Mohammed Ali Dhanani, Director of Dhanani Group Inc. and President/CEO of HAZA  Group has used his education, expertise, and knowledge of multiple industries to reach  the pinnacle of the business community. He embarked on his mission to make a mark  in the business community when he received his BBA from Bauer College of Business  at the University of Houston.

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After graduating, he devoted his time to helping expand the family business of oil & gas  distribution and real estate. With his ability to identify and capitalize on market  opportunities, the family business flourished and became a behemoth, growing into  one of the largest oil & gas distribution networks for Shell and Exxon. Ali utilized his  passion for innovation and entrepreneurship to boldly shape the future of the food  and beverage industry by beginning HAZA Foods -- Wendy's Franchise & HAZA Bell --  Taco Bell Franchise.

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Currently, HAZA Group manages over 520+ Wendy’s and Taco Bell restaurants in eight  different markets. Along with restaurants, Ali is an active partner in a real estate  development company with over 400 properties. He was also a trustee of  Wendy’s Advertising Program Board, which manages the advertising fund for all United  States Wendy’s restaurants.

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Ali Dhanani is not only a successful businessman but also an exceptional family man.  He has been married to Habiba Dhanani for 29 years and is a devoted father to three  beautiful children –Zainab, Adil, and Ammar. He is an active philanthropist and is  passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of others. He is on the Board  of UNICEF, Developments in Literacy US, and an active member of Operation  Smile, Know Autism, and Interfaith Ministries of Houston.

Angel Alvarez is the founder and chairman of ABB Optical, one of the leading distributors of optical products in the U.S.

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After studying business at the University of Miami, Angel began his career as a sales representative for CibaVision, a global leader in contact lens manufacturing. With the introduction of disposable contacts, Angel saw an opportunity to help optometrists streamline their business operations.

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In 1989, Angel purchased Co-Optics Distribution, which became ABB Optical a year later. Over the next 30 years, Angel grew the company and its capabilities through a series of strategic acquisitions and innovations. Today, the company boasts over 100 employees, eight facilities, and more than a billion dollars in sales. Angel had a partial liquidity event in 2012.

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Angel’s parents were Cuban refugees who instilled a deep-rooted respect for people and their work. He credits much of his success to fortunate timing and the knowledge he received from experienced business leaders in Vistage, a global CEO peer-to-peer learning organization.

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For Angel, this type of intimacy, sharing, and support – among people with similar business success, facing similar life challenges — is what makes R360 so exciting. He sees R360 as the opportunity to focus on his personal life with the same intention and rigor that he has applied to his business. With the help of R360 staff, Angel is enthusiastically building goals and strategies for the things that matter most — family, relationships, social impact, and health.

Bobby Castro co-founded Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG) with deep industry knowledge and an ever-present spirit of positive mental attitude (PMA), which he has built into the one-of-a-kind corporate culture at BHG.

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A lifelong entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare financing field, Mr. Castro leverages his proven success to motivate and inspire the BHG team. He invests his time and energy in building up others through consulting and advising on how to achieve goals and maximize non-refundable minutes.

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Mr. Castro is a passionate philanthropist, dedicated to helping those in need. He created the Kathleen Castro Foundation, in honor of his mother, awarding full tuition to St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to the children of a selected single mother. He’s made a significant contribution to the Thembelihle School in South Africa and financed a medical missionary trip to northeastern Brazil. Mr. Castro’s generous support also spans many local and national causes.

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When he isn’t helping create value for his colleagues, employees, and community, Mr. Castro is focused on his family. He has been happily married for 27 years, with two children and two grandchildren

Brenda Snow is the Founder & CEO of Snow Companies. Brenda has pioneered patient engagement for the life science industry with her agency, Snow Companies, which she leads as the Founder & CEO. Grown out of Brenda’s own experience as a patient with multiple sclerosis, Snow Companies today employs more than 350 staff worldwide. Snow Companies helped launch several blockbuster brands and also built a leadership position in the rare disease niche.

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Under Brenda’s leadership, Snow Companies has won over 100 awards, including PM360’s Trailblazer Agency of the Year, Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing private companies, and AMCP’s MarCom Award. PharmaVOICE has repeatedly listed Brenda among the pharmaceutical industry’s most inspiring people, and numerous NGOs worldwide recognize her for her achievements on behalf of the patient community. In 2019, Brenda received the PM360 Trailblazer Lifetime Achievement Award. During the 2020 pandemic, Snow Companies earned accolades and awards for its #IAmPatient PSA.

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After successfully growing her business, she guided the company through a minority investment by a private equity firm and subsequently successfully closed a transaction with Omnicom Health Group, the healthcare marketing collective within Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC). Brenda also helped build and invested in successful domestic and overseas ventures and startups outside the biopharma and communication industries. She has mentored young entrepreneurs in how to take their nascent organizations to the next level and currently holds stakes in companies and VCs active in the biopharma, agribusiness, nutraceutical, tech, and medical device industries.

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Brenda is passionately involved in local and global humanitarian and artistic causes. She has served on the boards of the Medical College of Virginia Foundation and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Brenda enjoys classical music and jazz, dance, and Broadway musicals and channels her own creative energy into mixed media art. She also enjoys every second she gets to spend with her husband, daughter, and granddaughter.

Born in Brazil, Carlos Vaz came to the United States with $300, a penchant for hard work, the desire to learn, and an unrelenting drive to “Make It Happen.” Today, he is a successful real estate investment expert and the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CONTI Organization, overseeing strategy, company culture, and business development. He began his career working in construction, then loan origination before advancing to investments in single-family and duplex renovations in the Boston area.

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Seeing the long-term growth trends in Texas, he moved to Dallas in 2007, yielding a portfolio of over 1,400 units in his first year in the multifamily business. In 2008, Carlos co-founded CONTI Organization, a real estate investment company specializing in value-added multifamily investments in Texas.

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As his real estate career flourished, Carlos received several awards, including Real Estate Forum Magazine’s 35 Rising Stars in the Industry under the age of 35, Dallas Business Journal’s 40 under 40, and the Middle Market 50 awards. He was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a four-time recipient of the Dallas 100 award. In 2018, Carlos received D CEO’s Latino Business Award for Outstanding Latino Business (midsize company). Additionally, he helped earn CONTI a place on the Inc. 5000 list four times.

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A Harvard Business School alumnus, Carlos is recognized as an industry thought leader and sought-after speaker at conferences and events. He is a member of Urban Land Institute (ULI), Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), Real Estate Council of Dallas, Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute (CCIM), and a board member of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC).

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Carlos, his family, and CONTI proudly support various nonprofit organizations, including Momentous Institute, Paper for Water, Vogel Alcove, and Make-A-Wish North Texas.

Pearl Baker-Katz is an entrepreneur and committed nonprofit board member.

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From an early age, Pearl realized she wanted the finer things in life — and that she would have to work hard to get them. As a teenager, Pearl helped raise her younger siblings, which didn’t leave time for school or college. She made up for the lost learning in her 20s by working multiple jobs, both day and night, before settling into a successful sales and marketing role for a global telecommunications company.

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Later, she and her husband Marcus Katz founded Academic Loan Group. As CEO, Pearl grew the student loan business into a national organization and by 2002 had amassed over $2 billion in its loan portfolio. In 2006, to continue her learning journey, Pearl joined Vistage, a global CEO peer-to-peer learning organization that helps CEOs make better decisions.

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In 2009, when the federal government restructured the student loan industry, Pearl sold her company’s assets to PCG Equity for $144 million and retired to Florida at the age of 44. Since then, she has dedicated herself to serving dozens of nonprofit organizations, including board positions at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and several groups dedicated to underprivileged children and at-risk women. She is also in the process of launching and running a women’s alcohol treatment program at a home she designed in Asheville, North Carolina.

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Pearl joined R360 because it provides her both the tools to manage her wealth and the opportunity to pursue her passions of education, self-improvement, social impact, and life-changing travel experiences.

