Founder and President, CyVent
Entrepreneur, intrapreneur, company builder and senior executive. Focused on bringing cutting-edge technologies to market.
Yuda is the founder and president of CyVent, a cybersecurity-focused solutions provider that helps Chief Information Security Officers transition from a classic “identify-defend-remediate” strategy to an AI-driven, pre-emptive posture that can allow smooth sailing despite inevitable assaults.
Throughout his career at American Express, Tech Data, ClimeCo and Xerox, Yuda kick-started and scaled highly successful business units, integrated acquired companies, oversaw outsourced IT service offerings and launched dozens of new products and services.
As a mentor, founder, director and investor in tech start-ups and early-stage companies, he has been instrumental in seed, growth-stage and follow-on rounds of funding. He is also an adviser at Bioverse Labs and an Ambassador for ExO Lever, a global transformation network that helps organizations innovate in the shifting environment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Yuda holds an MBA and a Corporate Director’s Certification from UCLA Anderson, where he was recognized as one of the “Top 100 Inspirational Alumni” of the School’s 75 years.
Founder and President, CyVent
Owner, Action Coach
In her second term as the Chair of the Beacon Council Small Business Committee, Jody has chosen the theme of the 2018-2019 year, to be “Awareness & Integration”. She believes that Small Business is the foundation of South Florida’s economic landscape and is at the heart of every one of the Beacon Council committees. As the owner and managing partner of Miami’s ActionCOACH Business Coaching firm, she is uniquely poised to have her finger on the pulse of the current challenges and opportunities of our business community. With technology’s exponential rate of change and the path laid out by One Community One Goal, the theme of “Awareness & Integration” is a context that will make a difference in transforming our small business economic landscape this year.
To learn more about Jody Johnson and her work in the community please visit her website at www.actioncoachteamsage.com
Head, Business Developtment, The Americas
Lars Pottgiesser is IATA’s Head of Business Development for the Americas region, the trade association whose 290 member airlines transport more than 82% of total air traffic. Lars works with IATA’s ten local offices spread out in the Americas region from Canada to Chile, to proactively pursue IATA’s industry priorities with governmental authorities and industry stakeholders to make the air transport industry safer, more secure, efficient and profitable.
Over the past decade, Lars has worked in a variety of functions at IATA in the areas of data intelligence, passenger services, market research and is responsible for the execution of IATA’s Aviation Days and Wings of Change Conferences in the Americas. Prior to joining IATA, Lars worked for one of the leading Public Affairs firms in the Southeastern United States with a special focus on crisis communication and strategy development.
Fluent in English and German, and conversational in Spanish, Lars was born in Germany and received his Master’s Degree in International Business from the University of Tampa in Florida and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri while competing as a collegiate soccer player.
Chief of Staff
Klemen Ferjan has over 10 years of experience in aviation industry, both serving in international organizations and working with airlines as a Management Consultant.
He joined Amerijet International, a fully cargo airline out of MIA, in March 2018, where he currently serves as Chief of Staff, following his cross-functional consulting engagement in all areas of the business. Acting as CEO’s strategic partner and trusted advisor, Klemen is incorporating his vision of an Engineered and Disciplined approach to all areas of the business through newly established Business Transformation Team.
Prior to transitioning into the heart of aviation industry, he served 3 years as an Alternate Representative on the Council of the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He has been representing Central European Rotation Group (CERG) in providing continuing direction to ICAO’s work of fostering safe, secure and sustainable international aviation. His area of special interest was economic development of air transport; hence as International Air Transport Association (IATA) Project Manager he revived Airline Cost Management Group (ACMG) in 2012 and significantly increased airlines’ annual participation ever since. Besides providing business intelligence to airlines he also organized numerous regional workshops, Steering Committee meetings, and annual Airline Cost Conference. As a Consultant he was designing cost efficiency consulting solutions for airlines, developing business opportunities, and successfully delivering personalized solutions.
Klemen holds an MBA degree, PMP Certificate, and Diploma in Civil Aviation Management. He is current Chair of Miami-Dade Beacon Council’s Aviation Committee, serves on Fondation Amal BOD, mentors young budding entrepreneurs, and is an avid judo instructor.
Market President – Miami Dade County
Brian San Miguel has a 19 year history in the banking industry, working in multiple lending roles over his career for the past 13 years most recently as the Regional Corporate Banker for Miami Dade County. Brian was born and raised in Miami. He graduated from FIU in 2003 with a bachelor degree in finance and obtained his MBA from Nova in 2007. Brian assumed the role as Market President in July of 2016 and leads the Miami Dade County market which includes our Commercial Banking Teams and 38 financial centers. BB&T currently ranks 6th in market share in Miami Dade County and 5th in the State of Florida. Brian sits on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami, Chapman Partnership for the Homeless, and South Florida Cystic Fibrosis. Brian currently chairs the Banking and Finance committee for the Miami-Dade Beacon Council and vice chair of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce banking and finance committee.
Executive Dean for Research and Training, University of Miami
Dr. Bookman currently serves as Senior Advisor for Program Development & Policy at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and as Director of the UHealth Care Lab, a center for innovation in care delivery, at the University of Miami Health System.
Dr. Bookman received his undergraduate degree with honors from Brown University in computational neuroscience, and his PhD in physiology studying ion channel biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. As a graduate student, Dr. Bookman founded a scientific instrumentation company that he later sold after 5 profitable years. During his postdoctoral training at the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland, Dr. Bookman studied synaptic transmission and developed biophysical and optical methods to measure the kinetics of exocytosis from single cells, work which he further developed as a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and continued after his move to UM in 1991. Extending these single-cell techniques to airway epithelial cells, his laboratory identified signal transduction pathways that control ciliary beating frequency and thus contribute to airway clearance. In collaboration with his graduate students and post-docs, the Bookman laboratory has developed instrumentation and software to support imaging, neuroscience research, and education, all of which is broadly disseminated through either open source or commercial channels.
At UM, he was the founding director of the DNA Microarray Facility and served as director of the school’s MD/PhD Program for 12 years. Dr. Bookman served UM’s medical school in a variety of leadership roles as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies, and then as Executive Dean for Research and Research Training. As UM’s Vice Provost for Research, Dr. Bookman was UM’s senior research official, responsible for research across all UM campuses. In this role, he also served as the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) and also chaired the Patents & Copyrights Committee, founded and chaired the Conflict of Interest Committee, and served as Institutional Official (IO) for the university’s laboratory animal program across 4 campuses, including during an AAALAC accreditation. He also integrated pre- and post-award offices into a unified research administration group and launched units dedicated to research reporting, research strategic planning, research space planning, and initiation of clinical trials.
Dr. Bookman is active on the state level through his championing of the Florida Biomedical Research Program for which he drafted the original legislation, and served as Chair of the state’s Biomedical Research Advisory Council for many years. Since 2013, he has worked with the deans of Florida’s 9 med schools to create a new 501(c)3 – the Florida Medical Schools Quality Network, Inc. (FMSQN). As Vice President of the FMSQN, Dr. Bookman works to bring the research capacity at Florida’s med schools to bear on problems facing FL’s Medicaid program and patients. Nationally, Dr. Bookman is a long-time member of various NIH and NSF review panels, including The Human Brain Project, the joint NIH/NSF Computational Neuroscience Program and the Biophysics of Neural Systems. Dr. Bookman has also been a member and chair of various professional development groups at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), as well as serving on a variety of ad hoc AAMC committees. Dr. Bookman represents the AAMC on AAALAC International and was recently elected to their Board of Directors.
