Some Of Our Board and Advisors

Richard Ornitz

Richard Ornitz is a seasoned and globally recognized infrastructure and investment market leader, having completed these projects over many years on most every continent as an engineer, lawyer, investment banker and investor. Prior to serving as Chairman of Infralinx Capital LLC, he worked with and represented global contractors and concessionaires of most nationalities, governments, investment banks, multilateral finance institutions and also served and continues to serve on the UN and US advisory boards for development of this market globally. In the early days he also served on the US Secretary of State private advisory board and developed international deal skills at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was also a senior member of management of Degussa, a Fortune 100 German global company based in Frankfurt.

Richard has a reputation as a creative problem solver and deal maker, who understands the perspectives and legitimate needs of the various stakeholders in these deals, and brings them together efficiently and effectively.  He is also Senior Counsel to McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP/Dentons, and for five years as Vice Chairman of Creditanstalt Infrastructure Partners GMBH, part of Bank Austria, and continues as a member of UNECE‘s PPP Advisory Board.  Veteran, US Army Ordinance Corps.

John Yohanan

John Yohanan is President for Gulf South Forest Products, Inc. For over 20 years, Gulf South Forest Products has been a leading worldwide exporter of quality lumber, plywood and poles.

The Gulf Forest team of dedicated, long-term, well trained experts make up a strong customer-focused organization, structured to put each buyer’s needs first. This is reflected in their highly responsive service, extensive quality controls, and constant evaluation and improvement of products and services.

They take great pride in offering our customers a full range of services in order to fill their requirements in a professional manner, from beginning to end. Over 100 years of cumulative experience shows in sales, purchasing, documentation, shipping, and follow through on each and every order.

Billy Thompson

President

Billy Thompson is the Founder and Senior Pastor of Jesus People Proclaim International Church (JPPIC) for over 15 years; now residing in Deerfield Beach, FL. He is a profound revelator, teacher, and encourager whose heart is Kingdom minded to see believers fulfill Gods purpose in life, and Proclaim Gods life changing power through the love of Jesus Christ. This understanding is what propels him as he travels locally and internationally ministering, a word of hope, healing, and deliverance through Apostolic/Prophetic revelation. JPPIC has a diverse and progressively growing membership where he and his wife Cynthia Thompson, serve the communities that encompass Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

 Keith Wasserstrom 

Co-Founder/ Vice President

   Keith graduated from the Wharton School of Business (majoring in Accounting, Finance and Public Policy & Management) and Penn Law, where he served as President of the Student Government and Captain of the Cheerleaders. Keith spent more than 15 years leading M&A and Securities practices for some of the world’s largest, most prestigious law firms. He also was managing partner of his own law firm. Keith represented dozens of public and private companies, including many technology and health care companies, handling their securities and financing needs, among other things, including IPOs, public and private equity and debt offerings (in excess of $1 Billion), licensing, leasing, intellectual property, movie financings, compliance, HR, and mergers and acquisitions. He also started  Warranty of America, and A/C Innovations (issued patents for innovative filtration system that replaces the billions of air filters that now litter landfills worldwide). Keith was also a staff accountant and a publisher and editor of a South Florida weekly newspaper. Keith served as a Hollywood City Commissioner and serves, and has served on, on many public, agency, and charitable boards, including ZOA and the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce. He also served as general counsel to a family office. In addition to assisting the Alliance of Blacks & Jews with its Conservation Forest in the DRC and the Carbon Credits it will develop, and creating Africa Bonds to fund socio-economic projects in Africa, including providing over 60 million villagers with needed schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, electricity and clean water, Keith currently advises SPACs and innovative technology companies in financial and legal matters.

 
Liz Brauser

VP Marketing & International Outreach

Founding Board member/funder of Brauser Maimonides Academy, a premiere South Florida Jewish day school, established in 1990 ,with a nationwide reputation for academic excellence. National board member of the Zionist Organization of America.

