Tony Andrulonis

CEO
HealthChannels

Dr. Tony Andrulonis leads HealthChannels as Chief Executive Officer. In this role he collaborates cross-functionally with executive, senior and local management to define key performance objectives, and develop strategies to address healthcare delivery challenges.

As an emergency medicine physician, Dr. Andrulonis has driven groundbreaking results in clinical care, and administrative efficiency over the course of his career. With expertise improving the quality of life for patients and providers, he guides health systems through the transition to value-based care.

Prior to joining HealthChannels, Dr. Andrulonis served as the President of Emergency Medicine at Envision Health, and Chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Baptist Health in Miami, Florida. As a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Task Force member, Dr. Andrulonis contributed to the emergency response for 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He is a sought out speaker, and was recognized by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) as a “Hero of Emergency Medicine” during their 40th Anniversary celebration.

Dr. Andrulonis graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed a residency at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MBA from Northwestern, Kellogg School of Management and served as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Aronson

Financial Advisor
Morgan Stanley

Mike is the Head of the Flagler Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. He and his team are exclusively focused on the needs of multi-generational families and private business owners. Mike joined Morgan Stanley (and its predecessor firms) in 2003 from J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York. Prior to that, he was a Certified Public Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand from 1993 to 1996.

Mike graduated from the Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania in 1993 and received his MBA from Michigan Business School (now Stephen M. Ross School of Business) in 1998.

Ethan Assal

Managing Partner
CYwP Fund

Ethan Assal is managing partner of CYPF Manager, LLC, CYPF Manager III, LLC, CYPF Manager IV, LLC, CYPF Manager V, LLC, CYPF Manager VI, LLC and CYPF Manager VII, LLC, each of which manages its related CYwP Fund.

Before establishing CYWP Fund, Assal founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Multi-Media Holdings, Inc. (MHI). In 2000, the Washington Business Journal ranked MHI as the largest advertising firm in Washington, DC. At MHI, Assal grew capitalized billings to $400 million and managed a staff of 600 employees in offices across five states. He negotiated more than $50 million in a combination of mezzanine and equity financing and oversaw a mergers and acquisitions program that successfully purchased and integrated more than 20 competitors’ firms. Prior to MHI, Assal founded Personalities, Inc. while still in college. Assal directed all licensing, marketing, product development and manufacturing. Under his leadership, the company grew to be the largest manufacturer and distributor of non-apparel licensed rock n’ roll merchandise. In the 1980s, Personalities, Inc. shipped more than one million buttons and key chains per month to major retailers for bands including The Police, Duran Duran, AC/DC, Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. Assal sold the business in 1986 at the age of 25.

A graduate of Brandeis University and the Harvard Business School OPM Program, Assal is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner and served as a judge for the prestigious award for several years. He also is a recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s “Forty under Forty” award and the Mass Mutual Blue-Chip Award. Assal is an active member of the Washington-Baltimore World Presidents’ Organization.

Brent Blankenship

Director
Trivest Partners

Brent has spent his entire career working for or investing in entrepreneurs. Now he is a Director at Trivest Partners for TGIF, the firms' non-control growth investment fund. Prior to joining Trivest, Brent was Vice President Sheridan Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. His previous experience includes working at a financial services platform backed by Carlyle and Warburg Pincus, as well as being an early team member at a venture-backed company acquired by Nasdaq, Inc. Brent began his career at Morgan Keegan, a Memphis-based investment bank. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Furman University, where he was a member of the football team.

Bhavik Daftary

Founder & CEO
Nyne Infotech

As a serial entrepreneur, executive, private equity investor, and business leader, Bhavik has successfully led organizations throughout his career, establishing brand name recognition and a reputation for delivering quality and cost-effective solutions with a strong focus on client-oriented services.

Mike Dunkle

Partner
Redpath and Company

Mike Dunkle is a Partner in Redpath’s transaction advisory services group, leading the firm’s Florida expansion. He specializes in financial due diligence, sell-side prep, working capital, and closing mechanism negotiation. Mike has performed buy-side diligence on 200+ targets and also advised on 150+ sell-side divestitures. He supports clients and banking partners regarding commercial and accounting matters on middle-market deals.

Alex Esposito

CEO
Circuit

Alex Esposito is the CEO and Co-founder of Circuit. Alex has over 10 years of experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Circuit, they were a financial research intern at Nua Advisors. Alex also worked at Vistaprint as the Global Partnerships Manager.

Alex received their MBA in Economics-Financial Markets from Bentley University's McCallum Graduate School of Business and their Bachelor of Science in Economics Finance from Bentley University.

