Regina (Gonzalez) Thompson originally from Miami, Florida, is a first generation American.

She earned her Bachelor’s in Theatre Studies at the University of Central Florida, and her MBA

at Nova Southeastern University. Earlier on in her career, she worked as the Service and

Operations Manager at 24 Hour Fitness and was top three in sales, member retention, and overall

club satisfaction. She realized a passion for mentorship and found herself at Florida Atlantic

University under Innovation and Business Development.

She began managing the FAU Wave program in 2018, an applied research and entrepreneurial

competition for students. Under her management, she increased student engagement, secured a

donor, and expanded student participation in statewide collegiate competitions. As she grew in

her position, she began managing the NSF I-Corps program, a customer discovery-based training

for faculty and student innovators. Regina has also authored, administered, and implemented an

external facing workshop for community entrepreneurs titled the Market Validation Workshop.

Recently, this workshop has been utilized to impact organizational improvement within the Air

Force Technical Assistance Center. Since 2018, Regina has mentored, managed, developed and

instructed entrepreneurial based programs to accelerate and support technologies from faculty,

students, and the community.

Andres is a serial entrepreneur and investor that has backed over 140 startups over his decade as an investor. As a founder Andres co-founded Grooveshark, Onswipe (Techstars 2011), Coderise and Socialatom Group.

Jaap Donath is Assistant Executive Director, Programs at the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation where he oversees the four pillar programs, Ideate, Incubate, Accelerate and Post-Accelerate as well as other programs.

Jaap has close to 30 years of economic development experience, including over 25 years with the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the economic development partnership for Miami-Dade County, as Senior Vice President, Research & Strategic Planning. In this role he has been involved in the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in South Florida since the late 1990s, including BioFlorida Southeast Chapter leadership, Life Science South Florida Executive Committee and past member of the eMerge Americas Steering Committee.

He also participated in tech tradeshows such as CeBIT (was the world’s largest IT tradeshow) in Germany and MEDICA (world’s largest medical device tradeshow) and BIO International Convention. In addition, he was an Adjunct Professor at Barry University teaching “International Business” and “Business Consulting” in the MBA program and member of the Business School’s Strategic Planning Committee and taught “Research & Inquiry” in the MBA program at Johnson & Wales University. He also taught at Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University and St. Thomas University.

Jaap Donath, a native of the Netherlands, received a Ph.D. in International Business and International Relations from the University of Miami. He received a M.A. in International Relations from the same institution and a B.A. in Education for History and Dutch Language at the Christelijke Hogeschool Windesheim in the Netherlands.

He is fluent in English, Dutch, and German. He has been a speaker at national and international economic development and business conferences. He has published internationally 26 articles, book reviews, and op-ed articles and lectured and presented papers at conferences in the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. In addition, he has been interviewed by national, regional and local media, including Time Magazine, Bloomberg News, Florida Trend, and the Miami Herald. His recent community involvement included being a member of the 21st Century Schools Bond Advisory Committee (Miami-Dade County Public Schools) overseeing a multi- year, $1.2 billion capital improvement project and being a member of the Miami Dade College Hialeah President Campus Advisory Committee.

Martha Rios Goyburo, Entrepreneurship Specialist joined BCEx in June 2022.
Martha comes to Broward College from Junior Achievement of South Florida, where she spent 8 years overseeing all aspects of the year-long JA Fellows Company Program. In this nationally award-winning program, students gain real-world business experience by working in groups of 25, conceptualizing, capitalizing, and managing their own small businesses. During her tenure, JA was proud to have two teams invited to compete nationally out of 700 companies in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In her role at BCEx, Martha focuses on leveraging her leadership and experience toward maximizing the effectiveness of all BCEx operations and programs, and events.

Before diving into supporting and promoting the incredible innovations of the ocean and water industry, Tamara spent a decade ocean-bound for weeks at a time. Working with state-of-the-art geophysical sensors in some of the most challenging environments - the salty depths of the world’s oceans - suited her adventurous spirit and solution finding nature.

While Tamara enjoyed managing projects with advanced technology and collaborating with a diverse workforce and clientele, her international travels made her witness to some of the worst challenges facing humanity, from ocean pollution to water scarcity. She resolved to pivot her career into sustainability and ecological resilience. Since earning a Masters of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Tamara develops and facilitates programs that enable tech companies, policymakers, government officials, STEM students and researchers to form mutually beneficial partnerships, innovating and collaborating internationally toward sustainable solutions.

She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. She contributes technical knowledge along with expertise in strategic collaboration and a zest for innovative thinking. Tamara lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, new baby boy and darling dog. She is most happy near a body of water, relishes any chance to SCUBA and loves learning new languages and cultures.

As an entrepreneurial ecosystem explorer and builder, Marc has traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad to study various structures and approaches to supporting and enhancing local entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Believing in supporting entrepreneurs throughout their journey, Marc has organized and facilitated multiple Global Entrepreneurship events,  Techstars Startup Weekend and Startup Week, and runs Startup Broward, StartupGrind Fort Lauderdale, FoundersBoost South Florida, Founders Live Fort Lauderdale, Techstars Startup Digest, and the upcoming South Florida Startup organization.

Marc holds dual bachelor's degrees in Marketing and Management with specializations in Entrepreneurship, Finance, Advertising, and Computer Information Systems.

Marc calls himself an Innovation Activist, believing that true innovation is not the domain of the few but a human right.