CRT Board|Chairmen’s RoundTable

Ginny Beneke – Chair

Ginny Beneke has held executive positions as CEO, President/GM, and CMO where she has spearheaded many successful endeavors serving the enterprise, consumer, and central site markets. Her expertise has vitalized growth and profitability for both mature and emerging organizations.

Having spent half of her career with top Fortune 100 companies AT&T, Exxon, and the Xerox Corporation, and the other half with medium-size and start-up organizations, Ginny brings a unique
ability to customize the best practices from established corporations into the start-up and mid-size company environments.

Ginny currently runs a consulting practice supporting leadership personnel, providing CEO and CMO functions, and leading strategic workshops for organization success.

John Riley – Chief Financial Officer

John Riley held various finance and strategic planning roles over a 24 year career with PepsiCo. Most recently, John was the Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo’s North American Nutrition division comprised of three operating units: Quaker Oats Company, Tropicana and Gatorade, headquartered in Chicago. He started his career serving on active duty as a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy.

John is currently an advisor and investor for several startups, and mentors companies with Chairman’s Roundtable and San Diego Sports Innovators. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BS from the United States Naval Academy.

Frank Creede – Vice Chair, Training & Development

Frank Creede, P. E. served as the Chief Technology Officer of pdvWireless, Inc. (PDVW) from 2003 through 2018. Frank was part of the senior management team that raised over $240M and took the company public in February 2015. He has led the strategy, development, buildout, and operation of the company’s enterprise-focused, push-to-talk network, and TeamConnect application platform including web, iOS, Android, and cloud backend. TeamConnect included a 92 site wireless network in seven major US cities. At pdvWireless, Frank led the commercialization of the 900MHz LTE Band 8 device and infrastructure ecosystem for PDVW spectrum and validated devices and infrastructure against the rules proposed to the FCC.

Frank is a member emeritus and former board member of the San Diego Tech Coast Angels and an angel investor in over 12 Southern California emerging high-tech companies.

Formally the Founder & CEO of Logic Innovations, Inc., he negotiated the sale of the company to a former division of IBM (now a part of Seagate) in 1999. Frank also founded Staffing Innovations, LLC, a technical contract outsourcing business in 1997 and which was acquired in 2012.

He is a mentor at the Chairman’s Roundtable and a volunteer at EvoNexus. Frank is a registered Professional Engineer, holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis, and he has completed coursework for the MBA program at San Diego State University.

Dennis Dillon – Vice Chair, Mentor Development

Dennis Dillon has run and managed different companies for 25 years. These companies produced consumer products and included fireplaces, products for new homes, and crafting supplies. These businesses ranged in yearly sales of $12 million dollars to $60 million and $200 million. Additionally, Dennis has managed both closely-held businesses to public corporations. Lastly, Dennis has been involved in over 10 M&A transactions.
Since retiring, he has been an active volunteer for the City of Carlsbad.

Dan Gatti – Vice Chair, Client Acquisition

Dan Gatti is Managing Partner of Innovative Capital Ventures and serves as Executive Director of the Big Data IoT Forum and Executive Director Health Cloud Solutions, a forum for cloud- based solutions. Dan also serves as an Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University Graduate Program in Homeland Security.

Dan was President and CEO of Silicon Valley venture backed OnSite Systems, selling wireless backhaul solutions; President and CEO of BigBangwidth, selling network solutions; and President and CEO of MAYAN Networks, providing optical switches to the service provider market.

His prior positions include General Manager of 3Com’s Network Service Provider Division, Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Primary Access, Vice President of Marketing at Amdahl, and Vice President of Product Management at GTE. He also held sales and marketing management positions at IBM.

Dan has a BA from Fairfield University and completed the executive MBA program at the Harvard Advanced Business School.

Brad Lee – Vice Chair, Program Development

With a background in chemical engineering and an MBA, Brad brings 28 years of leadership experience in the medical device industry, spanning privately held, publicly traded, and private equity-backed organizations.

His expertise includes sales, marketing, product development, and mergers and acquisitions, with particular strengths in corporate and market strategy, talent development, organizational culture, operational performance, and accountability.

He concluded his medical device career after serving 14 years as CEO of an orthopedic medical device company, including 10 years under private equity ownership.

In 2022, he transitioned into executive coaching, completing formal coaching education through the Hudson Institute. He now draws on his extensive executive leadership experience to help business leaders navigate challenges, strengthen their organizations, and achieve their goals.

Betty Arapostathis – Vice Chair, Member Activities

Betty brings nearly 25 years of wealth management experience, specializing in high-net-worth individuals and multigenerational families. As a Wealth Strategist at Northern Trust, she takes a holistic approach to financial planning, coordinating with advisors to help clients navigate transitions and achieve their long-term goals.

Her career includes leadership roles in private banking at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon, as well as developing and managing a family office for an international billionaire.

Active in the San Diego community, Betty serves on ACG’s CEO Circle Board Committee and the Professional Advisors Council of the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Hamilton College, graduating cum laude.

Eliot Peters – Vice Chair, Sponsor Development

Eliot Peters is a Principal with RA Capital Advisors, a boutique investment bank in San Diego.

Eliot brings over 20 years of experience as an advisor to his clients. Mr. Peters has considerable expertise in the design and execution of successful processes for sales, mergers and recapitalizations of founder-led or privately-held businesses.

Rob Weinberg – Vice Chair, Marketing

Rob Weinberg is Chief Strategist of CRT Sponsor “Write Away Books,” where he helps people write books of every type in every voice. Prior to this, Rob spent 40 years in marketing, where he typically acted as a bridge between traditional messaging vehicles and whatever the latest idea is to catch the public’s attention. Rob and his virtual strategic marketing agency have solved communications challenges with world-class marketing services and Madison Avenue strategic thinking, providing street smart marketing, nuts and bolts tactics, and incredibly personalized and attentive service in the sole pursuit of results.

Rob also helps remove the mystery from marketing with his syndicated weekly column “Ask Mr. Marketing”, which appears in the Coast News and elsewhere.