Michael Browarnik

President and CEO

Michael Browarnik is the patriarch of a third-generation Miami hotel family. In 1938 his grandfather built the iconic New Yorker Hotel, perhaps the best example of oceanfront Art Deco architecture. In 1981 the hotel’s untimely bulldozing by a developer in the middle of the night became the catalyst for the creation of The Historic Preservation Board and South Beach’s historic Art Deco District.

Mr. Browarnik’s companies have concluded over $2 billion in developments, investments, and financings, including capitalizing the now $5 billion city-within-a-city, Midtown Miami. His companies have developed, co-developed, or capitalized on the Jockey Club, Doral, Royal Palm, Nautilus, Bath Club, Monte Carlo, and Drake Hotel, among many other prominent and oftentimes defining projects.

Mr. Browarnik is also a life coach to high-profile individuals, including professional athletes, Hollywood notables, and businesspeople.

In addition, among other Board positions, he has served on the Boards of the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Society, Florida Atlantic University Dean’s Council, Douglas Gardens Home for the Aged, and the Alexander Muss Institute for Israel Education.

Adam Oliver

 Director of Special Programs

Adam Oliver is a serial entrepreneur who has been an investor and trusted advisor to nonprofits and for-profit companies at the vanguard of their respective industries in the areas of retail, finance, and defense.

During the last two decades, Adam has guided companies and helped them achieve recognition and financial success through a combination of his direct capital investments, expertise and guidance in multiple roles: From business development through exit strategies.

In 2002, after witnessing the world-changing horrific advent of September 11, 2001 in the prior year, Adam joined the US Peace Corps and was stationed in the country of Moldova. His assignment there was advising businesses that provided micro-loans and business development consultancy services to small women-owned enterprises. Adam’s experience as a Peace Corps volunteer led to his acceleration into founding business enterprises and non-profits, fostering his core beliefs that a) small business is the backbone of the US economy, and b) service to others is a fundamental and foundational principle.

It is with this ideology that Adam serves as an honored Advisory Board member for The Way Ahead Collaborative™ (“TWA”). Adam is a TWA equity investor and the Director of Special Programs.

Adam graduated from the University of Virginia in 1999 with a degree in Economics and went to work for PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers), crediting the venerable firm’s consultancy program for helping foster his business analytic, advisory and entrepreneurial experience.

Adam is an avid soccer player, master strategist and, most importantly, a father to 3 amazing children.

Susan Ford Collins

Director of Leadership

The Technology of Success is based on the groundbreaking work of Susan Ford Collins. When she began her career as a young researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she asked a radical question: What more could we learn if we studied healthy, Highly Successful People, not just ill and dysfunctional ones? Are Highly Successful People using skills the rest of us are missing, or misusing?

For two decades, Susan Ford Collins shadowed Highly Successful People from all walks of life and identified 10 skills they were using consistently … but unconsciously. With the help of her business partner Richard Israel, himself a highly accomplished author and speaker, Susan shaped her research into a powerhouse training program. This powerful leadership and career advancement program has been used by American Express, Ryder System,
Kimberly-Clark, Digital Equipment, Florida Power & Light, CNN and more than 3,000 other major corporations, universities and organizations around the world.

When all 10 Success Skills are used correctly, then individual and team productivity, collaboration and creativity rise to the next level. And profitability rises with it.

Are you missing, or misusing, one or more of these skills? How would your life and career change if you were using all 10, at the right time?

Today, The Technology of Success teaches these skills to companies, schools, parents, and to people from all walks of life through its books, training programs, educational workshops, and one-to-one coaching.

A nationally-known speaker and frequent guest on radio and TV, Susan’s 10 Success and Leadership Skills are changing lives and empowering dreams.How about yours?

Susan Ford Collins is a founding member of The Strategic Forum, a powerful network of top CEOs, with branches in South Florida and New York City, and she serves on its board. In addition, she is on the Advisory Board of The Greenhouse Collaborative/The Way Ahead Collaborative.

Janelle A. Bigelman, MS, RD, LDN

Director of Nutrition

Evolving from a bachelor’s degree in marketing and after spending several years working in the business arena, Janelle realized her life passion was to help people achieve optimal health through nutrition. Janelle recognized the role that proper nutrition, exercise, and health habits defined one’s health profile, inspiring her to attain a master’s degree in Dietetics and Nutrition and become a registered dietitian (RD).

