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Corporate Advisory Board
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Ruth Haase Cooper
Vice President, Merrill Lynch
Ruth has devoted nearly three decades to serving the needs of Merrill Lynch clients here in downtown Miami. Her career began at Merrill Lynch in 1976 as one of the first female financial advisors. Ruth has focused on multi-generational planning, retirement planning, insurance & annuities, business retirement plans, fixed income, and private institutional managed accounts. Ruth is a founder of Mount Sinai Medical Center, on the Board of Governors for The Miami City Club, as well as past President of The Downtown Miami Business and Professional Women's Club. As the leader of The Cooper – Brunk Group her vast experience and knowledge provides a secure foundation for one of Merrill Lynch's premier financial services teams. Ruth has been married for over 20 years and with her husband Marc, an attorney, enjoys, the theater, boating, fishing, cooking and travel. Ruth has been a Florida resident for over 40 years and is a graduate of the University of Florida.
Read Article: Women and Wealth
(article on hold temporarily)
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Lillian Cosio
Financial Services Professional, New York Life Insurance Company
Mrs. Cosio has been in the Financial Services Industry for over 24 years. She began her career in Banking as Vice-President/Branch Manager where she was responsible for the overall Branch Operations with more than 20 staff members. In this role Lillian was also involved in Small Business Lending.
Some of her community involvement included membership to several Chambers of Commerce such as the Greater Miami and the Coral Gables Chamber just to name a few. She always participated in committees relative to Small Business issues and concerns. Lillian is a 1997 “Leadership Miami” Graduate and also served on the board of the Miami City Ballet from 1996-1997.
In 2000 Mrs. Cosio's passion for helping families and businesses in the Financial arena led her to join her husband Juan as a Financial Sevices Professional at New York Life Insurance Company.
Lillian focuses her practice in providing strategies to women and small businesses in the areas of Retirement Planning, Business Planning, Insurance and Investment Services.
Since she joined New York Life she has qualified for the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table which recognizes excellence in the Financial Services Industry.
Mrs. Cosio's community involvement now centers on Education. She is involved in conducting educational seminars for women and business owners on Retirement Planning and on how to “Take Control” of financial issues.
She has been a guest speaker and panelist at various community events including the Latina Style Magazine Business Series that focuses on educating entrepreneurial women on business issues, as well as Retirement Planning Workshops for the Miami Realtors Association. Additionally, she has participated in training sessions for new Financial Services Professionals at “Seguros Monterrey” a New York Life International Company in Mexico .
Lillian has hosted a 30 minute Talk Radio Show on WKAT on financial issues and has published articles on Financial Topics for Latina Style Magazine.
Her mission is: “To Help Women and Families reach their Financial Objectives through Education and “Goal Centered Planning”.
She resides in Miami with husband Juan who is also her business partner.
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Maira Diaz-Giusti, Senior Vice President, Aventura Branch, Coconut Grove Bank
Maira Diaz-Giusti offers more than two decades of Retail & Private Banking experience in the South Florida market. She is a key strategic leader responsible for the start up and development of Coconut Grove Bank’s Aventura Office. The scope of her experience is reflective in her daily work. Formerly, Maira was the Market Manager and Vice President at BankUnited, she held several senior and officer positions at Stanford Fiduciary Investor Services, Banco Internacional de Costa Rica, Barnett Bank, and Citibank.
Maira has demonstrated time and time again her commitment and dedication to providing outstanding customer service. It is her opinion that the most gratifying part of her job is being seen more as a family member, than a banker, to her customers. She takes great pride in becoming an integral part of her customers’ lives and in taking a special interest in managing all aspects of their financial matters including those related to their boat, car and home financing. She is also proud of being able to help them start and grow their businesses as well. Maira believes that banking is the art of building and fostering relationships generation after generation.
Notable among her significant contributions to the community include: Kapow Public School Program, United Way Leadership Circle, March of Dimes, Queen for a Day Foundation, National Kidney Foundation, ORT America and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Furthermore, Maira serves on the Board of the Aventura Marketing Council and is the co-chair of their Community Outreach Committee, is an Executive Board member of the Greater North Miami Beach Chamber and belongs to The Commonwealth Institute holding an Advisory Board position and is a member of their Membership Committee.
Among the many factors that contribute to her success are: holding both a Bachelors Degree in Business Management and a Certified Financial Planning certificate from Florida International University, additionally, she is a graduate of Cannon Financial Institute in Trust.
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Dorothy S. Eisenberg, C.P.A.
Treasurer, TCI South Florida, Gerson, Preston, Robinson & Co.
Dorothy S. Eisenberg, a prominent certified public accountant, brings a wealth of taxation experience to Gerson, Preston, Robinson & Company, and is highly regarded by the clients she serves. Ms. Eisenberg focuses her practice on managing some of the largest and most complex tax and general accounting matters for high net-worth individuals and businesses served by the company. She has an extensive background in a wide variety of industries including healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, retail and professional services.