John Simon

John Simon is a leader in promoting private investment in low-income countries, was the U.S. ambassador to the African Union and former executive vice president of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

At OPIC, Simon spearheaded efforts to promote private investment to the developing world, including by catalyzing the creation of new private equity funds focused on social impact investment in Africa. He previously served at the White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for relief, stabilization and development in the National Security Council (NSC) and at USAID as deputy assistant administrator overseeing the agency’s development information and evaluation units.

Until recently Simon was based in Addis Ababa as the United States’ representative to the AU. Earlier in his career, he worked at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor's degree at Princeton University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University.

Julius Jackson

Executive VP

Mr. Jackson became an activist in 1964 as a 17 year old, marching with Dr. King in Saint Augustine, Florida. As an activist with vision, Mr. Jackson has parlayed the benefits of a non-profit enterprise with the free market philosophy of a for profit business. His activism led to his co-founding Ryan Millennium Group Inc. in November of 2014. Ryan Millennium Group, Inc. has multi-racial ownership and was created to bring about racial harmony in North America and Africa through multiple economic strategies. The histories of Millennium Group worldwide, Inc., www.mgroupww.com and Ryan Inc., www.ryanfl.com, were perceived by their owners to be a perfect match for the task, and thus, Ryan Millennium Group, Inc., was formed. Most recently, Mr. Jackson encouraged a group of like-minded individuals to establish a new business, Social Investment Holdings, Inc., to capitalize on one of the newest tools for helping small businesses from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Regulation A. 

Mr. Jackson’s professional career began at General Motors Corporation in 1968 as assistant to the plant chemist for two years. Between 1971 and 1974, he served with the Metro Dade Police department. He earned a degree in criminal justice administration at Florida International University. After the Police Department, he worked in the County Manager’s office. Mr. Jackson left Miami-Dade County in 1976 to join a private Washington D.C. consulting firm, providing technical support to Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, under a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Thereafter, Mr. Jackson founded a consulting firm that ultimately had offices in London, Kinshasa, Zaire, Washington D.C., New Haven (Connecticut), and Miami, Florida. The firm procured national and international contracts with various U.S. government agencies, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Department of Defense. He managed the development of over 10 training courses and course revisions published by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). 

From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Jackson served on the Miami Dade County Housing Finance Authority, with emphasis on financing affordable housing. He left the authority and ultimately built housing for agencies as well as his own account. With his construction companies, he has built over 100 units of affordable housing, the 1 1/2 mile wall and associated walk path separating the Dolphin stadium from the adjacent neighborhood. Mr. Jackson has developed sub-divisions in Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida. After hurricane Andrew, he repaired and provided over 100 units of permanent and replacement housing. Mr. Jackson’s International exposure, led him to conduct housing development and business development workshops, to assist Black Businesses in South Africa in planning for collaboration to expand their capacity. Mr. Jackson is currently assembling a team to create a housing finance and securitization company in sub-Saharan Africa to address the current shortage of affordable housing for the indigenous Africans, existing since independence of South Africa and Namibia. 

He was engaged by the Archbishop of Cape Town, to bring Blacks in America to sub-Saharan Africa, to join forces and mutually benefit from the combined intellectual property and natural resource assets possessed by the two groups. This led to the establishment of the “Winds of Change” initiative, launched in 2012 in Addis Ababa at the World Economic Forum. Today, Mr. Jackson is focused on providing leadership for the establishment of a faith-based economic initiative, Interfaith Americans for a Better America and Social Investment Holdings, Inc., to support the creation and establishment of businesses majority owned by previously disadvantaged groups and individuals in America, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil. 

in January of 09. He managed a contract for the world’s fourth largest diamond mine in Angola and is currently managing, for a non-profit organization, People Helping Each Other, Inc., www.pheoglobal.org, more than 1,000,000 acres of timber for harvesting in Africa and more than 6,000,000 acres for conservation.

Mr. Jackson has been a board member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, Salvation Army and many civic and business organizations. He also served as President of the Northeast Florida Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors.