speakers and Supporters
Dynamic Speakers
Immersive Experiences
Endless Connections
speakers and supporters
Joseph E. Aoun
President, Northeastern University
Maria C. Alonso
CEO and Regional Dean, Northeastern University Miami
Ben Brown, DMSB’08
Managing Partner, Head of the Americas, Brookfield Asset Management
Ximena Caminos
Founder and Artistic Director, The Reefline
Lamar Cardinez, DMSB’14, Young Global Leader
Principal, Blue Owl
Rachel Cossar, Roux Institute, Women Who Empower Innovator
CEO and Cofounder, Virtual Sapiens
Richard A. D’Amore, DMSB’76, Board Chair
Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners
John F. Fish
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Suffolk
Laura González-Estéfani
Founder & CEO, TheVentureCity
Adolfo Henriques
Vice Chairman, The Related Group
Daisy Kendrick, SSH’16, Young Global Leader
Founder, DaisyK.Madrid
Juan Carlos Liscano
Vice President, Miami, the Caribbean, and Latin America, American Airlines
Diane Nishigaya MacGillivray
Senior Vice President for University Advancement, Northeastern University
Kaitlin McCarthy, E’09, Women Who Empower Innovator
Founder and CEO, Ionic Development Co.
Raul Moas
President, Partnership for Miami
John Martinson
Chairman, Martinson Ventures
Jim Pallotta, MBA’81, Trustee
Managing Partner and Founder, The Raptor Group
Michael T. Plehn
Retired Lt. General, U.S. Air Force; former President, National Defense University
Rhondella Richardson, AS’90, Corporator Emerita
Anchor and Reporter, WCVB
Juan Manuel Santos
Former President of Colombia, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Custodio Toledo, PNT’26
Motorsport Driver, Investor, and Cofounder of AltaReturn (now Allvue Systems)
Jose Tomás
Chief Administrative Officer, TelevisaUnivision
Adele Valencia
Partner, LSN Law, P.A.
Luiz R. Vasconcelos, MBA’02
President of Latin America and Caribbean Division, FedEx
Christopher A. Viehbacher, PNT’18, Trustee
President and Chief Executive Officer, Biogen
Josh Weinstein, PNT’27
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Climate Officer, Carnival Corporation & plc
Vicente Zavarce, DMSB’16
Founder and CEO,
Yummy

Rachel Cossar, Roux Institute, Women Who Empower Innovator
CEO and Cofounder, Virtual Sapiens
A leader in the field of nonverbal communication and leadership presence facilitation, Rachel Cossar’s work sits at the intersection of AI and human behavior. As a former nationally ranked athlete and professional ballet dancer, she has a knack for translating unique skills into relatable business skills and competencies.
Virtual Sapiens, Cossar’s most recent venture blending AI and communication coaching, comes as an evolution of her combined work as founder of Choreography for Business, a nonverbal communication consulting firm, as a faculty member with Mobius Executive Leadership, and as a leadership presence facilitator with Ariel Group. She has worked with leaders from GE, Boston Consulting Group, Pfizer, Accenture, McKinsey, Harvard Business School, and more.
Cossar believes in the power of leveraging unique channels of communication in their own unique ways and that human connection is the key to organizational impact.

Daisy Kendrick, SSH’16, Young Global Leader
Founder, DaisyK.Madrid
After graduating from Northeastern University with a major in international affairs in 2016, Daisy Kendrick founded the nonprofit Ocean Generation, becoming an award-winning social entrepreneur who sought to harness the power of future generations to protect our environment.
Next, Kendrick decided to transition out of the nonprofit sector, so she completed a Global Corporate Compliance master’s degree from IE University Law School in Spain. That led her to taking a business development and compliance role in her family office, responding to new and complex regulatory challenges in different marketplaces in the construction technology, affordable housing, and renewable energy sectors.
While remaining in her family office, in 2024 Kendrick began her entrepreneurial journey into bespoke shirt making, creating her own brand called DaisyK.Madrid, for which she combines the core principles of shirt making and elevates them to a master level, designing shirts that reflect one’s personality, taste, and lifestyle.

