New FIU Foundation Board of Directors members announced

The FIU Foundation Board of Directors has appointed Humberto Cabañas, Melvin Kirk, Esther Moreno and Alberto Santalo as its newest members.

“We are very pleased to have these individuals join FIU’s Foundation Board,” said Howard Lipman, President & CEO of the FIU Foundation and Senior Vice President for University Advancement. “They complement our current board members well, and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the existing board.”

• Humberto “Burt” Cabañas ’76 is chairman of Benchmark Hospitality International which manages 40 properties throughout the United States and Japan. Cabañas has been in the resort, conference center and hotel industry since the age of 15. In 2007, Hispanic Business Magazine recognized him as one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanic Leaders” and in 2011 recognized his son, Alex, who now serves as CEO of Benchmark. A graduate of the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Cabañas served on the school’s Industry Advisory Board for 12 years and as chair for the last five. Cabañas is a recipient of FIU’s Alumni Torch Award and the President’s Medallion Award.

• Melvin Kirk is a global executive with 27 years of experience in multiple industrys egments, having led service businesses in security, financial services and energy sectors. Kirk is vice president of maintenance operations, engineering and quality at Ryder System where he oversees company-wide efforts to drive operational excellence throughout Ryder’s 800 service locations in North America.

• Esther Moreno ’95 is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group of the law firm AkermanLLP. Moreno has a broad range of experience advising public and private companies. Her areas of expertise include: capital markets, securities disclosure, corporategovernance, and mergers and acquisitions.

• Alberto Santalo ’97 is founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of CareCloud, a Miami-based and venture-backed healthcare cloud computing company that provides financial, administrative and clinical software and services to healthcareproviders and patients throughout the United States. He hasextensive experience transforming business processes at Global 2000 companies such as management and technology consulting. He was the recipient of the 2004 FIU Charles E. Perry Visionary Award for outstanding alumni, and was inducted into the FIU Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2006.