational Excellence; Campus Compact; Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute; The College Board; and the White House/Congressional Commission of the National Museum of the American Latino. He is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and prestigious awards.

Biography

Jean Raby is CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management and a member of the senior management committee of Natixis. Mr. Raby joined Natixis in 2017 and leads the firm's Asset Management, Private Banking and Private Equity businesses.

Before joining Natixis, Mr. Raby served as Chief Financial Officer of SFR (2016), an integrated media/telecom operator in France. Prior to that he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Legal Officer for Alcatel‐Lucent, the global telecom equipment manufacturer (2013‐ 2016). He previously worked in Goldman Sachs' investment banking division for 16 years (1996‐ 2012), where he rose to become a Partner of the firm in 2004 and co‐CEO of the division for France,

Belgium and Luxembourg and head of the firm's Paris office in 2006 before becoming co‐CEO of Goldman Sachs in Russia in 2011. He began his career in 1989 as a corporate lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Paris.

Mr. Raby, a dual Canadian and French citizen, earned a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from Université Laval in Canada, a master's degree in international relations (MPhil) from the University of Cambridge in the U.K., and a Master of Laws degree (LLM) from Harvard Law School in the U.S. He is a member of the New York Bar. He sits on the board of SNC Lavalin, the Canadian engineering group, and on the board of Université Laval (Canada).

Biography

Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards is a space entrepreneur and futurist. He is a Co-Founder of the International Space University, Singularity University, SEDS, the Space Generation Foundation and Moon Express, Inc. a space transportation and lunar resources company located at Cape Canaveral, where he currently serves as President and CEO. Bob chairs the Space Commerce Committee of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, serves on the board of the Space Foundation, and is a member of the International Institute of Space Law.

As Director of the Optech Space Division from 2002-2009, Bob led the company's technology into orbit in 2004 and to the surface of Mars in 2007 aboard the NASA Phoenix Lander, making the first discovery of falling Martian snow. Bob studied aerospace and industrial engineering at Ryerson University; physics and astronomy at the University of Toronto; and space science at Cornell University where he became special assistant to Carl Sagan.

Bob is an evangelist of the "NewSpace" movement and has been a catalyst for a number of commercial space ventures. He is the recipient of the K.E. Tsiolkovski Medal (Russia, 1995), the Space Frontier “Vision to Reality” Award (USA, 1994), the Arthur C. Clarke Commendation (Sri Lanka, 1990) and Aviation & Space Technology Laurel (USA, 1988). He is a contributing author of "Blueprint for Space" (Smithsonian Institution 1992); "Return to the Moon" (Apogee Books 2005) and "The Farthest Shore" (ISU Press 2009). In 2005 Bob received a Doctorate of Space Achievement (honoris causa) from the International Space University for “distinguished accomplishments in support of humanity’s exploration and use of space.”

Biography

Alexandra (Alex) Villoch is East Region Publisher for McClatchy, a national news media company.  She oversees operations at the Miami Herald Media Company – which includes the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald newspapers – as well as the Bradenton Herald in Florida; The (Macon) Telegraph and the (Columbus) Ledger-Enquirer in Georgia; the (Biloxi) SunHerald in Mississippi; the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky; and the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.

Villoch previously served as President and Publisher of the Miami Herald Media Company since March 2014. Under her leadership, the Miami Herald was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes.

Villoch is a past-Chair of The Beacon Council; Chair Emeritus of the One Community, One Goal Initiative of The Beacon Council; and on the Executive Committee  of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.  She is also on the Executive Committee of the United Way of Miami Dade and is serving as Co-Chair of the Annual Campaign.

She holds a B.A. in Political Science and an MBA from the University of Miami, and resides with her husband in the city of Coral Gables.

Biography

Born in Hull (Gatineau) on November 25, 1944, son of Carmel Rémillard and Jeannine Desjardins, Gil Rémillard is married to Marie DuPont. They have one son, Nicholas-Philippe, and two grandchildren, Matthieu-Gil and William, whose mother is Élizabeth Côté. Gil has two brothers, Jean and Martin and a sister, Sylvie.

Gil Rémillard holds degrees in Philosophy (1965), Political Science and Economics (1968), was called to the Québec Bar (1969), and has a PhD in Law (1973). He has worked in the fields of university teaching, private law and politics.

Career

From 1965 to 1969, when he was studying at the University of Ottawa, Gil Rémillard worked as a freelance journalist for Radio-Canada on Parliament Hill.

Professor and lawyer (1973 – 1985)

Upon returning from Europe in 1973, where he completed his PhD, Mr. Rémillard began teaching constitutional and administrative law in the Faculty of Law at Laval University in Québec City; he also taught in several other universities. During this time, he also practiced law at the Chouinard, Rémillard, Bussière & Robinson law firm and acted as advisor to the Québec and Ottawa governments on reforming administrative bodies and on certain constitutional issues, among them cable distribution. In 1983, he became a special constitutional advisor to Brian Mulroney, then Prime Minister of Canada, and an advisor to the United Nations Canadian delegation in New York. He has appeared before all levels of the Canadian court system, including the Supreme Court of Canada. From 1981 to 1985, he organized and chaired the Québec Constitutional Conferences at Laval University, which included a number of high-profile speakers, among them Prime Ministers Trudeau and Mulroney, as well as Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (former Secretary-General of the United Nations), Mother Teresa and Marguerite Yourcenar.

