The Smart Supply Chain Alliance

Blockchain technologies are reaching a tipping point in the coporate world in 2020. The potential for logistics is astounding and there has been enough successful proofs of concepts around the world to confirm the benefits of the technology. We are merely scratching the surface. The potential lies in unlocking silos in IT infrastructure, eliminate paperwork, reduce human errors and fraud, enhance transparency and build trust amounst parties. The fragmented nature of this industry makes it the perfect candidate for the decentralized networks, contracts and automation.

By mixing IOT, blockchain, data analytics and AI, we can define new businedd models for trade finance, insurance, and improve visibility on products and protect customers against fraud, counterfeit or malpractices. The Smart Chain Alliance will explore and create different modules to accelerate businesses and unlock the potential of this tranformative technology at the Regional level creating digital corridors with other logistics hubs in the US and abroad.

The Smart Supply Chain Alliance is a sandbox designed to deploy applications supported by the City of Miami, Miami International Airport, and the Port of Miami, accelerating FBF participants like Telefonica, RSK, EOS, dexFreight, Consolfreight, Corda R3, and DNA in leveraging their resources towards collective applications. The Foundation will use collective business intelligence to build the infrastructure of the 21st century and create a knowledge economy in South Florida.

SSCA Advisory Board

Lionel van Der Walt

President and CEO

Americas, PayCargo

Lionel van der Walt has more than 20 years of international executive leadership experience. He spent the early part of his career in the South African Air Force and later over a decade with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where he held various leadership roles based out of South Africa, Spain and the United States, including President of Cargo Network Services Corp. (CNS), IATA’s U.S. cargo subsidiary. Post CNS, he served as Chief Executive Officer at the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC). He also served as a member of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association and PayCargo’s Board of Directors. Currently, Lionel is President and Chief Executive Officer, Americas at PayCargo and serves as a member of the PayCargo EU, the RCI Foundation and the Clayton Youth Rugby Club’s Boards of Directors.

Lionel has a passion for driving positive change both in the workplace and across the industry. He strongly supports increased stakeholder collaboration, attracting new talent to industries and embracing diversity. Having worked across three continents he is a true global citizen with a clear understanding of the benefits that multicultural teams can deliver in today's connected world.

Lionel holds an MBA in Strategy and General Management from Milpark Business School in South Africa and qualified both as an Air Traffic Controller as well as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician earlier in his career.

Gary M. Goldfarb

Chief Strategy Officer Miami Beacon Council

Supply Chain Management providing Foreign Trade Zones & Customs bonded warehousing, inventory control, Transportation, Distribution services and fulfillment and Duty Drawback expertise. With Interport, Gary has developed several key business units including “Compra Fora” Brasil Customs Clearance Center in Miami, GPS Tracking and Location Technology, Foreign Trade Zone and Trade Facilitation Consulting (Over 100 FTZ activations in the past 6 years) as well as Supply Chain Engineering. Recently created the only Luxury Marine Industry Foreign Trade Zone in the US in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Goldfarb helped bring The Miami Free Zone back to its glory days, with over 96% occupancy, reaching almost $ 1 billion in trade in 2006. Prior to the Miami Free Zone, Goldfarb developed and obtained patents for software solutions for International Logistics. (From2.com). He built and took public Golden Eagle Group (NASDAQ:GEGP) , which became one of the largest Third Party Logistics (3PL) Companies is the United States, specializing in Inventory Control and Just in Time (JIT) programs. He has more than 44 years in International Trade and Supply Chain Management.

Goldfarb is actively involved in South Florida community and professional associations, serving in many Board of Directors and Executive Boards and Chairs International Trade & Logistics Committees. Served as Chair of One Community One Goal-Trade and Logistics Committee. Is Chair Elect and Serves on the Board of Directors of The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s official Economic Development Organization, Member of the Board of Directors of The World Trade Center-Miami, Member of the Board of Directors of the International Trade Consortium of Miami Dade County, Board of Advisors of FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation), Chairman of the Board of Advisors of FIU (Florida International University) Engineering and Computing Master’s Program, Chairman of US Department of Labor Apprenticeship Program at Miami Dade College, Member of the Board of Advisors of First Horizon Bank and Board of Advisors to one of the largest Hedge Funds. Goldfarb is an inductee into the FCBF Hall of Fame (Florida Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association).

