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 by introducing innovative high tech companies with early-stage capital, partnership opportunities with the local high tech community and the service providers whom serve our industry. |
| by offering educational programs for our members, uniting as one voice on important governmental affairs that affect our industry, and recognize our regional leaders with our annual awards. |
| by holding events that are meaningful to our members and prospective members, promote our region’s success stories and support initiatives that advance our mission. |
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History and Mission
Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership, Inc. was chartered in 2008 as a non-profit 501(c)(6) membership organization. It is comprised of technology companies and technology users, economic development groups and higher education institutions which are united to promote and expand our regional technology sector through seminars, forums and educational programs; and to represent the interests of the regional technology sector before federal, state and local government agencies.
Vision
SWFRTP will be recognized as the leading technology-cluster interest group in Southwest Florida.
Values
•· Recognizing that our economy is not constrained by government boundaries, SWFRTP will be geographically regional.
•· Recognizing that the interests of the technology cluster transcend technology alone, the SWFRTP will continually create linkages with IT users and service providers; education and economic institutions; institutinos; and intellectual property and venture capital resources.
•· Recognizing that our members are our lifeblood, the SWFRTP will create value-added programs and services for our members.
Strategies
SWFRTP has adopted three core strategies that guide its activities. They are known as "The 3 Cs:" Catalyze, Cultivate, and Connect, as described in the box in the left column.
Officers, Directors & Chairs
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President | Brooke Gabrielson
Brooke Gabrielsen is the founder and managing partner for Re:Action Consulting, a boutique consulting firm that guides visionary leaders of small organizations with growth potential. In addition to working with clients, Brooke manages the day to day operations of Re:Action Consulting.
Brooke’s background uniquely qualifies her to work well with both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Prior to forming Re:Action Consulting, she worked as a Business Relationship Manager at the not-for-profit Economic Development Council of Collier County where she was responsible for working with growth companies to identify available resources to assist in their expansion. While at the EDC she also developed and implemented an intentional business outreach program and the Economic Gardening program for Southwest Florida, which has been very popular with small and growing companies.
In order to better serve the community and her clients, Brooke serves on the Board of Directors for the Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership, where she currently holds the position of President. She is also an advocate for connecting the resources of the private business community with students through programs such as Junior Achievement.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Brooke has lived in Southwest Florida since 1987 and graduated from Barron Collier High School. She graduated from University of Florida magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and Economic Geography. Her graduate work at the University of Florida focused on economic development planning and political science.
Brooke returned to Naples in 2003 and began teaching Social Studies at Barron Collier High School where her students had excellent test scores in the Advanced Placement courses. In 2005 she joined WilsonMiller as a Land Use Planner where she worked on zoning, due diligence studies and determining the highest and best use of land.
Brooke is married to Nicholas Gabrielsen and they have two children. She is a member of Summit Church in Naples.
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Treasurer | Kim Brown
Kim has been helping technology companies in SW Florida since the early 90’s. He is a hands-on professional focusing on helping technology start-ups. Over the years he has worked as CFO at Attitude Networks in Naples, T3 Communications in Ft. Myers, and CallMiner in Ft. Myers. Currently he is providing freelance CFO services to several local technology companies including Surround Technologies. With a JD/MBA backed up with 25 years of start-up experience, he likes to work with early-stage companies. Besides serving SWRTP, he is an active member of the Gulf Coast Venture Forum.
Kim has lived in Ft. Myers for over 30 years and appreciates the quality of life here. That same quality of life attracts entrepreneurs. But he knows that it takes more than just the weather to keep them. He believes that it is important to nurture their ventures. As the nucleus of tech companies continues to grows, they reduce the area’s reliance on its traditional cyclical industries –development and tourism – providing needed balance and skilled jobs.
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Secretary | Marc Farron
Marc operates vTECHio, a local solution provider specializing in virtualization.
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Director | Kevin Barnhill
Kevin Barnhill is an Orlando Florida native who he designed a sustainable electric generation plant in seventh grade and built an atomic particle tracer in eighth grade. Graduated from University of Central Florida and has held leadership positions on many projects including; City of Anaheim Power Scheduling System, Phoenix Banking System, PVCS Java/Web, ASG IMPACT, Neighborhood America Public Comment System and WilsonMiller's Intranet, Extranet and Project Management Toolbox.
Helping develop better software, Kevin has consulted to the many fortune 1000 organizations including: GE, IBM, Chrysler, Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Western Digital, CountryWide, NASD, USCG – Coast Guard, First Citizens National Bank (Iowa), Bank of the Sierra, Coulter, OCWIN, Sprint-PCS, Bausch Van Heusen, CBIS, ComSat, Bauch Anaheim Lomb, Harris, City of Anahiem and Consolidated Edison Power.
Kevin has held several leadership positions such as; Director of Computer Services for Florida Hospital Association, Director of IMPACT NT for Allen Systems Group, Chief Software Engineer at TrueHa.com and Director of Development and Production at Neighborhood America.
He started the Orlando SQL Windows and Naples Dot.NET Developer's Groups.
Kevin has won many awards for his successful project development such as Employee of the Month - University of Central Florida, Star Performer (twice) - Chrysler Corporation, Innovation Award - WilsonMiller.
