Featured Speaker(s)

Michelle Bazargan:
President of Align Technologies Consulting Firm, Michelle Bazargan is a Business Technology Consultant who specializes in enabling businesses drive strategy and transformation to increase revenue, profitability, and create efficiencies by leveraging technology; incorporating a fine balance between marketability and profitability to enhance a company’s future success.

Prior to Align Technologies, Michelle was Director of Technology Services, at JM Family Enterprises, a $9 billion dollar diversified automotive company. JM Family is ranked by Forbes as the 30th-largest privately held company in the U.S. and one of the 100 Best Companies to Work.

Michelle is a strategic business and technology leader with over 17 years of Business and Information Technology experience. She has an adept understanding of business strategy and experience with collaborating with teams to apply process and technology solutions to enhance a company’s growth. In addition, Michelle has extensive knowledge in Technology Services, Application Development, and Product and Project Management. She has a successful track record for overseeing and delivering multi-million dollar initiatives.

Michelle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Florida Atlantic University. She is also PMP, CSM certified and holds other numerous technical and management certifications and maintains a strong passion and commitment for leadership, building effective teams and promoting and driving innovation.

Michelle is an avid athlete and is very passionate about health and fitness, which promotes her good work ethic and strong desire to succeed. She participates in triathlons, adventure races, 100-mile century rides, and marathons to raise money for charitable organizations such as United Way, Big Brothers & Sisters, American Red Cross, St. Jude Hospital and supports multiple other charities.

Lourdes Balepogi:
Lourdes, or Luly as she is more affectionately known, has a knack for delivering exceptional results to her clients and business partners while simultaneously building strong teams and nurturing young talent for future opportunities. She puts forth full effort and shares her admirable work ethic to empower those around her to achieve and exceed goals. Shaping her character with the values of integrity, service, and excellence, she offers outstanding service to clients and prospects and readily goes the extra mile to surpass expectations.

With over ten years of diverse experience in marketing, events, and public relations in various industries, Luly founded Chispa Marketing in 2006. Her clients have included South Beach Wine & Food Festival, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Miami International Film Festival, Legal Services of Greater Miami, Miami Dade College and The Keyes Company, to name a few.

Currently, Luly is on the Board of Advisors and producing Michelle Villalobos’ Women’s Success Summit in May 2012, the largest women’s entrepreneurial conference in South Florida. In 2010 & 2011, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce named Chispa Marketing as a Top 100 Minority-Owned Business. Luly was also nominated as a Rising Star and Chispa Marketing was nominated for the Diamond Awards by Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce in 2011. In addition, not only is she a member of Florida International University’s President Council, she also received the FIU Young Visionary Torch Award for making a mark in her industry at such an early stage in her career. Other organizations she is involved in are: Board of Directors, Public Relations Society of America, Miami Chapter; Board of Directors, Greater Kendall Business Association; President, Events Chair, BNI West Execs, where she was also named Most Valuable Member in 2010; Lifetime Member, FIU Alumni Association; Member, Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce.

Stephen Garber:
Stephen Garber, President of ThirdLEVEL, is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs executive teams, and large scale transformation projects across the U.S. and internationally. Driven by a relentless passion to help business leaders both get what they really want in business and life �" and to help their teams be fully engaged, passionate and successful, Stephen has coached clients across a wide range of industries, including IT transformation projects, financial services, real estate, construction, and health care.

Stephen helps people to see the areas of growth and challenge that they might have in a productive and positive manner using and teaching his own unique brand of Applied Emotional Intelligence, so that impediments to personal, team, and business success are minimized. Through his work as an executive coach, leadership strategist, speaker and author, Stephen has become known as a charismatic and engaging thought leader in identifying and implementing the behaviors that executives can adopt to lead them to their greatest success.

Stephen Garber is the author of numerous motivational articles in the USA and UK. He has also been a featured expert on national and local television talk shows. In addition, Stephen has worked with many world-renowned organizations, including Accenture, PwC, Lloyds Banking Group, Rolls Royce and British Nuclear Group. Locally he has worked with the management teams at The South Florida Business Journal, Oppenheimer, and HomeSafe. Having worked extensively in the United States, Aruba, the United Kingdom and Europe, Stephen has helped thousands of people to personal and professional success.

Rita Abramson:
Rita is a wardrobe stylist, image consultant and personal shopper with over twenty years experience in the fashion industry. She started RagstoRita to help men and women of all economic walks of life rework their wardrobes from the inside out, often finding the inside doesn’t match the outside. The way we look has a tremendous impact on our self-esteem, relationships and careers. We are all judged on appearance before performance and unfortunately we don’t get second chances for first impressions.

Rita has helped countless individuals achieve their goals simply by improving their appearance. Rita’s clients include celebrities, athletes, socialites, high powered executives, single working parents, stay at home moms and individuals who have achieved significant weight loss. She also serves as “Resident Stylist” for Divorce2Dating, an online resource for individuals affected by divorce.

RagstoRita is a unique service that assists clients with all their wardrobe needs and is dedicated to inspiring individuals to embrace their beauty and highlight their attributes! Confidence and appearance go hand in hand. Simply put, when we look better, we feel better. Through specific wardrobe pieces you can look younger, taller, thinner and therefore, more confident. If you could look fabulous everyday and get dressed without the stress, why wouldn’t you? By having a customized closet with countless, seasonless and stylish clothes that are perfect for your body, personality and style, getting dressed for any occasion is easy.