Tom Evangelista

Group Chairman - South Florida
Vistage Florida

Tom Evangelista is a seasoned executive with a proven record of creating stakeholder value and wealth, by restructuring, repositioning and enhancing company and product portfolios for profitable growth. He is known as a strategist and solutions-focused leader, skilled at driving change and delivering results across diverse cultures. He is a Vistage Group Chair in south FL and President of Wyngate Partners, an Advisory and Consulting management services firms focused on transformative growth solutions. Tom received his BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and MBA from Columbia University.

Nelson Famadas

Managing Partner
Carver Road Capital

Nelson Famadas co-founded Carver Road in 2021, and currently serves as COO and manging Partner at the hsopitality-focused PE fund. He brings extensive operational and investment expertise to Carver Road, with over $600 million in hospitality and real estate projects managed or developed. A seasoned entrepreneur, Nelson’s diverse background spans media, marketing, and finance, with leadership roles in SiriusXM, a Emmy-winning TV production, and service on the board of Dolphin Entertainment. He holds degrees from Harvard and Vanderbilt and proudly represents his Puerto Rican heritage.

Athina Filippopoulos

Business Development & Strategic Acquisitions
The Batallan Group, Family Office

Athina Filippopoulos is a proud Greek-American, born and raised in Greece, and a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics. Her journey began as a startup founder, later expanding into youth mentorship and competitive athletics, before establishing a career in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A).

Athina’s current experience is mainly focused on Family Offices, Private Equity and VC funds, non-profit organizations, sports, and technology startups. Mentioned in the experience section, someone can identify the international element of the listed organizations.

Leonard Goldberg

Founder & CEO
Gold Aviation Services

Leonard Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of Gold Aviation Services, a premier private aviation company celebrating 30 years in business. Since founding the company in 1995 as a one-person operation, Leonard has grown Gold Aviation into a team of more than 50 professionals supporting all facets of private aviation, including aircraft management, acquisitions, maintenance and worldwide private charter service with a fleet of Embraer Phenom 300 and Praetor 600 aircraft. Leonard is a longtime member and Past President of EO South Florida and formerly served as Chairman of the Board for Gilda’s Club South Florida, reflecting his commitment to leadership and community.

Peter Goldstein

CEO
Emmis Acquisition

Peter Goldstein is a seasoned executive and entrepreneur with more than 30 years as a C-suite executive for public and private companies. An expert in navigating the ever changing climate of Wall Street, Goldstein has emerged as an international voice for the evolving industry and has successfully launched several highly innovative companies amidst today’s disruption and shifting investment practices.

Goldstein is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Grandview Capital Partners, Inc., a specialized boutique investment bank that provides innovative financial services to select entrepreneurial emerging growth companies. He serves as managing director of Exchange Listing, LLC, which provides a myriad of services in the strategic planning and implementation of listing on a senior exchange, such as Nasdaq or NYSE, for private companies or those that are listed on alternate exchanges.

In the first quarter of 2021, Goldstein formed a new partnership between Exchange Listing and The Conscious Fund to form The Conscious Acquisition Company — a range of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) in the burgeoning field of psychedelic medicine. In February 2021, Goldstein was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Siyata Mobile Inc. (Nasdaq: SYTA, SYTAW), a leading global developer and provider of cellular communications solutions for enterprise customers. He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council.

He continues to usher entrepreneurial emerging growth businesses to their IPOs and SPACs that are uniquely positioned to access growth capital and global capital markets.

Benjamin Gordon

Managing Partner
Cambridge Capital

Benjamin Gordon is founder and Managing Partner of Cambridge Capital. He draws on a career building, advising, and investing in supply chain companies. Benjamin has led investments in outstanding firms including XPO, Greenscreens.ai, Grand Junction and others.

Prior to Cambridge Capital, Benjamin built BGSA Holdings into a global leader in M&A for the supply chain sector. As CEO of BGSA, Benjamin led the firm’s efforts, advising on over $2 billion worth of supply chain transactions. Benjamin has worked with firms such as UPS, DHL, Kuehne & Nagel, Agility Logistics, NFI Logistics, GENCO, Nations Express, Raytrans, Echo Global, Dixie, Wilpak, and others.

Benjamin received a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College.

