Vip Members

Mr. Johnson is a founding director of Margules Groome specialising in management consulting across the forest industry value chain. He previously headed Poyry Management Consulting (New Zealand) Ltd and was also the head of Pӧyry’s global Forest Valuation Focus Group. He has over 35 years of forest industry experience, predominantly focused in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions. Brian earned a Business Diploma in Finance from the University of Auckland Business School and a Bachelor Degree in Forestry from the University of Canterbury. He is a registered consultant with the New Zealand Institute of Forestry and speaks regularly at various conferences and seminars on forestry and consulting industry topics. He began his career in operational roles before progressing to senior management positions in corporate strategic planning and investment management. He subsequently took on a management role with Pöyry, a global consulting and engineering firm while continuing to develop his career and searching for new opportunities. This led to his involvement in the establishment of Margules Groome Consulting.

Brett Thomas has been in the Health Care industry for over 20 years. Brett is the Senior Vice Present of Medline Industries Incorporated. Medline is the largest privately owned manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies in the United States. It was founded in 1910 and has grown from a small manufacturer to a $8.6 billion enterprise because of its dedicated employees. Brett has the ability to develop and build solid relationships to create lifelong clients. In addition, he has strong recruiting, training, and leadership skills. These strong characteristics have allowed the company to grow to where it is now. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, playing tennis, skiing, coaching youth soccer, and spending time with his two daughters.

Anas is the founder of Linova International. He started the company in 2001. He has been in charge of establishing several offices around the globe. He has lived and done business in more than nine countries from Middle East & Africa to Latin America and Australia. Anas's primary focus is on the steel industry. In 2001 Anas felt like he could no longer work for the Nuqul Group (no other company for that matter). Anas really wanted to venture out on his own to work for himself. The key to his success over the years has been his resilience and the fact that he always rises to the occasion. Anas is also very flexible with understanding other cultures. Anas would like to see himself going into venture capital and becoming a mentor over the next four to five years. He would also like to develop himself more and continue to expand his business. He knows five languages (French, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Arabic), and he just started in 2015 a charitable organization called “Children’s Hope Foundation". This foundation focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty through education.

Sharyn has over twenty years experience in the Corporate Sector in a range of Industries. She has been the Chief Financial Officer and Financial Consultant with a specialization in business transformation and change management. Leading people along the journey of change through sustained people’s engagement, targeted communications and process design enabling sustainable business ownership. Enterprise Architecture & Alignment enables technology, with business architecture & improved processes information strategies & management, architectures & deployments embedding knowledge as a core enterprise asset & management/custodianship of that core asset.

Tamara is a driven, analytical and business savvy top financial executive with extensive experience in corporate governance and leadership. She is a results-oriented self-starter effective within all levels of an organization. An empowering team leader capable of inspiring staff members and achieving business results by translating financial results and projections to ensure timely decision-making. Sets goals and aligns a company to enhance corporate value. She is highly skilled in process, organizational structures and operational procedures, enabling a thorough and in-depth understanding of the financial impacts of each aspect of operations. Exemplary at establishing corporate discipline and developing fact based decision making and operational goal alignment. She is a leader in creation of accountable results based on organizations. Tamara supports No Kid Hungry, SPCA and The Cancer Society. She is confident, competent and a pleasure to work with.