After spending time working as a clinical dietitian, Janelle’s deep desire to spread health awareness and promote a balanced, happy, passionate, and soul-uplifting life drove her to establish UpBeet Nutrition™, her own nutrition consulting practice in the center of the sunny and vibrant city in which she was born and raised, Miami.

Janelle’s nutrition philosophy is simple: She doesn’t believe in limited and strict diets. Instead, she counsels and coaches her clients to focus on inclusion rather than exclusion whenever feasible. Janelle guides her patients to eat healthy and balanced, but most importantly, how to create a healthy inter-relationship with food, utilizing “Food as Medicine” to enhance their health and well-being.

Dr. Jan Keating

Chief Academic Officer

Prior to her role at Stanford, Jan served as the principal and superintendent of Pacific Collegiate Charter School, awarded in 2005 as the top performing college preparatory charter school in the nation.

Dr. Keating has a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership Administration and Policy from Pepperdine University, and also holds a M.S. in School Management and Administration. She is a frequent speaker throughout the country on topics including leadership, philanthropy in education, online and blended learning, and the 21st Century Classroom.

As TWA’s Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Keating is embarking on creating the Hybridized School model, to impassion our next generation with exciting experiential programs, enabling our kids to access learning tools in physical in-person classrooms as well as virtually.

A lifelong athlete, Jan operates at peak performance residing with her husband in Northern California.

Barry Gold

Mr. Gold has led 18 major infrastructure and energy investments during the period of 1997 – 2019, aggregating ~$1.5 billion of equity value, many with strong ESG characteristics, and led the financings for infrastructure assets, public-private partnerships, project financings, and advisory assignments in excess of $30 billion of transaction value.

Mr. Gold has been on the boards of eight portfolio companies and on the boards of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and the Storm Trysail Foundation (promotes safety and education relating to offshore sailing), both 501(c)(3) entities. Mr. Gold is an Editor of the Journal of Structured Finance.

Prior to Marathon, Mr. Gold was the head of Infrastructure Investment at ORIX, a Senior Advisor to Starwood Energy Infrastructure Fund, co-founder and co-head of The Carlyle Group’s infrastructure fund, co-head of Citigroup’s structured and infrastructure finance group, chief development/operating officer at Airport Group International, head of Asian project finance at Lehman Brothers and a member of the Citibank global project finance group.

Mr. Gold has been an Adjunct Professor of Finance at New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business, teaching a course on Infrastructure and Project Finance. Mr. Gold received his BS and MBA from New York University.

Nona Evans

Director of Nonprofit Services

Raised in the grocery retail business, Nona was an integral part of Whole Foods for nearly 25 years. Prior to ascending to her role as Executive Director of Whole Foods’ charitable foundations, among her other positions at the venerable supermarket chain, she led global marketing at a time when the company was beginning to educate shoppers about the importance of how nutrition impacted the health of our children and the critical importance of what kids eat at school.

Through Nona and her team’s efforts, Whole Kids sponsored the program Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, now with a presence in over 12,000 elementary schools across the U.S., bringing salad bars and gardens to help kids learn about nutrition while improving their health with proper lunches. Whole Kids continues to grow this program for the next generation while simultaneously teaching more than 13,000 teachers about how to improve their own nutrition.

Nona resides with her family in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods’ headquarters city, where she tends to her family farm, raises bees for honey, takes care of multiple senior charges, and has a special horse named Dottie.

Brian Tuckey Devlin

 Advisory Board Member

A serial entrepreneur, big picture thinker, conceptual creative and lover of the complex. An expert in tax planning, transaction and partnership structuring and all aspects of real estate acquisition, development, management, brokerage, covering all industry segments, and food and beverage operations.

An adherent to principals of “One Minute Management” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Worked up from a dishwasher at age 15 to the youngest food and beverage director of a large commercial hotel (the Sheraton Crest Hotel) in Austin, TX at age 21.

Started and built a used car dealership, specializing in exotic grey market imports and custom classics at age 23.

Started and built a real estate syndication and management firm, syndicating and managing six real estate limited partnerships owning several hundred multifamily apartment units by age 26.Held SEC series 7 and 63 securities licenses, insurance sales licenses and Texas State Real Estate Broker’s license.

Graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with BBA in Real Estate and Finance.

