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Team

Roy DiBenerdini, CEO

Roy DiBenerdini is an accomplished Entrepreneur, Senior Executive, IP Inventor and CEO with more than 30 years of success across many industry segments. His broad areas of expertise include, the advancement of IP, investment strategy, growth strategy, increased valuation and analytics. Throughout his executive career, Roy has held leadership positions at companies including American Airlines, Inc./AMR Corporation, Computer and Information Sciences, Inc., AOL Digital Marketing Services/AOL Rewards and iiON Corporation. Currently, he is the Managing Partner at Green Room Fund, LLC, an early stage technology commercialization company and Managing Director and General Partner at College Hill Ventures, PBC, a multi-stage Venture Capital company focused on early stage companies, university technology transfer and related applications.

 

He is a former Airline Advisory Board member to the United States Travel & Tourism Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) and currently serves on the board of several companies. Roy was most recently a Board Member and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Life On Earth, Inc., a small public company. Roy DiBenerdini has invented technologies relating to software analytics, water treatment/energy and has been a panel member at business entrepreneurial discussion groups such as, Connect San Diego, MIT Enterprise Forum and currently a member of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan and a Charter Member of TiE Boston. In 1985, Roy DiBenerdini received an Aerospace Engineering Degree from The University of Texas.

Ruth Windover, Director, Business Operations

Ruth Windover oversees the day-to-day business operations at MinervaWorks, including all administrative, financial and legal-related activities. 

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Educated at Georgia State University, she has over 25 years of experience working for small-, medium-, and large-sized companies.  Ruth is adept in designing and implementing processes and systems to streamline organizations, maximize productivity and profit margins, and enhance customer and employee retention.   

 

During her two years at MinervaWorks she has been instrumental in getting the company’s headquarters moved into a Class A office building in Atlanta and has also sourced and managed our remote office locations.  She has streamlined the employee on boarding and human resources processes and has worked closely with key vendors to enhance the MinervaWorks employee benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and disability coverage along with a 401K plan.

John Pirtle, Director, Network & Cyber Engineering

John Pirtle is a career IT Network professional with over 25 years’ experience in healthcare and financial enterprises, and especially enjoys new environments and the challenges of discovery and problem-solving.  With a hands-on approach, John has managed both engineering and operational teams for Ceridian, Titlemax, E*TRADE, and others.  John holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University.

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Though a large focus has been on data center hosting and disaster recovery environments, John has managed projects including Call Center, LAN refresh, VoIP, WiFi, WAN uplift, and telecom expense analysis.  Many of these have required seamless migrations to maintain business operations throughout the change process. 

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John’s objective is to provide network transport that is stable, highly available, and performs consistently at a reasonable expense.  “The Internet has become a utility just like water and electricity – we all just expect it to be there!”

Dr. Han Reichgelt, Advisor

Han Reichgelt is Professor of Information Systems in the Kate Tiedemann College of Business at the University of South Florida, St Petersburg, where he also directs the Center for Data Analytics and Visualization.  Han has served at a number of universities, including the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, Georgia Southern University, and Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU), where he served as Dean of the School of Computing and Software Engineering.

 

Han has extensive experience in innovative curriculum, course and program development and was one of the main contributors to the ACM/IEEE model curriculum for Information Technology.  He has always worked closely with industry, both to guide the curriculum and course development process, and to help students achieve relevant experience outside of the classroom.  This in turn required him to stay abreast of computing trends and the future of computing. More recently, Han has used his data analytics and visualization skills to conduct a number of projects for non-profit organizations in the Tampa Bay area, including CASA, an organization dedicated to preventing domestic violence, and Habitat for Humanity Pinellas.

 

Han holds degrees in philosophy and psychology from Radboud University in the Netherlands, and a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Rodney Bowers, Founder & President

Rodney Bowers is a technology executive with recognized success in creating high performing, efficient and cost-effective organizations. Bowers is focused on global IT infrastructure and the associated application and service delivery that cloud environments and associated platforms can provide.  Bowers’ architecture responsibilities include all aspects of wired and wireless service delivery, device interconnectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and hybrid cloud platforms for all application types.

 

During his technology career, he has focused on engineering, research and development, emerging technologies, IT organizational development, software engineering, systems architecture, data management and analytics, network design and application platform creation and optimization. Bowers has spoken on these topics at Interop, F5 World, Network World and as a contributor to Oracle webinars.  Additionally, he authored a technology advisory column for a major financial service magazine.

 

Bowers founded MinervaWorks in 2009, as a spin-out from Minerva Automation, his systems integration company that he founded in 1986. He has been engaged with such clients as the Georgia Aquarium, Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands, DuPont, Verizon Telematics, Ceridian, EMC, HPE, Duke Energy, CBE Group, Broward Health, Intercontinental Hotels Group, SITA, Tek Systems, ACS Technologies and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.  Bowers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Kennesaw State University.

Bryan Harris, Director, Systems & Cloud Engineering

Bryan Harris leads Minervaworks’ System Implementation Team as a Sr. System Engineer.  He has 10 years of experience in IT and is responsible for delivering innovative solutions and superior service to our clients.  Bryan believes that formulating cost-effective solutions to address needs and concerns for clients is key to building solid, lasting relationships and partnerships.  In addition, Bryan and his team have been integral in developing and maintaining Minervaworks’ internal monitor/alert/control posture, allowing team members to respond to client needs at a moment’s notice, or predicatively addressing anomalies before they become issues.

 

With the understanding that being in IT means being a lifelong student, Bryan encourages team members to stay abreast of the ever-evolving trends in the industry.  Bryan obtained his Bachelor degree from Hampton University, currently hold several industry-specific IT certifications from CompTIA and Microsoft, and is a fervent study of the TOGAF standard for IT Architecture. 

Dick Smith, Advisor

Richard "Dick" Smith is President of Ricaro Holdings LLC, an IT services firm.  Ricaro provides management expertise and support at the CIO, COO and CEO levels.  As an executive consultant Dick was acting CIO of LSG Sky Chefs, a global food service provider to the airline industry.  LSG Sky Chefs works with 270 airlines in 48 countries and operates more than 200 customer service centers.  Dick also functioned as Chief Information Officer and senior consultant at ANC Rental Corporation, the parent company of Alamo Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental. 

 

Prior to forming Ricaro Holdings, Dick served in numerous executive capacities including Sr.Vice President and CIO at Grand Expeditions, Inc.; a Boca Raton based enterprise created to consolidate high-end tour operators and offer upscale distinctive travel packages/services to a discerning consumer market.  He has also served as Sr. Vice President, CIO and member of the Executive Operating Committee at Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) the second largest commercial travel agency in the world.  Dick has tenure as Sr. VP, CIO at Holiday Inn Worldwide (and member of the Holiday Inn Board of Directors), Vice President, International Systems Development at Federal Express, Sr. Vice President, CIO for Flying Tiger Line, Vice President, CIO for the Irvine Company, a large West Coast land management and development company which built hotels, office complex’s, residential and retail properties, Vice President, CIO at Carlson Companies, which owns the Regent and Radisson hotel brands,  and Vice President, CIO Corporate Information Systems at the Toro Company.

 

Dick holds a BS degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University and performed graduate work in business administration at Case Western Reserve University.  He and his wife reside in Orlando and Minneapolis.

EXPERIENCED TEAM

The management team has years of technology experience in a wide range of industries and environments and has in-depth experience with all aspects of infrastructure platforms – from endpoints to cloud, with cyber security overlays.

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