With 18 years of experience in the public accounting field, Ms. Eisenberg has established a fine reputation for excellence and superior results for clients. Ms. Eisenberg represents clients during federal and state tax audits. She has successfully handled and negotiated assessments that minimized client's exposure.
Providing strategic counsel in multi-state tax issues, Ms. Eisenberg advises clients on all aspects of their business decisions in the areas of tax planning and consulting, accounting, partner compensation, compliance, mergers and acquisitions as well as operational and strategic planning.
Ms. Eisenberg began her career working for a large New York City firm and later joined Gerson, Preston, Robinson & Company in 1993. In addition to serving clients, Ms. Eisenberg trains and supervises professional staff at the firm.
Dorothy Eisenberg is a member of the American and Florida Institutes of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Dorothy believes strongly in giving back to our community. In fact, she is so committed to this ideal, she aids in the advisement of the firms contribution program, ranging from coaching little league sports to holding board positions with large, charitable organizations. An active community supporter herself, Dorothy is on the board of the Children’s Home Society of Broward County and the Boys and Girls Club of Boca Raton; a mentor in the University of Miami, School of Business’ Mentoring Program; High School Coordinator to Plantation High School for the FICPA (to promote accounting); and a member of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce Trustees, Academy of Finance of Broward County Schools, The Common Wealth Institute, and Temple Kol Ami. She resides in Plantation with her husband, Joel, and two children.
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Nancy Schmidt
Senior Vice President – DMM Cosmetics/Fragrances
Macy’s Florida
Born in St. Louis, Missouri – attended Washington University, graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Nancy Schmidt has been in retail since 1976 – first as a handbag buyer and later as an accessory divisional (DMM), at Marshall Fields in Chicago. Nancy was made the cosmetic divisional merchandise manager at Carson Prixie Scott in Milwaukee in 1992, and have been in the cosmetics business ever since.
Nancy joined Macy’s Florida in October 2004 as the Vice President, DMM of Cosmetics and was named Senior Vice President for Cosmetics in August 2006. Nancy is responsible for all of the sales marketing and negotiations for the cosmetic business at Macy’s Florida, which generates over $250 million in annual sales.
Nancy has an older sister living in London with her husband and two children and a younger brother in Manhattan married with two sons. Nancy lives in South Miami very near the University of Miami campus.
Nancy is an avid sports fan especially when it comes to the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball team.
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Elaine Szeto
Senior Vice President, National City
Elaine Szeto is a Senior Vice President, FL Global Treasury Management State Sales Manager of National City, one of the largest and most respected financial institutions in the nation. She just accepted this new role in July of 2007 and is responsible for managing the Treasury Management sales team with a focus on building the market share.
Elaine has over 13 years of banking experience in both retail and corporate side of the bank. Elaine joined National City in January 1995 as a management trainee. She then lead the one of the largest Markets in Northern Ohio, during which time she was classified as a multi million dollar producer, and attained top results in the footprint. From 1999-2000, she designed branch performance measurement and sales management models for the Retail Executive management team enabling better data management. Her efforts identified opportunities resulting in improved coaching and planning efforts. From 2000 – 2004, Elaine was selected to manage several retail system related projects, including the Branch system, one of the largest Retail Bank projects National City has embarked on..
In 2004, Elaine joined Global Treasury Management and very successfully serviced Middle Market clients in Northern Ohio. She consistently ranked as a top producer across the corporate footprint. Elaine has been awarded various honors including Sales Champion, Product Partner of Choice, and Excel Awards (highest honor within the company) for providing exceptional service to her clients and generating significant revenue for the bank.
Elaine earned her Bachelors Degree from Case Western Reserve in 1994, majoring in Business Management. In 2000, Elaine graduated with honors from Case Western Reserve with her MBA in Finance, and in 2006 she earned her CTP. She recently graduated from The YWCA of Greater Cleveland Leadership Program.
Elaine, her husband Steve and daughter Charlize relocated to West Palm Beach in mid July of 2007.
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Elissa Vanaver
Vice President Human Resources, The Miami Herald
Elissa Vanaver has been Vice President for Human Resources and Assistant to the Publisher for the Miami Herald Publishing Co. since November 2002. Prior to that, she was an editor in the Herald newsroom for 15 years, holding a variety of positions leading up to Managing Editor/Features and Operations.
Her 25-year journalism career also has included management and editing stints at the Dallas Times Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, and she was part of a Miami Herald team that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News on the Elian Gonzalez story.
Elissa holds a bachelor's degree in foreign affairs and Russian studies from the University of Virginia and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.
She's currently a board member for Herald Charities and Summerbridge Miami. She lives with her husband and 16 year old son in Coral Gables.
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