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15 CEO Roundtables

Meet the New Miami Herald CEO Roundtable

To take the pulse of South Florida’s business community, last year we established the Miami Herald CEO Roundtable, a panel of local chief executives. For six months, they graciously shared their opinions on business matters both serious and maddening. Today a new group takes over. The firms the CEO’s lead span MIami-Dade and Broward counties. The firms are large and small, firmly established and startups, professional services and retail, publicly held and single-owner — a reflection of our overall business landscape.

Here they are:

Daniel Ades, managing partner of Kawa Capital Management, which manages a global multi-strategy hedge fund specializing in asset backed securities and turnarounds.

Christine Barney, CEO of Coral Gables-based RBB marketing and public relations firm, and chairman-elect of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

Richard Behar, founder and president of Capitol Clothing Corp, a Miami manufacturer of children’s apparel under the brands Little Baron and Capitol Boys.

Carmen Castillo, president and CEO of SDI International Corp., a provider of global procurement outsourcing and managed service programs.

Jonathan Chariff, CEO of South Motors auto dealership group and incoming chairman of the Florida Automobile Dealers Association

Frank del Rio, president and CEO, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

Pandwe Gibson, executive director of EcoTech Visions, a business incubator for green manufacturing businesses.

Julie Grimes, managing partner of the Hilton Bentley Hotel on Miami Beach and co-founder of the Hospitality Institute in Overtown, which connects Miami inner city residents with opportunities in hospitality.

Felecia Hatcher, co-founder of Feverish Gourmet Pops and Code Fever Miami, a program dedicated to teaching diverse communities technology coding skills.

Alice Cervera Lamadrid, managing partner of Cervera Real Estate, which specializes in developer condo sales.

Ann Machado, founder and president of Creative Staffing, a Miami temporary and direct-hire staffing firm.

Victor Mendelson, co-president of Broward-based HEICO, an aerospace and electronics manufacturing company.

Nitin Motwani, managing principal of Miami Worldcenter Associates, developers of a $2 billion mixed-use project in downtown Miami.

Abe Ng, founder and CEO of Sushi Maki Japanese restaurants, with 19 locations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Todd Oretsky, co-founder of Pipeline Brickell, a co-working space for entrepreneurs, startups and independent professionals.

Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College, the nation’s largest institution of higher education with more than 165,000 students.

Joanna Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of EarlyShares, an online platform offering accredited investors direct access to vetted investment opportunities in real estate projects and companies.

Dave Seleski, founder, president and CEO of Stonegate Bank, which has 22 offices in southern Florida.

Darryl K. Sharpton, president and CEO, The Sharpton Group, an accounting and consulting firm, serves as chairman of the Public Health Trust Board and is a former board chair of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority.

Andrew Smulian, chairman and CEO of Akerman LLP, ranked among the top U.S. law firms by U.S. News & World Report, among others.

Gillian Thomas, president and CEO of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, due to open its new downtown Miami museum in 2016.

Paco Velez, CEO of Feeding South Florida, an advocacy and service organization dedicated to ending hunger.

Alina Villasante, founder of Peace, Love, World clothing company.

Marlon Williams, serial tech entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Fenero, a cloud-based contact center software company.

John Wood, president of Amicon Construction Service, which currently manages more than $200 million in South Florida projects.