Subsequently, as a founding principal of Hearthstone Capital in NYC, acquired over 3,000 multifamily apartment units in three states, and subsequently as managing partner, acquired and later sold a privately held portfolio of almost 1,300 multifamily units, securitized through First Union Capital Markets.

As Devlin Development, Inc., planned, assembled and capitalized a 270-acre mixed use project as lead developer in Cabarete on the north shore of the Dominican Republic, getting a 412-unit condominium half built before the collapse of the economy and the bankruptcy of our capital partner, Lehman Brothers, in October of 2008.

Bought, renovated and sold dozens of single-family homes in Cape Coral, Florida starting in 2010.

Presently planning a 30-acre, mixed-use, waterfront development on the north shore of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.

Paul Lester

General Counsel 

In addition to his legal career, Paul has concluded over $1.5 billion in real estate transactions and was a founding Director, shareholder, and legal counsel to the Bank of Coral Gables.

Lester has been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” by Florida Super Lawyers magazine, and he has been named to the “Best Lawyers in America” list by Woodward/White, Inc. He is also a frequent speaker at legal seminars and conferences. Equally, for over 30 years was a nationally recognized “Redbook” Bond Counsel.

David Goldweitz

Board Member

David Goldweitz is a Partner with KSDT, CPA, where he brings 40+ years of experience, focusing his practice on tax and accounting for high-net-worth individuals and specializing in the hospitality, technology, real estate, legal, and healthcare industries. David has been a consultant to both public and private emerging growth companies and has extensive experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, business valuations, and IRS 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchanges. In addition, he has extensive experience in litigation support and business mediation, where he is trained as both a certified family mediator and a Neutral Financial Professional in the Collaborative Divorce process.

David has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities as well as a frequent contributor to CBS4-Miami. David also served on the Merrill Lynch Client Advisory Board and is an approved instructor for The NASD on Broker-Dealer accounting.

David resides with his family in Miami and is very involved in the local community, serving for more than 20 years on the executive board of the Children’s Bereavement Center, on the Board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, serving previously as campaign chairman of The Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Young Adult Division. David also serves as a trustee of Greenfield Day School.

David is a CPA licensed to practice in Florida and is a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA). He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

Deborah Spiegelman

Advisory Board Member 

Deborah Spiegelman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Executive Director (FT),provides leadership to the Miami Children’s Museum (MCM) core staff and reports to the Board of Directors. She is involved with long range planning, development, and the creation and implementation of exhibits, and educational programs.

She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Miami, with more than 35 years of non-profit experience in areas such as marketing, public relations, board development, management, and fundraising. She has more than 30 years’ experience in the museum field as a director of capital campaigns, management consultant, and executive leader.

She has served as a cochair of the National Conference for Children’s Museums and a member of the Association of Children’s Museums, American Association of Museums, Children’s Cultural Coalition, and National Society of Fund-Raising Executives. She also served as a Board Member for the Cushman School, Girl Scouts, and Association of Children’s Museums, Temple Beth Shalom Education Board. Currently She is serving on Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Children’s Services.

Robert Seigmann

Robert Siegmann, Advisor for Reimagining Restaurants and Food Access

Robert Siegmann was born in the US. As a young boy, he and his family crossed the border south to Mexico where he grew up on fresh foods from local markets. At 17, Robert returned to the US to attend the University of Washington and transferred to NYU where he earned a degree in Business Administration.

After a successful early career as a dancer with the American Ballet Company, he went to work on Wall Street for Salomon Brothers. Then after executive posts at PR firms Hill & Knowlton and Fleischman Hilliard, Robert yearned to abandon the boardroom and return to his first love – the kitchen. In 1995, Robert opened Harvest Gourmet Caterers to serve the fashion industry and soon won the attention of Martha Stewart who hired him to cater a luncheon at her private residence.

After two decades of New York winters, in 1998 Robert moved to Miami Beach to create a brunch and dessert restaurant, Icebox Café. Local and national press attention snowballed …The New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine, the Food Network, The Cooking Channel. And, The Oprah Winfrey Show featured Icebox Cafe as having “The Best Cake in America.” In May 2013, Icebox opened a double-sized location in the heart of Miami Beach. Robert capitalized on the brand’s appeal by developing a fast casual airport format as well. In 2006, Icebox Cafe opened at Miami International Airport. His latest Icebox Café location in Hallandale, Florida is 14,000 square feet and features a commissary, bakery and greenhouse.

The Icebox Cafe brand is synonymous with freshly made, high quality, wholesome food.