Carolyn Lewis worked at San Jose State University for 29 years and retired in 2003 as the Senior Associate Athletic Director. Carolyn's career experience focused on overseeing internal operations of the Athletic Department and coaching various sports teams, including Field Hockey. Between 1976 and 1987, Carolyn consistently led and coached the San Jose State University Field Hockey team onto the nation's Top 10 list. During the same period, Carolyn also coached two Field Hockey team members to the National team level; served on the USA Field Hockey National Squad Coaching Staff; and was twice selected conference Coach of the Year. Carolyn also has strong public speaking skills and experience. She travels and hosts presentations for high school students regarding attending college and the acquisition of athletic scholarships. During her professional career she held many leadership positions including the United States Field Hockey Association Vice President for Administration, Interim Director of Athletics and President's Cabinet at San Jose State, and member of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee. She was chair of the SJSU Gender Equity Committee and was instrumental in establishing the SJSU Gender Equity Plan and starting three new women's intercollegiate athletic teams (Soccer, water polo, and cross County. In retirement she has continued to stay involved in her local community through the following activities: Girls' Basketball Head Coach at Pacific Collegiate School (five years), Monterey High School Sports Professions and Recreation Careers Advisory Board, docent at Seacliff State Beach, SJSU Alumni Association Santa Cruz Area Chapter Board (current President), and Treasurer and Board member for Trout Gulch Mutual Water Company. Her hobbies include sailing, traveling and gardening. She represents the SJSU Alumni; by serving on the San Jose State University Alumni Association Board of Directors and raises scholarship money for Santa Cruz Area students to attend San Jose State University.

Wade has been at CYMI for the past 7 months. He has been working in the Petrochemical and Infrastructure industries, providing engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance for facilities along the Gulf Coast and in the mid-America region. He is also in charge of a large 34 million dollar engineering construction proposals. Wade provides leadership and guidance to the engineers, hiring the employee's and still doing some engineering himself. He has a crew of 21 engineers that he is in charge of. Over the past several years Wade has worked at Shermco Industries, Jacobs, and Campos Engineering Inc. What prompted Wade to get involved with his profession was a drafting class that he took in high school. He fell in love with drafting and after graduating high school he was awarded a scholarship for a drafting design and technical degree Associate of Applied Science in 1981. Wade believes that the key to his success was due to the fact that he learned the fundamentals of engineering and was able to apply them to his career that made him stand out in his industry. He wound-up in a class through his church that was teaching family dynamics and learned and applied all the information to his career. As a leader he focuses on how to fix mistakes instead of just focusing on the mistakes. He believes in positive reinforcement and never uses negativity as a repercussion to a mistake that has been made. In the future Wade would like to become a 60 man engineering group. He would also like to have 5 generals and 50-55 people under them. He would like the business to grow an additional 30 million dollars in revenue over the next 4 or 5 years. The highlight of his career was when he received his engineering license that took him 8 years to achieve. He is also a proud of the development and establishment of the family dynamics in the career.

Patricia Wisdom is the Founder and CEO of The Ocho Rios Card Centre Ltd. Ocho Rios Card Centre is a distributor of telecom products, both physical and electronic, providing international mobile communication services to bulk buyers. Specifically, the company sells wholesale phone cards and phone accessories, as well as facilitating remittances and bill payments. As the company's CEO, Patricia is responsible for six different locations throughout Jamaica. Through responsiveness and operational flexibility, Patricia is able to ensure quality customer service for the company's cliental, which range from telecom vendors to mobile retail companies. Patricia's success can be attributed to her proactive approach to business, her self-motivation, self development, and her passion for nation building by contributing and giving back to society.

Dr. Terence Howse has over 40 years experience in the glass container manufacturing industry . He is well known to be a leader in the Glass Industry and has been awarded three degrees in Glass Technology from the University of Sheffield of the United Kingdom . He has worked in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America. He has Patent's awarded to him in the U.S.A and has several pending. He has extensive training and research in the field, as well twenty years operational experience. He is currently the Principal at Howse Glass Containers Consulting.

Les Conceicao is currently a Senior Financial Advisor for Morgans Financial in Australia, specializing in wealth management and self-managed super funds. Les has been in financial planning for the past 17 years and has built his client portfolio to manage approximately $60 million dollars in assets for his clients. He has received Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Industrial Relations (MIR) and Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degrees from the University of Western Australia. He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from the Securities Institute of Australasia. Les began his professional career in bond analysis and moved to a position as Human Resources Manager for an IT business before returning to the financial sector. Les worked as a Senior Financial Adviser at GESB for five years prior to moving to Morgans Financial in 2012, during which time he built specialised expertise in GESB West State Super and Gold State Super. He has been a practicing financial advisor since 1999 and hopes to continue to be a dedicated professional for his clients.

Harold for many years has managed several companies such as General Motors. For over 20 years he continues to offer new ideas to the companies. As current CEO of the 3 largest juice companies in the world, he strives to put new products on the market. Offering new juice options and soon dried fruit such as mango as a delicious snack option, he keeps adding value to PT Great Giant Pineapple. The growth of this food and beverage company is the main objective for him being the CEO, and of course to bring a natural organic product to the world.

Beverly Teter is a Research associate at the University of Maryland, the university from which she received her PhD. She is also the current president of the American College of Nutrition a group dedicated to sound scientific study of human nutrition. Beverly has received two awards based on her dedication and vast knowledge of Science and Nutrition. The American College of Nutrition awarded her the "Master of American College of Nutrition" and the Weston A. Price Foundation rewarded her their 'Scientific Integrity Award'. She has published chapters in various books on subjects such as fruit and vegetable by products, the role of medium chain triglycerides in weight management, and alterations in milk fat percent and composition when subjects ingest trans-fatty acids. Beverly was inspired to study nutrition when she was researching the ingredients of the food she fed her children. After researching the fat content of a selection of foods for the USDA she saw that there was quite a bit of trans fatty acids in the diet coming from the partially hydrogenated fat used in manufacturing. This led to several experiments studying the harmful effects of trans fatty acids in the milk of three species - first mice, then cows, and finally humans. In each species the mothers which were fed trans fatty acids had lower milk fat than the controls without the trans fats. This effect lowers the energy and essential fatty acids the offspring need. When she is not in the lab, Beverly enjoys working with graduates students, teaching and demonstrating techniques in the analysis of fatty acids in the diets and tissues of the study animals. She attributes her success to hard work, good planning of studies, and feeling passionate about what is in the foods she feeds herself and family.

Jan has always being inspired by music and because of this she was encouraged to furthered her education in pursuit of changing the dynamics of how people learned to play and taught the piano Her research exemplifies improved processes for music education and more specifically piano pedagogy. Jan started her company in an effort to reach out and advance the language of music to the masses around the world. Her unique teaching skills are enjoyed on a global scale with the use of internet technology. She aspires to produce videos and other forms of media to make available for people who are just beginning or the advanced player.

Peter Hawkins is always trying to see things differently. Coming from an art background, Peter got his first job at Chase and Hatton bank and utilizes his creativity to look at financial situations in a different way. Working with remarkable clients, Bill Buckner to name one, Peter manages to hold personal long term relationships with clients and helping them with their financial planning.

Matthew is the Principle and Owner for Western Energy Control Solutions, a manufacturer’s representative dedicated to providing automation products that cut energy costs while improving the peace of mind, security, and quality of life for home and business owners. As the principle for over 18 years Matthew is responsible for overseeing the workings of the company, handling the finances, and leading over 45 employees. As a young professional Matthew started as a regional sales manager for Western Energy Control Solutions. Throughout the years he worked his way up in the company, due to his persistency and aptitude for the industry Matthew has progressed to the role he has today. Through his leadership he was able to grow the company from ten to forty five employees, and increase the sales from $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 in the past four years. As an expert in the field Matthew has facilitated workshops and training on topics of the marketing industry. Matthew credits his success to working hard, and in the future he plans to further grow the company in the region. As a professional he is looking to connect with other leaders and professionals in the industry.

Elise use to work in Northwestern Australia for a while when she saw potential. In 2012 she went on to take a risk and open her own company. Total Plant Hire is a company that rents mining companies equipment. Some of the equipment they rent is water-carts, service trucks, wheel loaders, IT loaders, vacuum trucks, and tippers. Total Plant Hire has a vase array of equipment that is suitable for any site. There equipment has full Mine Specifications and they can be tailored on requests to meet a mining site requirement. They offer a range of low emission equipment to underground mining operations equipment.