Kevin is currently pursuing an MBA in Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University. Kevin also helped the Naples .NET Developers group launch the first Southwest Florida Code Round Table. and Southwest Florida CIO Roundtable.
When he’s not compressing time on major projects, he’s having fun with his family, pushing Microsoft .NET to limits so advanced they seem to be magic, building analog and digital electronic devices, kayaking, fishing, cycling, hiking or sailboat racing.
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Director | Lee Paul
Lee Paul Technologies the CEO of Surround Techologies
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Director | Brooke Joseph
Brooke came to SW Florida from CT in 2001 where she was an enterprise architect for ING/Aetna Financial Services (AFS). Several of her projects at AFS were nominated for awards, most notably the AFS Chairman Award. Brooke joined WCI Communities, Inc in 2001 to implement their CRM program and Enterprise Integration practices and Project Management. Her work ethic, strategic thinking, and leadership have won her a WCI 5-star employee award.
Brooke has a long history with SWFRTP joining SWFRTP as Web Chair and acting Communications Chair in 2008 and has worked diligently to help move the partnership forward. She was the 2009 Partnership Award runner-up, the 2010 Partnership Award co-winner, and was the 2011 president. Other community activities include TechnoGirlz volunteer, volunteer organizer SWF .Net Code Camp, and a very proud Florida Boxer Rescue volunteer.
Brooke holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Management Information Systems (MIS) from Nichols College in MA and her graduate work at Rensselaer Hartford Graduate Center focused on Finance and MIS.
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Director | Randy Mitchelson
Randy Mitchelson is founder of National Web Leads, LLC (NWL) is an Internet marketing and lead generation services company. NWL drives new customer acquisition through email, web display, social media, keyword search strategies, mobile devices and more.
Clients include payday lenders, auto lenders, educational institutions, legal services, health and beauty product distributors and more. Internet advertising companies utilize end-to-end lead generation and ping-post software solutions provided by NWL's technology affiliate company Applied Cognetics. Mitchelson publishes the DailyDollar™. U.S. News and World Report named DailyDollar to its list of the 8 Most Savvy Personal Financial Podcasts.
As corporate citizens, Mitchelson and NWL are founding members and sponsors of nonprofits including Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership and Michelle's Angels Foundation, Inc. (MAF).
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Director & Communications Chair | Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson is Accredited in Public Relations (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America and holds an MBA from Northwestern University. Mike operates JacksonPR, which provides public relations and marketing consulting and voice/narration and program hosting.
Mike is deeply involved in Southwest Florida regional economic development and human resource issues. He serves as a director of the Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board and is past PR chair. He serves as a Director and membership chair of the Uncommon Friends Foundation.
From 2003-2009, he served as the City of Cape Coral’s Economic Development Director and was also responsible for Communications, including public relations and Cape TV programming. He designed economic development marketing campaigns that won national and state awards and promoted development of millions of new square feet of commercial space.
A native of Illinois, Mike’s first career was TV news. He appeared on-air as an NBC TV News Correspondent and award-winning Chicago TV News Anchor. Later, he operated a marketing and communications firm in Chicago that coached executives and politicians, produced training videos and handled public relations and crisis communications for Fortune 100 companies.
Mike is a USCG-licensed Captain and avid boater and SCUBA diver. He lives in Cape Coral with his wife Sally, an executive with Lee Memorial Health System.
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Director | Bruce Prezzavento
With a comprehensive professional career, Bruce Prezzavento has practiced in many areas including chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, computer hardware and software engineering, information systems management consulting, small business management consulting, education, and local economic development.
He is currently interested in assisting and developing small businesses, and promoting the growth of the economy in Southwest Florida.
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Director & Awards Chair | Warren Baucom
Warren Baucom is a Business Development Specialist for the Economic Development Office of Lee County. The Economic Development Office is a department of Lee County Government that works to attract new and diversified businesses resulting in high-wage, high-skill jobs; retain and encourage expansion of existing businesses; and improve the overall business environment in
Lee County. The Economic Development office also serves as staff for the Horizon Council, a 62 member advisory board to the county commission on economic development issues. This unique public-private partnership is made up of 62 members from government, education, business and community organizations.
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Program Chair | Stephen Craig
Stephen Craig has a proven track record leading and managing multiple projects and clients simultaneously. He has demonstrated the talents of developing and inspiring diverse production teams consisting of artistic and technical personnel as a Project Manager for n-Space, Inc., in Orlando, Florida.
During his tenure at this independent Video Game Production studio he delivered such titles as: “Marvel Ultimate Alliance II – Wii”, “Tron Evolution – Battle Grids – Wii” and the companies first iphone game “Golf Cart Ranger”.
After serving as a member of the Programs Committee, Stephen has taken on the position of Chairperson for 2012.
Stephen is a graduate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications and minored in TV & Film Production. This led him to New York City where he worked on such TV and film projects as “The Equalizer”, “Law and Order” and “Stanley & Iris”. Stephen started working for Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1995 and has credits on such animated films as: “Mulan”, Lilo & Stitch”, “Brother Bear”, “Tarzan” and “Dinosaur”.
Stephen is also an accomplished cyclist, runner and triathlete and has raised over $20,000 for charities to participate in cycling, running and triathlon events.
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