CEOs Speak

Elly Perets is the Chief Executive Officer at Utilis. He has 20 years of experience in executive management, enterprise software sales, marketing, business development, and OEM.

Mychal Manolatos is Vice President of SOLitude Lake Management, a nationwide environmental firm specializing in the sustainable management of lakes, stormwater ponds, wetlands, fisheries, and drinking water reservoirs. He is responsible for driving the overall direction and strategy of the business while upholding the company’s mission to provide premium, accessible environmental solutions. Mychal earned his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Hospitality Management from Michigan State University and began his professional career in 1999. He has led various teams and businesses across multiple industries, including two Fortune 500 Companies.

Manley Hopkinson is the founder of renowned leadership consultancy Manley Talks LTD and The Compassionate Leadership Academy, author of Compassionate Leadership, and a sought-after keynote speaker.

Known as the “world’s smartest coach,” Cynthia Davis is an authority on transcendent leadership and cultivating potential in maverick innovators. She is the CEO of Radiant Blue and the founder of the Incremental Monumental Change community, two separate but related endeavors that foster excellence in extreme pioneering.

Before striking out on her own, Cynthia led a publicly held consulting company as its first female CEO, served as a VP of International Business Development, a VP of Global Operations, an Executive VP, and a Management Consultant at some of the world’s most prestigious corporations including Raytheon Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Bausch & Lomb, and General Electric. During her tenure at these legendary Fortune 50 companies, she learned what it takes to achieve massive success on both the individual and corporate level, and felt compelled to share that hard-won wisdom.

For more than 20 years Eric Strafel, former CEO and Fortune 500 executive, has dedicated himself to building forward-thinking teams and scaling innovation to create transformational organizations that thrive in an increasingly entrepreneurial and purpose-driven world. His recent corporate leadership roles include Vice President of Strategy and Market Development for Boeing Global Services and President/CEO of Aviall, where he led the creation of the framework for Aviall’s 20/20 vision for future growth. Strafel is passionate about helping small and midsize companies grow profits and scale, which motivated him in 2019 to launch SUMMi7, an EdTech platform featuring a series of pursuits focused on improving business and society by creating opportunities for underrepresented communities. He is on a mission to share collaborative leadership strategies and create opportunities for a more human-centric and inclusive planet.

Jamie Straz has over 6 years of experience with both public and private sector projects. He has served as Project Architect, Manager, and Designer for both large and small scale projects through the schematic and design development stage, construction documents, permitting, and construction administration for various types of projects and clients. He has a diverse design background that he integrates into his Architectural work whether it is through Art, Sculpture, Journalism, Marketing, or Graphic Design. Understanding what the client wants and working with them to create a design that reflects their dreams into a reality, good design does not come at a cost and Mr. Straz strives to incorporate this philosophy into his work regardless of the type of project. 

Erdin Beshimov is an entrepreneur and educator at MIT. He believes that the mission of education is to help humanity escape the Paradox of Progress. He also predicts that the best universities of the 22nd century will be different from the best universities today.

Rob Weinhold, a crisis leadership expert , is the Chief Executive of the Fallston Group, which he launched in 2009 to help organizations manage their reputations during life’s most critical times. As an executive serving various organizations in the public and private sectors, including the Baltimore Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Ripken Baseball, Rob developed deep experience in crisis leadership, innovation, business growth, marketing, and public affairs. In all these roles, Rob also served as chief strategist and has appeared on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, BBC and many other media outlets. He holds a Master of Science in Marketing degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Larry Oberly brings 26 years of franchise experience from the foodservice, real estate, and large-format printing industries. Before joining SpeedPro in November of 2017, he served for 17 years as Vice President of U.S. and Global Operations at RE/MAX LLC, where he headed growth, development, technology, and training for more than 100 countries and territories, 3,850 offices, and 54,000 agents.

Prior to RE/MAX, Larry was a successful multi-unit Baskin-Robbins franchisee with full P&L accountability for marketing and sales, quality customer service, team development, purchasing, and accounting. After six years, he built and sold his businesses at a substantial profit and was elected to serve on the Baskin-Robbins National Marketing Committee.

Larry has three main roles as the President and CEO of SpeedPro: setting the vision of the company, growing existing studio sales and profits, and awarding and supporting new studios.

Larry’s wife owns a Medical Training company and they are parents to one son. Larry loves traveling, running, and hosting parties at their home. He has run seven marathons and eight half-marathons. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado and Georgetown University. He holds a BBA from Kent State University, an MBA from California State University, a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and is a member of the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board of the University of Colorado-Denver, IFA International Committee and Convention Committee.