Dr. Dale Layman began his career as an educator. As a professor, Dr. Layman has taught Physiology and Human Anatomy, as well as courses entitled "The World of Robotics" and "Nanotechnology.” He has written several books, including "The Medical Language- A programmed body Systems Approach," "The Terminology of Anatomy and Physiology," "Biology Demystified: A Self-teaching Guide," "Anatomy Demystified: A Self-teaching Guide," "Physiology Demystified: A Self-teaching Guide," and "Medical Terminology Demystified: A Self-teaching Guide." Layman's current focus is researching and monitoring the development of artificial intelligence, and the impact on our society.

In the midst of attaining a Master's Degree, Jane found her passion was to teach the dyslexic population. It all began when a friend was concerned about her bright son. He was in middle school and still couldn't read, write or spell well. Teachers didn't know how to help him. She was encouraged to have him tested at the Michigan Dyslexia Institute to see if dyslexia was the issue. She decided to do that and found that her son was severly dyslexic. That diagnosis was a relief, but there was no help in northern Michigan. My friend, along with other parents of struggling children asked the founder of MDI to come to Petoskey to train teachers. Every school district in the county sent teachers to be trained and Jane was one of them. It changed her life and direction. Jane wrote her Master thesis on "A Comparison of two teaching approaches and the effects they have on the reading acievement of dyslexic learners" Jane was asked to be the Director of the MDI branch of Northern Michigan. She held that role for 14 years. She trained teachers and spoke all over northern Michigan to help people understand dyslexia and raise scholarship money for families that needed financial help, To date, Jane has taught over 8,500 one-on-one lessons. She is a co-author of a K-5 curriculum and teaching manual. Jane says, "My job is to give a student the tools needed to read, write and spell so they don't need me any more." Her students put it best, however, saying, "I know how to unlock words and retrieve spelling rules, so I it doesn't matter what comes up now because I can work through it." In 2000, Jane and her sister began to write K-5 curriculum, designed for the dyslexic population because they were unable to find such a tool available. In 2012 they took sample of the work to the University of Florida. They were told it was the 'missing piece' in U of F Special Ed curriculum and were asked to come and train Master level special education students. Jane hopes to expand their work to a national platform. Jane would like to be part of the Bristol Who's Who registry for the recognition that the organization offers and to network with other like-minded professionals that assist and educate children with learning disabilities.

Dr Steven Chua has over 20 years career experience. He has been a consultant as well for the Singapore Management University and is currently involved with Rykadan. Rykadan Capital Limited (Rykadan) is a listed Hong Kong-based investment holding company. Rykadan will target high-potential, moderately priced projects in the Greater China region, with a view to improve asset values by leveraging on the knowledge and experience of its team and partners. Rykadan Capital Limited invests in a growing number of high-potential projects in the China and Asia region with a view to grow asset values and provide a strong return for the shareholders. On his spare time he enjoys dining out, football and is a horology and fashion enthusiast.

Lynn Grebenstein is the Vice President of Operations for Maximus, a well-renowned company specializing in for-profit government services. Lynn has a substantial amount experience in business process reengineering, management consulting, project start-ups, program monitoring,,and operations management. She is also well-versed and experienced with international collaboration and program application in multi-national settings. Most recently, she served as the Acting Managing Director for Saudi Arabia, and was charged with executing a 4 month turnaround that resulted in 150 percent growth in job seekers served by the project and 175 percent growth in outcomes. Lynn's focus is also on establishing fundamentals in policy, training, execution and delivering of key mission objective of "finding jobs, changing lives." She is called the "cake maker" by the professionals that serve under her tutelage. She has served as Project Adviser to Australian operations and continues to serve as Project Adviser in Saudi Arabia. Lynn was responsible for redesigning service delivery models and development CRM solution to support $100 revenue projects in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Lynn is also tasked with developing global infrastructure that supports the company's operational value of "quality before profit." In her early years, she had also been a special assistant with the Mass Department of Revenue, redesigning child support enforcement service delivery models in Massachusetts when the program was transferred from the Welfare Department to the Revenue Department. Lynn's efforts was recognized by the Kennedy School of Government and for over five years, was taught as the 'how to' example of reengineering government services.