Rachel Cossar, Roux Institute, Women Who Empower Innovator
CEO and Cofounder, Virtual Sapiens
A leader in the field of nonverbal communication and leadership presence facilitation, Rachel Cossar’s work sits at the intersection of AI and human behavior. As a former nationally ranked athlete and professional ballet dancer, she has a knack for translating unique skills into relatable business skills and competencies.
Virtual Sapiens, Cossar’s most recent venture blending AI and communication coaching, comes as an evolution of her combined work as founder of Choreography for Business, a nonverbal communication consulting firm, as a faculty member with Mobius Executive Leadership, and as a leadership presence facilitator with Ariel Group. She has worked with leaders from GE, Boston Consulting Group, Pfizer, Accenture, McKinsey, Harvard Business School, and more.
Cossar believes in the power of leveraging unique channels of communication in their own unique ways and that human connection is the key to organizational impact.

Lamar Cardinez, DMSB’14, Young Global Leader
Principal, Blue Owl
Lamar Cardinez is a Principal at Blue Owl and member of the GP Strategic Capital Investment Team. In his role, he focuses on evaluating investment opportunities, underwriting transactions, and capital raising for Blue Owl HomeCourt Partners Fund. Since joining the firm, Cardinez has been integral to the development of its HomeCourt Partners strategy, which was an early pioneer in private equity-sponsored professional sports investing.
Before starting at Blue Owl, Cardinez was an Investment Banking Associate at Guggenheim Securities. Prior to that, he was a member of the National Football League’s Junior Rotational Program, where he worked in various media and business development roles.
Cardinez received a BS in business administration from Northeastern University, where he graduated with honors. He also received an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson College of Business. He was recently named one of Private Equity International’s 40 Under 40: Future Leaders of Private Equity in the Dealmakers category.

Joseph E. Aoun
President, Northeastern University
Joseph E. Aoun, a well-known higher education thought leader and renowned scholar in linguistics, is the seventh President of Northeastern University. He has led the global expansion of Northeastern’s signature co-op program, bringing experiential learning opportunities to more than 140 countries. During his tenure, the university has created a global university system spanning 13 campuses across North America and the U.K., increased external research funding sevenfold, and hired more than 800 tenured and tenure-track faculty.
Aoun is the author of numerous articles and books, including Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. He was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French government and is a recipient of the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past Chair of the American Council on Education. Most recently, he received the Peter J. Tanous Founder’s award from the American Task Force on Lebanon for his exceptional achievements in education.

Michael T. Plehn
Retired Lt. General, U.S. Air Force; former President, National Defense University
Mike Plehn is a retired 3-star general and former President of National Defense University. With more than 37 years of military service—13 of those as a General Officer—he has deep experience in building and leading teams, mentoring young leaders into successful executives, and generally getting hard things done right, with no drama.
Plehn has more than 2,000 flight hours on both manned and unmanned aircraft, including 375 combat hours. He has previously commanded special operations units at the squadron, group, and wing level, and was the Deputy Commander of Air Force Special Operations Command. I
During his military career, Plehn worked in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. And as the 17th President of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., he restored the university to a positive growth trajectory—saving two of the five colleges from being closed—securing an additional $110 million to renovate failing facilities, enable student success, and restore university operations.

Adolfo Henriques
Vice Chairman, The Related Group
Adolfo Henriques is Vice Chairman of The Related Group, a leading developer of sophisticated metropolitan living environments.
Prior to The Related Group, Henriques served as Chairman, President, and CEO of Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, now part of First Horizon Bank. He was also Chairman, President, and CEO of Florida East Coast Industries, and Chief Executive Officer of the South Region for Regions Bank.
Active in his community, Henriques serves on numerous boards, including HEICO Corporation, Intcomex, Inc., Bradesco Bank, and Doctors Healthcare Plans, Inc. He is a member of the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council, Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent’s Business Advisory Council, and a member of the Orange Bowl Committee.
Henriques received the 2018 Jay Malina Award from the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the Sand in My Shoes Award from the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Silver Medallion from the MCCJ, and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.