Politician (1985 – 1994)

On December 2, 1985, Mr. Rémillard was elected as the MNA for the Québec City riding of Jean-Talon; 10 days later, he was sworn in as a member of Premier Robert Bourassa’s Liberal government. Within that government he held several positions, being successively Minister for Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of International Relations, Minister of Public Security, and Minister of Justice. As Québec’s Minister of Justice for nearly six years, Mr. Rémillard was responsible for implementing the new Civil Code of Québec, which came into effect January 1, 1994. In 1990, he presided over the creation of the Human Rights Tribunal of Québec and, on June 4, 1990, convened a major Justice Summit and created the Prix de la justice Award. Each year, the award recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals who have worked to ensure and promote the quality, universality and accessibility of justice.

As Minister of Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs, Mr. Rémillard headed the negotiations which led to the Meech Lake (1987) and Charlottetown (1992) Accords. While not officially part of the Canadian Constitution, these two agreements had a considerable impact on Canadian federalism, primarily because the Parliament of Canada recognized the “Québec nation.” In addition, the distinct nature of Québec and the principles of cooperative federalism that were central to the Meech Lake Accord are now recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada as points of reference for interpreting the Canadian Constitution.

As Minister of International Relations for the Bourassa government, Mr. Rémillard negotiated the agreement that would lead to the creation of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF). As the Minister responsible for International Relations and La Francophonie, in 1987, he hosted the organization’s second summit in Québec.

Professor and Lawyer (1994 – the present)

In January 1994, Mr. Rémillard left the political arena. From February 1, 1994 until March 1, 2016, he taught at the École Nationale d’Administration Publique (ÉNAP), where he lectured on administrative and international law and gave a course on the principles and issues involved in public administration. He also served as counsel to the law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain, now Dentons Canada LLP.

In 1995, along with his wife Marie DuPont and his son Nicholas Rémillard, he founded the International Economic Forum of the Americas, which annually presents the following events: the World Strategic Forum in April in Miami; the Conference of Montreal in June; the Toronto Global Forum in September; and the Conference of Paris in November. The primary goal of these forums is to promote understanding of the major issues involved in economic globalization.

From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Rémillard acted as an advisor to the governments of the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria concerning the reform of their Civil Codes, as part of the preparation for their entry into the European Union.

From 2008 to 2011, he served as Chair of the Board of Governors for the Université de Sherbrooke. From 2009 to 2012, he acted as a negotiator for the Québec Government and Secretary General of the Québec-France Mutual Recognition Agreement that establishes equivalency of professional qualifications for many trades and professions on both sides of the Atlantic. From 2010 to 2013 he sat on the roundtable of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); in December 2015, the Government of Canada appointed him Chair of the Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission. As Founding Chairman of the International Economic Forum of the Americas, in partnership with HEC Montreal, Sciences Po Paris, the University of Seoul, the University of California in San Diego, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2017 he created the International Institute of Economic Diplomacy.

Publications

Mr. Rémillard is the President and publisher of the economic magazine FORCES and IEFA Magazine, the official magazine of the International Economic Forum of the Americas. He is also the author of several books and articles, among them: Le fédéralisme canadien, et Le fédéralisme canadien, Éléments constitutionnels de formation et d’évolution, Volumes I and II. He has edited a number of collections, including Global Economy: The Foundation for the Next Era of Growth, which was published in 2014.

Honours

In 1992, he was made Doctor Honoris Causa by the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille University, France. In 1994, he was awarded the Mérite du Barreau by the Québec Bar for his assistance in creating the new Civil Code of Québec. In 2001, he was appointed to the Order of Canada and, in 2002, was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In 2004, he received the Ordre national du Québec and, that same year, was made a Knight of France’s Légion d’honneur by then-President Jacques Chirac; in 2017, he was made an Officer of that same organization by then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

In May 2007, he was granted the honorary title of Advocatus Emeritus by the Québec Bar. In 2013, he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the France-Canada Institute’s Samuel de Champlain prize. That same year, Ottawa’s Saint Paul University named him Alumnus of the Year and established a fund in his name to help children with learning disabilities. On June 11, 2017, he was awarded the 50^th Anniversary Medal by the Québec Ministry for International Relations and La Francophonie (MRIF), in recognition of his years of service as Minister.

Social Involvement

A dyslexic himself, Mr. Rémillard devotes his efforts to supporting organizations that help children with learning disabilities. He serves on a number of Boards of Directors, one of which is the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, co-chaired by former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul, that helps welcome new citizens and integrate them into Canadian life.