Javier Gutierrez

Managing Director; Head of Southeast Florida Region
CIBC

Javier Gutierrez is the Managing Director and Head of Southeast Florida at CIBC US. He leads a team of bankers providing strategic relationship coverage across commercial lending, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory, and risk management

Prior to his current position, Gutierrez worked as a Managing Director and previously served as a broker registered with CIBC World Markets Corp. His professional background focuses heavily on commercial banking and corporate finance

Sam Hafermann

Founder & Managing Partner
Signal Rock Capital

Sam founded Signal Rock Capital, where he focuses on finding great businesses, doing the legwork to understand them inside and out, and working closely with owners and teams to carry their businesses forward.

Prior to Signal Rock, Sam was an investor at L2 Capital, a family office based in Devon, PA and Miami, FL.

Prior to L2, he advised business owners on buying and selling companies as an M&A investment banker at Prestwick Partners in Minneapolis. Sam started his career in Riveron’s M&A group, an advisory platform backed by Kohlberg & Company, and in public accounting at KPMG.

Sean Kelley

Managing Director, Business Development
Gridiron Capital

At Gridiron Capital, Sean focuses on developing new business partnerships, marketing, communicating with business owners, and managing investment sourcing and exit planning. Prior to joining Gridiron Capital, Sean served as vice president at BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Virginia. His responsibilities at BB&T included executing mergers and acquisitions advisory for middle-market businesses, as well as establishing and strengthening business development relationships with middle-market investors. Earlier in his career, Sean worked at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

Mark Khachaturian

CEO
Wellvii

Dr. Khachaturian has been the CEO of Wellvii since August 2022 (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) where he leads the development and commercialization of novel finger-based blood pressure vital sign measurement platforms. Dr. Khachaturian joined Wellvii in October 2016 as the CTO of Wellvii where he developed technology focusing on finger-based blood pressure, pre-diabetic (e.g. vascular stiffness) measurements, and glucose sensors which are no-touch or light touch. This device is accompanied by Android/iOS apps and HIPAA/GDPR compliant healthcare cloud IoT platform with EMR connectivity. This platform will improve the safety, reduce the cost, and increasing the accessibility of global wellness and chronic care monitoring in the home and ambulatory settings.

Lee M. Koury

Managing Director
Smart Business Network LLC

Lee is managing director of Smart Business Network LLC, a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Dealmakers Conferences throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Daniel Livschutz

Founding Partner, S-Curve Partners
Co-Founder, Managing Director & Board Member, VILAS Ventures

As a first-generation American born to Former Soviet Union immigrants, Daniel's entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured early on in a family of healthcare professionals, engineers, military leaders, and legal practitioners. His father, an anesthesiologist, and his mother, an IVF nurse, instilled in him a unique blend of medical insight, grit, and business acumen. His grandfather, an inventor who developed the vacuum pump infrastructure for the Space Shuttle's engines and concluded his career as head of technology at Shure, further inspired Daniel's innovative mindset.

With the founding of VILAS Ventures, Daniel leveraged his own capital and attracted partners with a unique blend of operational expertise, C-suite access, vision and financial acumen. VILAS Ventures is committed to partnering with transformative healthcare companies that enhance patient outcomes and deliver substantial investor value. The firm's investment thesis centers on the belief that providing unparalleled operational support to portfolio companies is as crucial as capital investment. VILAS aims to revolutionize patient care by supporting innovative technology solutions, helping practices deliver value-based care, and execute on forward-thinking innovations.

Sean Lyons

President & Partner
Lockton Companies

Sean has over 30 years of experience in M&A due diligence and strategy, supporting nearly 5,000 transactions across diverse sectors. He drives portfolio performance and ROI through strategic insurance and benefits management. Sean holds an MBA from Nova Southeastern University and a Bachelor's in International Business from Florida Atlantic University.

Enrique Martin

Miami Office Managing Partner
Winston Taylor

Enrique J. “Rick” Martin is a seasoned cross border M&A lawyer with more than three decades of experience advising public and private companies, private equity sponsors, and financial institutions on complex corporate transactions across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Rick routinely leads multijurisdictional deal teams on domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic investments and other corporate transactions, coordinating lawyers across disciplines and legal systems to execute transactions efficiently and effectively. 

Eli Minski

Principal
Oleta Capital

Eli is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing investment opportunities, as well as monitoring existing portfolio companies. Prior to joining the Management Company, Eli worked as cash manager and treasury analyst at Nutranext, LLC, where he was responsible for monitoring and forecasting net working capital and bank reporting. He was also involved with Nutranext's acquisition and integration of Nutri-Health Supplements. Prior to Nutranext, LLC, Eli worked as a financial analyst at Bayview Center for Mental Health, a non-profit community mental health center in South Florida.