Ben Brown, DMSB’08
Managing Partner, Head of the Americas, Brookfield Asset Management
Ben Brown is a Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group, and Head of the Americas region. In this capacity, he oversees all real estate operations, including investments and portfolio management. Brown has held various key roles at the firm, including Global Head of Office, and he has led acquisitions and dispositions for the office property business in the U.S. and London.
Prior to joining Brookfield in 2010, Brown worked at the New Boston Fund, Sovereign Bank, and Thor Equities.
Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University, and is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Executive Committee and Board of Governors.

Raul Moas
President, Partnership for Miami
As President of the Partnership for Miami, Raul Moas leads a dynamic group of business leaders acting in the civic interest to build a world-class Miami that works for all its residents. Through this organization, he collaborates with grassroots organizations, researchers, policymakers, and philanthropists to develop and implement solutions that improve Miami’s affordability, livability, educational systems, and resilience.
Prior to joining the Partnership for Miami, Moas served as senior director of Knight Foundation. In response to a growing number of Miamians seeking to participate in the city’s burgeoning tech economy, he directed over $60 million in grantmaking to accelerate Miami’s development as a tech hub.
Moas previously worked as a scout for Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global venture capital firm, and was managing director of Miami Angels, Florida’s largest angel investor collective. He also served as the executive director of Roots of Hope, an international non-governmental organization focused on youth empowerment in Cuba.

Juan Manuel Santos
Former President of Colombia, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
One of the most influential leaders in the world, Juan Manuel Santos was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018, and won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to peace and reconciliation in that country. His agenda, continued today in his varied global leadership roles, includes sustainable development, protecting biodiversity and fighting climate change, battling poverty and inequality, dealing with the world’s drug problem, and spurring successful economic integration in Latin America.
Santos was one of the initial promoters of the Sustainable Development Goals that dominated the world agenda in 2015. He was also one of the architects of the Pacific Alliance, promoting the economies of Latin American countries.
Santos is currently Chairman of the Board of Compaz Foundation, which he created to encourage peace, protect the environment, and fight poverty, mainly through grassroots leadership. He is Chairman of The Elders and the Global Commission on Drug Policy, as well as on the board of the International Crisis Group and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Luiz R. Vasconcelos, DMSB’02
President, Latin American and Caribbean Division, FedEx
As President of the Latin American and Caribbean Division for FedEx, Luiz R. Vasconcelos maintains overall responsibility for the region, which includes approximately 23,000 team members in more than 50 countries and territories. His primary foci are the broader strategic direction of his division, magnifying the FedEx presence across the region, and integrating the region into the FedEx global network. In 2018, Vasconcelos was promoted to Vice President of Operations for FedEx Express in Brazil. Prior to joining FedEx, he held leadership positions at Rapidão Cometa, a transportation and logistics company, and in consulting.
Vasconcelos holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Catholic University of Pernambuco and an MBA from Northeastern University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Council of the Americas and CLADEC (Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Express Companies), and is the Co-Chair of the Trade Facilitation Working Group for the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue.

Jose Tomás
Chief Administrative Officer, TelevisaUnivision Inc.
In his role as Chief Administrative Officer at TelevisaUnivision Inc., Jose Tomás oversees strategic support areas essential to the success of this leading Spanish-language media and content company. A highly regarded business and human resources executive, he has effectively led corporate transformations, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures for some of the world’s largest companies, with a strong focus on people, culture, and communications.
Most recently, Tomás served as co-founder and managing partner of BrandSparc, a global communications, employment branding, and human resources consultancy firm. Prior to BrandSparc, he was a member of General Motors’ global senior executive leadership team, where he served as the company’s senior vice president of Global Human Resources, reporting directly to the CEO.
Tomás holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in management from Florida International University. He is a current member of the Board of Directors of Driven Brands Holdings and of the LPGA Foundation.

Juan Carlos Liscano
Vice President of Miami Hub Operations, American Airlines
As Vice President of Miami Hub Operations for American Airlines, Juan Carlos Liscano leads a team of 13,500 team members who operate almost 400 daily flights from Miami International Airport. He joined the airline in 1994 and has held numerous leadership roles there throughout his career, including Managing Director of Latin America, Managing Director of Los Angeles Hub Operations, Managing Director of Flight Service Strategy, and Managing Director of Customer Care in Miami.
Liscano currently serves on the board of directors for several of Miami’s civic and business organizations, including the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Miami, and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. He holds an MBA from Florida International University and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.
Cycling and diving are Liscano’s non-aviation passions, but his true passion is family time. He resides in Miami with his wife, Joanne, and his four children.

Jim Pallotta, MBA’81, Trustee
Managing Partner and Founder, The Raptor Group
Throughout his career, Jim Pallotta has actively invested in and across seed/early stages, growth stages, and late-stage companies within the technology, consumer, financial services, healthcare, and sports and media verticals. Prior to founding The Raptor Group, he managed a $10 billion equities portfolio as the Vice Chairman of Tudor Investment Corporation. Between 2012 and 2020, Pallotta served as the President and Chairman of the Italian football club AS Roma, and he was Co-owner and Executive Board Member of the Boston Celtics between 2002 and 2020.
Pallotta is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for Northeastern University, the Santa Fe Institute, New Profit, Inc., and the Buoniconti Fund. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Tulco, LLC, and the MIT Media Lab, as well as on the External Advisory Committee for the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines at MIT.

Ximena Caminos
Founder and Artistic Director, The Reefline
Ximena Caminos is a cultural entrepreneur and place-maker, celebrated for her unwavering commitment to public art. She is the President of the BlueLab Preservation Society, CCO of HoneyLab Creative, and Founder of The ReefLine. Caminos has pioneered new ways to engage with contemporary art, emphasizing its role in community building, urban development, climate change, and ocean conservation. She has played a pivotal role in creating large-scale cultural districts across North and South America. Currently, she is leading a team of experts on the realization of The ReefLine, a seven-mile public underwater sculpture park and hybrid reef off the coast of Miami Beach.
Caminos has served as Artistic Visionary Planner for The Underline, the largest public art project in the U.S., and as Founder and former Chair of Faena Art. She was Executive Creative Director and partner in Faena Group, Chief Curator at the Faena Arts Center in Buenos Aires, and founded the Faena Prize for the Arts.

Josh Weinstein, PNT’27
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Climate Officer, Carnival Corporation & plc
Josh Weinstein is president, chief executive officer, and chief climate officer of Carnival Corporation & plc, leading one of the world’s largest leisure travel companies. Carnival boasts a portfolio of world-class cruise line brands including AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises (Australia), P&O Cruises (UK), Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.
A 20-year veteran of the company, Mr. Weinstein assumed his current position in 2022 after playing a critical role in planning the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and then its successful restart. His tenure at Carnival includes previous roles as chief operations officer of Carnival Corporation from 2020 to 2022, when he also oversaw Carnival UK, the operating company for P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard. He previously managed Carnival UK directly, serving as president from 2017 to 2020.
Mr. Weinstein also served as treasurer for Carnival Corporation from 2007 to 2017, following five years as an attorney in the corporate legal department.

Vicente Zavarce, DMSB’16
Founder and CEO, Yummy
As the Founder of Yummy, an on-demand delivery service estimated to be worth more than $200 million, Vincente Zavarce climbed the ladder quickly after graduating from Northeastern in 2016 with a degree in finance and entrepreneurship. Recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Zavarce is thriving as an entrepreneur and growth marketer who uses technology to create more accessible and affordable services for millions of people in emerging markets.
Yummy, which Zavarce launched in 2020, was the first food delivery app available in Venezuela, where he grew up. Having hit an untapped market, he was soon able to grow the app into new areas such as grocery delivery, ridesharing, and shopping. Based in San Francisco, Yummy has now expanded to four countries, has four million registered users, and completes 800,000 orders a month. Zavarce is also a partner at Epakon Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in software companies across industries.