Gallon completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education at UF and received his Master of Science degree in Business from Indiana University (Bloomington). He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville.   

Gallon’s professional involvement includes serving on the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) President’s Roundtable, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges (SACS COC), Florida Association of Colleges and Universities (FACU), Leadership Florida, University of Florida Alumni Board, and many other state and local organizations. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel through the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.  

 Entrepreneurship wasn’t former Marine Mark Llano’s first mission, but it’s become one of his best. The Desert Storm veteran already had a successful career in investment banking when in 2003 he decided to “get back to his passion,” founding Source One Distributors Inc. in Wellington, Fla., to help U.S. servicemen and women by providing them with tactical products, equipment and services. In recognition of Llano’s community contributions and for sustaining a successful business, the SBA gave him the Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year award in 2005 and named him its 2007 South Florida District Small Business Person of the Year. In 2006, the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency gave him the Minority Supplier/ Distributor of the Year Award for the Atlanta region, and in 2005, Llano was given the Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year award by the SBA.  

 Prior to working for the BDB, Andrew worked with the North of England Inward Investment Agency in Atlanta where he assisted U.S. companies looking to expand into the European market. Due to his extensive and successful experience in recruiting life sciences companies and institutes to the county, he frequently represents the BDB at industry events throughout South Florida as a speaker and panelist. His most recent accomplishment was the recruitment of the Max Planck Society to Palm Beach County, resulting in excess of $571M in economic activity over the next 20 years. Andrew is a member and advisor to various boards in Palm Beach County, and in addition to holding degrees in European studies and political science and currently working on a master’s of business administration degree (MBA), he is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.   

Rudy has over 23 years of experience in the fields International Business and Operations, Business Development, Technical Sales, Investors Fund raising, Project Management in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Construction, including marketing, strategy, legal, finance, proposal management and sales. In the area of operations, he has a successful track record in managing capital projects, reengineering and transferring operating assets globally. Previously Rudy was Director of Operations in China for a major Advanced Materials and Industrial Group. He has held numerous board seats on international joint venture companies, including assignments in China. His experience not only includes direct line management but global advisory and internal consultant roles to identify critical areas with high potential to improve and maximize profitability in terms of ROI, IRR, Cash/Working Capital, and Improved Customer Satisfaction while always being aware of reducing the environmental impact.  Rudy is an ASQ Six Sigma Black belt-certified with extensive experience in Lean Sigma concepts; he has developed and implemented integrated corporate management systems focused on quality improvements, benchmarking, cost reduction and environmental health and safety.   

 Phil’s background includes working as a journalist at several South Florida publications and operation over the last fifteen years of an accounting practice providing tax and accounting services to small businesses. Over the last seven years with the SBDC, Phil has specialized in advising entrepreneurs in the areas of financing (with emphasis on Small Business Administration guaranteed loans and non-conventional financing), accounting, and effective marketing.In addition to intensive one-on-one counseling, Phil teaches seminars and workshops on nearly every aspect of small business operation. He has written several seminars and, like his colleagues, is constantly reviewing the entrepreneurial landscape in search of new topics to offer clients.Recent accomplishments:  Received Regional Counselor of the Year Award in 2003 and 2004.
Created the Center’s small business disaster preparedness program, including a seminar and handbook.
Pioneered an innovative approach to marketing that utilizes opportunities in local publications, including newspapers and magazines. Other classes Phil has written and presented include advice on using part time employees, understanding payroll taxes, and an overview of small business accounting.
Spoke to FAU students in several minority entrepreneurial clubs.
Delivered the keynote address at the 2004 annual Convention of Black Newspaper Publishers in Jacksonville FL.   

Ted’s background includes owning and operating several service related companies over a span of thirty-five years. During that period, Ted was also serving as a mentor to small inner city business owners in the Boston area, and facilitating a number of FastTrac entrepreneurial programs at Springfield Tech Community College. Over the last six years with the SBDC, Ted has specialized in advising entrepreneurs in the areas of business start-ups, financing (with emphasis on SBA guaranteed loans and non-conventional financing), and marketing.  Ted serves as the liaison with the Office of Small Business Assistance (of Palm Beach County) where he develops and delivers special workshops for small businesses as well as coordinating counseling services for OSBA clients for whom the SBDC provided these services. As a certified facilitator and administrator for FastTrac entrepreneurial programs, Ted also provides a special program for Veterans.In addition to intensive one-on-one counseling, Ted teaches seminars and workshops on nearly every aspect of small business operation. He has written several seminars and, like his colleagues, is constantly reviewing the entrepreneurial landscape in search of new topics to offer clients.As part of an ongoing commitment to teaching and counseling excellence, Ted regularly attends professional development events. So far this year, he has attended classes given by the IRS, the Small Business Administration, Kauffman Foundation (FastTrac recertification) as well as at the annual Florida Small Business Development Network conference. All of these events also provide networking and exchanging of ideas with colleagues.   

 Francisco Jose Palacio is the  CTO/Founder/Customer Service lead of Media Mentoring Societies. MMS enables current and future entrepreneurs and business owners to expand and leverage their footprint onto the newest media technologies, whether for themselves and their existing businesses or, if they see fit, to provide such high-end services for others.   He is concurrently serving as Adjunct Faculty – Corporate and Continuing Education at Palm Beach State College to teach and develop their Social Media Curriculum, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress/BlogSpot and ancillary applications into this new realm of Media Technologies and Group Ware.   Francisco also enjoys his roles as a Writer, Photographer and Multimedia Producer as part of the Research Team at CMAC-Labs, Inc, the holding company for Media Mentoring Society, which is solely focused on Academic Research and Distance Learning on all forms of Computer Mediated Asynchronous Communication (CMAC) 

Professional affiliations:
Certified member, APICS – The Association for Operations Management
Member, APTAC – Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers
Member, ASBDC – Association of Small Business Development Centers
Member, ISM – Institute of Supply Management (was NAPM)
Member, NAM – National Association of Manufacturers
Member, NCMA – National Contract Management Association