Ziba Movassaghi

Senior Vice President & Market Executive
Bank of America

Ziba Movassaghi, is a Senior VP and Market Executive with Bank of America. In her current role she oversees the team of highly skilled commercial bankers managing a complex portfolio of corporate clients in the South Florida region. Prior to this role Ziba has been a senior corporate banker for many years with BofA.

Maylin Nelson

Certified Business Performance Advisor
Insperity

Maylin Nelson is a Certified Business Performance Advisor at Insperity, serving the South Florida Lauderdale. With over five years of experience, she partners with business owners to drive growth, streamline operations, and boost profitability through strategic HR solutions. Her expertise spans networking, marketing development, and performance optimization to help companies run better and grow faster.

Sunny Patel

Chairman
YXS Capital

Sunny Patel is an investor, strategic advisor, and tech founder known for bridging Wall Street discipline with entrepreneurial execution. As Chairman and Managing Partner at YXS Capital, Sunny leverages deep experience from $10 billion in M&A transactions and over $200 million successfully raised for early-stage companies across technology and growth sectors. He previously co-founded an AI-powered geospatial intelligence platform recognized for its cutting-edge use of satellite data to drive risk modeling and forecasting for industries such as insurance, real estate, and natural resources.

Prior to his current venture work, Sunny built his career as an M&A investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, PwC, and Kaufman Hall, where he executed complex buy- and sell-side transactions and advised on both operational scaling and capital formation. Through Amber Capital Group, he has served as a fractional CFO and advisor to more than thirty high-growth startups— engineering exits, institutional financings, and growth strategies that have generated $200 million in enterprise value.

Sunny holds FINRA Series 62, 63, and 79 licenses, and earned his B.S. in Finance and Accounting from DePaul University. He is widely recognized for his ability to adapt institutional best practices for founder-led businesses, and for helping founders and funds alike deliver exceptional outcomes through hands-on executive guidance, data-driven strategy, and capital markets expertise.

Joshua Paul

Director
Hyde Park Capital

Josh has extensive experience in the Healthcare industry group, particularly in the Healthcare Services sector.

Specializing in mergers and acquisitions, Josh takes pride in negotiating the best deal, both quantitatively and qualitatively, for his clients. Josh holds the Series 79 securities license for Investment Banking Registered Representatives. Prior to his current role at Hyde Park Capital, Josh served as an Associate for Cross Keys Capital, a middle-market investment bank located in South Florida. At Cross Keys, Josh specialized in mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare services space.

Ryan Petnuch

Vice President
Alterna Equity Partners

Ryan is Vice President at Alterna Equity Partners and supports the team on all aspects of evaluating and executing new investment opportunities as well as portfolio management.

Rob Regan

Principal
Boyne Capital

Rob joined Boyne Capital in 2020. As a Principal of Business Development, he helps drive the sourcing and origination efforts at Boyne.

Prior to joining Boyne, Rob served as the Director of Business Development with McCombie Group, a middle market strategic and M&A advisory firm in Miami where he identified partnership and buy-side investment opportunities for the firm. Rob previously worked as an associate for a family-owned merchant bank and advisory firm in Washington, DC.

Rob started his career in national security and defense first serving in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer before transitioning to a civilian career supporting various intelligence and defense agencies.

Rob received his MBA from the George Mason University School of Business in Fairfax, VA and earned a BA in Political Science from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Zak Ringelstein

CEO
Zigazoo

Zak Ringelstein is a teacher who has spent his career advocating for an education system that brings joy, purpose, and liberation. Recently he founded Zigazoo to give children the opportunity to engage in joyful educational activities and "learn by doing." Hailed the “future of remote learning” by TechCrunch, Zigazoo enables students to share video-based responses to challenges built by leading museums, educators, and media stars. Ringelstein taught elementary school for 5 years, founded UClass (which he exited to Renaissance Learning), was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, was the first millennial to be a major party nominee for U.S. Senate, and was the architect of the $60k minimum teacher salary policy. He has a bachelor's in history from Columbia University and is getting his doctorate at Columbia's Teachers College. He and his wife, Leah, have three boys ages 5 and younger.

Aliette DelPozo Rodz

Miami Office Managing Partner
Shutts & Bowen

Aliette DelPozo Rodz is the Managing Partner of the Miami office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where she is Chair of the International Litigation and Arbitration Practice Group and the Cuba Task Force. Aliette serves as lead trial counsel for companies involved in disputes in state and federal courts, in arbitration and before administrative agencies. She handles all aspects of litigation including preliminary and permanent injunction hearings, evidentiary hearings, bench trials, arbitrations and jury trials.