Sofia Castro is a driven, dynamic, and fun-loving entrepreneur who brings a flair of energy and her own unique touch to every business she enters.

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She has been an entrepreneur since the of age of 24, Sofia always had a passion for new opportunities and has ventured into different businesses. In 1993, she and her husband opened a leasing brokerage firm that transitioned to a company named BHG, which they started with $1,800 dollars and sold the company in 2019 for a 1-billion-dollar valuation. During the growth of BHG, their passion for real estate continued to grow and they began buying and selling single-family homes. In 2003, they ventured into condo conversions and multifamily properties.

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In 2011, the real estate portfolio had grown to demand Sofia’s full-time attention and she transitioned full-time to start Ortsac Capital Group, LLC. Today, Ortsac Capital Group independently owns over 2,550 doors in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas in addition to nearly 4,000 doors through Joint Ventures. The Ortsac Family Office is also actively involved in multiple venture capital opportunities across various industries while maintaining an acute focus on multifamily real estate.

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Sofia is a passionate philanthropist, and she regularly contributes to the IDDeal foundation, Scentsability, the Jack and Jill Children Center, Thembelihle School in Africa, and multiple other charities.

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Sofia is happily married to her loving husband, Bobby of 31 years. She’s the proud mother of two amazing children, Priscilla 30, and Brandon 25, and the loving grandmother of Ocean, six years old, and Oakley, three years old.

Valerie Jensen is a visionary and innovator dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. Her award-winning work as an executive, filmmaker, author, and advocate is fueled by her belief in the power of sparkle and outside-the-box thinking. Valerie’s lifelong passion started when her sister, Hope, was born in 1979 with Down syndrome. After working as an elementary school teacher, Val served as executive director of SPHERE Inc., an arts nonprofit for adults with disabilities, where she adapted and directed musicals and feature-length films starring people with disabilities.

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In 2012, Val and her team began redesigning Connecticut’s historic Ridgefield Playhouse, transforming it into the Prospector Theater, a first-run movie theater and 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to creating competitive and integrated employment for adults with disabilities. Since its opening in 2014, it has sold over 650,000 tickets and employed nearly 300 Prospects (the name of all employees). The success of the Prospector sparked another venture. In 2018, she founded Gemstone Farm, a 160-acre farm in Connecticut providing meaningful employment and education to an integrated workforce through agriculture, education, and nature. Through farm work, recreation, sports, art, music, film production, and ongoing professional development, employees of Gemstone (known as “Gems”) complement the gifts of nature with hard work and inclusivity.

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Val has spread her sparkle across the country, hosting speaking engagements at Dartmouth College, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Columbia University, UT - Austin, and a variety of other institutions. She has been featured on major media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, The New York Times, Huffington Post, ESPN, etc. Her groundbreaking work has also been recognized by various branches of government, including the State of Connecticut, the Department of Labor, and the President of the United States.

Dr. Vineer Bhansali attended Caltech, where he obtained his BS and MS degrees in Physics and Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Harvard University in 1992. Vineer is an accomplished ultra-marathon runner and holds the Airline Transport Pilot Rating. He has served on the Investment Committee of the American Physical Society. Currently, He serves on the Investment Committee of the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and the Board of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

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Vineer’s 30-year investment career started at Citibank, where he founded and managed the Exotic and Hybrid Options Trading Desk. He later joined Salomon Brothers in its Fixed Income Arbitrage Group, followed by the CSFB Proprietary Trading Group. Vineer was at PIMCO for 16 years, serving the last eight years as Managing Director and Head of the Quantitative Portfolios Team, which he founded. Vineer also managed all PIMCO’s analytics from 2000 to 2010. In 2015 he started LongTail Alpha in Newport Beach, CA, where he is currently Chief Investment Officer. The firm is a leading provider of risk mitigation and diversification strategies for institutional investors.

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Vineer has written five books on finance published by the CFA Institute and authored over 25 refereed papers. He has received numerous awards, including the Graham and Dodd Scroll Award and TIME magazine’s award for college achievement.