Karl McDermott

3x Founder, 5x CXO

Board Member and Mentor to Start-Ups

Currently global head of business development for Morpheus.Network, a Canadian SaaS middleware platform for optimizing global supply chains by seamlessly integrating legacy and emerging technologies such as Blockchain, IOT, and AI. In 2016 he co-founded Biis, a non asset based transport platform with operations in Mexico and Colombia. Karl was a recipient of Mexico's innovation award and part of the delegation to Hannover Messe 2018. Previously he was EVP of a last mile Logistics firm with 5000 employees.

Patrick Duffy

President at Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA)

Patrick is committed to seeing BiTA produce valuable commercial outcomes for its members through the development and publication of open-source and royalty free data standards that allow for interoperability among business partners. Patrick deeply believes that the world is a supply chain, and that data standards run civilizations. He joins the BiTA team from the trade publication American Shipper and its sister data company, ComPair Data, where he was Research Director and Senior Consultant, respectively.

Founded in August 2017, the Blockchain In Transport Alliance (BiTA), has quickly grown into the largest commercial blockchain alliance in the world, with nearly 500 members in over 25 countries that collectively generate over $1 trillion in revenue annually.

BiTA is a member-driven organization; members are primarily from the freight, transportation, logistics and affiliated industries. Alliance members share a common mission of driving the adoption of emerging technology forward. We accomplish this by developing industry standards; educating members and others on blockchain applications/solutions and distributed ledger technology (DLT); and encouraging the use and adoption of new solutions. Thousands of companies have applied for membership.

Nabil Malouli

VP of Innovation

DHL North America

VP Global Commerce for DHL Supply Chain where he leads the innovation, strategy and product development of its e-commerce fulfillment and last mile solutions.

Nabil was formerly VP, DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation where he oversaw the development of innovative logistics projects to support Fortune 500 companies doing business globally. Together with his team, he developed and implemented solutions related to digitalization, automation, big data and robotics.

Nabil is passionate about innovation, e-commerce and entrepreneurship and a regular speaker on the conference circuit. In his free time, he serves as an advisor to high growth start-ups, accelerators and universities.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Trade from the University of Montpellier.

Emir Pineda

Miami International Airport

Seasoned leader in private and public sector organizations with 20+ years of decision making experience in the transportation sector. Strategic, results-oriented with a proven track record in aviation management, analysis, trade/logistics, and infrastructure development. With a broad base of expertise in marketing, sales and economic development. Broad travel/business experience with focused expertise in Latin America. Experienced and effective communicator to diverse business and industry groups. Sought after speaker at international conferences and forums.

Stanley Rigaud

Director of Economic Development

Miami Dade Beacon Council Trade & Logistics

As Vice President of Economic Development, Mr. Rigaud is responsible for attracting job- generating business investments to the Miami community and maintaining an active working knowledge of the economic trends of Miami-Dade County and the State of Florida. He leads Miami-Dade Beacon Council’s efforts in helping to create a business climate that encourages the promotion and growth of the Trade & Logistics industry in Miami-Dade County.

Prior to his current role, Stanley spent 25 years at FedEx leading multi-functional teams that provided integrated logistics solutions for FedEx customers with high-value products and complex supply chain requirements in both air and ground operations.

Gabriel Rodriguez

President at A Customs Brokerage Inc.

A family firm dedicated to international transportation

Founded by his father more than 40 years ago. ACB has developed into a CARGO CONCIERGE service providing customs brokerage and logistics management services with a network of over 150 agents domestically and worldwide. The company specializes in customs brokerage, global transportation, warehousing, E-commerce, and logistics solutions for businesses worldwide. As a licensed broker for over 20 years and president of the company for more than 18 years, Gabriel has brought his expertise in sales, customer service, compliance and operations to the company as it continues to grow and expand into new markets.

Hector Hernandez

Founder

dexFreight

Experienced entrepreneur using the latest technologies and business model innovation to address the fragmentation and inefficiencies of the logistics industry. Believer of Web 3.0 and advocate of collaboration, decentalization, data privacy and equitable distribution of value.

Ernesto Vila

Founder

Consol Feight

Experienced CEO with a demonstrated history of working in the Global Logistics industry. Skilled in Distribution Logistics, Freight Transportation, Ocean Transportation, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Strong business development professional graduated from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford on Blockchain.

Alex Morales

CEO

Waltonchain

Consultant in the blockchain technology industry involving supply-chain management, smart cities, smart retail and system design. Senior Loan Officer at Pioneer Mortgage Funding and senior commercial Real Estate broker at Keyes Commercial. Real Estate and finance technologies consultant and speaker.

Praveen Yalamanchi

Co-Founder

ZenBlocks (EOS Miami)

Prav is the co-founder of ZenBlocks (EOS Miami), the top ranked blockchain startup in Florida

ZenBlocks is a block producer for 2 of the top 5 global blockchains by daily activity and the creator of the #1 Wordpress blockchain plugin WordProof, SQRL wallet, DEX for EOSio tokens, AI-Blockchain Alliance, global leader in Blockchain Gaming and AR/VR apps with partnerships with IEEE, Magic Leap, Unity3D, Unreal Engine.

2019 milestones included: 500 Startups Founders Bootcamp, Miami Herald Startup Finalist in fintech, first place in Federal Govt. hackathon and integrating NASA technology for a $2M prize.

Charles Irizarry

Founder

Stealth AI Company

Charles Irizarry is an entrepreneur, company builder, and CTO with a background in distributed computing systems and cloud-based software architectures. With a career in co-founding successful technology incubators and companies: Charles understands balancing high product innovation with company lifecycle realities, leading innovative teams to deliver quality digital products and platforms. His experience includes managing sophisticated, multi-disciplinary technology teams, having launched over 20 different platforms and products across multiple businesses and industries.

Previously, Charles co-founded Rokk3r Labs, where he led business development, UI/UX design, product architecture, and was the Managing Director of Co-Build. He helped create over 20 software companies and platforms for enterprises and small-to-medium sized businesses across multiple industries.

Charles is a recognized leader and speaker within Miami’s startup scene and is currently focused on innovation in the areas of natural language processing, machine learning, and blockchain.

Eric Olafson

Director of Global Trade & Business Development

PortMiami

As the Director of Global Trade and Business Development at PortMiami, Mr. Olafson develops and oversees strategies to promote growth at one of the nation’s leading container ports. He heads efforts to advance cargo growth related to Miami's billion dollar infrastructure investments and increase Post-Panamax business. In his capacity, he is responsible for liaising with ocean carriers, BCOs, railroads, customs brokers,and freight forwarders. He also administers the port’s Perishables, Transshipment, Air/Sea Cargo, and FTZ 281 initiatives.

Mr. Eric Olafson has a wide spectrum of experience in public administration and management. Prior to his appointment as Director of Global Trade and Business Development at PortMiami, Mr. Olafson held a number of executive level positions within the port and in Miami-Dade County government including Assistant Director at the Miami-Dade County Office of Intergovernmental Affairs where he was responsible for executing Miami-Dade County’s federal legislative agenda as well as establishing and managing the county’s Washington DC office. Mr. Olafson has also worked as Legislative Counsel to US Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. Mr. Olafson began his career working as staff in the Florida House of Representatives and worked for five years in the US Department of Justice, immigration division.

Mr. Eric Olafson is a member in a number of business and economic development organizations at national and international levels including: World Trade Center Board of Directors; International Visitors Association; Florida Ports Council; The Beacon Council; The Department of Commerce District Export Council; International Refrigerated Transportation Association; Health Technologies Distribution Alliance; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; the Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association, the American Association of Port Authorities, Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors.

Yuda Saydun

Founder & President

CyVent

Founder and president of CyVent, a cybersecurity-focused solutions provider. Chair, Technology Committee of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. Accelerating the transition from a classic “identify-remediate-recover” stance to a more Artificial Intelligence-driven pre-emptive posture that can assure smooth sailing despite the inevitable assaults.

As an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, company builder and corporate executive, focused on discovering cutting-edge technologies and deploying them to transform businesses.

Selected one of UCLA Anderson's "Top 100 Inspirational Alumni". Started seven business units, launched hundreds of new products and services, integrated acquisitions, and drove turnarounds.

In addition to a corporate career, mentor, founder, director and investor in tech start-ups and early-stage companies. Instrumental in seed, growth-stage and follow-on rounds of funding. Currently an advisor at Bioverse Labs and Chair of the Miami Dade Beacon Council's Technology Committee.