Charlie Santos-Buch

Operating Partner
AE Industrial Partners, LP

Mr. Santos-Buch is an Operating Partner at AE Industrial, bringing 45 years of investment banking and private equity experience. He has been involved with the development of the firm as a Partner since its inception. Over his career, he has been involved in over $35 billion of financings and M&A transactions. Mr. Santos-Buch led the transaction origination efforts at UBS Capital, LLC and UBS Capital Americas, LLC for more than a decade, identifying investment opportunities across various industries.

Mr. Santos-Buch founded the Financial Sponsor Coverage Groups at UBS AG and PaineWebber Incorporated. He has also held senior leveraged finance and sponsor coverage positions at CIBC World Markets, Oppenheimer, Alex. Brown & Sons and began his career at Kidder, Peabody focusing on corporate finance, M & A and leveraged finance transactions. Mr. Santos-Buch is also Chairman and CEO of Compact Container Systems, which has developed a collapsible marine shipping container that is a paradigm shifting technology which could reshape the way the transportation and logistics supply chain manages their empty container fleets worldwide.

Mr. Santos-Buch received a BA with honors in History from Harvard University and an MBA in Finance and Management from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joshua Siegel

Founder & General Partner
Acronym Venture Capital

Joshua is the founding General Partner and oversees the day to day activities and operations including sourcing and evaluating companies, assisting the current portfolio with corporate development and revenue generation, leading LP relationships, and developing Acronym's professional network. Joshua is a Board Director for Mad Rabbit, Marqii and Penny and is a Board Observer for Confiant, Dataplor, Envoy America, Ingest, Kickfin, Ranktify and Sailes.

Joshua has extensive experience and connections in software, technology, real estate, luxury lifestyle brands, digital media, and CPG. Previously, Joshua was the General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital, a top performing US VC, Director of Market Intelligence at Citicorp Debt Capital Markets, Manager of Eastern European Banking Systems at Citibank and was with the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC).

Karl Sprague

Vistage Chair
Vistage Florida

President of Sprague Associates Inc., a management-consulting firm, which helps client companies deal with strategic and financial issues related to growth. He was an investment banker for eighteen years and advised middle market clients on a variety of transactions, including: acquisitions, sales, divestitures, management buyouts, and leveraged recapitalization. He is on the Board of Directors of the South Florida Business Forum and serves on the Board of Directors of 4Kids of South Florida, an organization committed to providing help to foster children and kids in crisis. B.A. from the College of William and Mary.

Marlee Strawn

Co-Founder
Scholar Education

Marlee Strawn is the Co-Founder of Scholar Education, where she leads the development of AI tools co-designed with teachers to personalize learning and support classroom instruction. A former teacher and school administrator with nearly 20 years in education, she works to ensure AI meets the real needs of students and educators. Most recently, she was named one of ASU+GSV’s 2025 Leading Women in AI and delivered a TEDx talk on how AI will shape the future of education.

Catarina "Cat" Suplicy

Founder & CEO
RavenOps

Cat Suplicy is your favorite business therapist — part strategy queen, part systems sorceress. As founder of RavenOps, she turns messy ops into smooth moves for scaling startups and growing empires. Equal parts heart and hustle, Cat speaks fluent whiteboard, swears by AI, and believes wine is a business tool. Spoiler: she’s probably your next secret weapon.

Juan Tagle

Director
Palm Beach Capital

Mr. Tagle is a Director at Palm Beach Capital leading fundraising, investor relations, and business development efforts for the firm.

Prior to joining Palm Beach Capital, Juan was a Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase in the Middle Market Banking and Specialized Industries Group. There for 12 years, Juan led a team of South Florida based Middle Market Bankers and worked very closely with companies ranging from $20M-$1B in revenues. Juan was responsible for overseeing the delivery of various product sets including senior credit facilities, debt capital markets, investment banking, and treasury management solutions. Juan was licensed 79 and 63 (both inactive).

Juan is also very involved in local community engagement efforts, and currently sits on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County and the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County.

Juan is a graduate of the University of Central Florida, BS in Finance

Melodie van der Baan

Co-Founder & CEO
Max Retail

Melodie van der Baan is the co-founder and CEO of Max Retail, an inventory management platform that helps independent retailers and brands monetize excess or unsold stock by connecting them to third-party online marketplaces.

A former independent retailer and distributor herself, Van der Baan launched the platform after experiencing the pain point of being stuck with $100,000 worth of unsold inventory. Her company allows small businesses to recoup their wholesale costs by digitally aggregating their residual inventory and routing it to larger e-commerce channels.