Juntos Belize | Meet the Team

Each member of Team Juntos brings unique expertise to our mission, from strategic business development and innovative marketing approaches to thoughtful mentorship and community empowerment.

What unites us? An unwavering belief that Belize's greatest business success stories are yet to be written, and we're here to help write them. Meet the individuals dedicated to turning the visions of entrepreneurs, seasoned leaders, and community influencers into reality.


Board of Advisors

Our teammates on the Advisory Board offer unique insights on strategy, goals, and cultural relevance. Their guidance not only shapes our overall direction but also helps us hone our focus and priorities, ensuring we remain closely connected to the needs of the local community.

Jeremiah Allen | Green Tech Pros

Jeremiah brings valuable insight into team building, marketing, employee management, and developing a culture of excellence. A gifted speaker and thoughtful leader, he challenges us to raise the bar in everything we do—and then politely points out that the bar could probably stand to be raised another inch. His practical wisdom and pursuit of excellence help make Juntos and the businesses we serve better.

Johnny Chiang | Art Box, Belize Artisan Store

Johnny possesses the rare ability to see a blank space and recognize what it’s waiting to become. Art Box is his creativity rendered in three dimensions—from floor to ceiling, every detail carries his clever, tasteful, and unmistakably inspired touch. He brings that same artistic eye to Juntos, adding color to our thinking, composition to our ideas, and a welcome reminder that almost anything can be improved with imagination, good taste, and Johnny’s discreet supervision.

Richard Deeds | Pletts Electronics

Richard brings the same passion, integrity, and depth of character to Juntos that have helped make Pletts Electronics a trusted name across Belize. His thoughtful perspective, operational experience, and straightforward business judgment continually make our team better. He keeps us focused on what truly matters—and gently reminds us that even the most inspired idea must eventually survive impact with reality.

Melanie Escalante | Coaching with Melanie

Melanie is a certified vision and strategy coach who helps people turn worthy ambitions into clear, workable plans. She asks the thoughtful questions the rest of us occasionally attempt to avoid, then patiently helps uncover the answers. Her ability to connect vision, values, and action keeps Juntos focused not only on where we are going, but why getting there matters.

Abel Simpson | Simpson Insurance Agency

Abel brings a wealth of business experience, a measured perspective, and an extraordinary network of relationships across Belize—apparently including Richard’s fishing guide in Hopkins. Despite a schedule that would exhaust most people, he generously makes time for Juntos and helps us better understand the local communities we serve, usually while quietly setting a standard of professionalism the rest of us do our best to approximate.

Abner Valladares | Summit Accounting

As the founder of Summit Accounting, Abner helps entrepreneurs understand what their numbers are trying to tell them, even when the numbers are being less than encouraging. His financial expertise, entrepreneurial perspective, and commitment to helping businesses grow bring discipline and practical insight to Juntos—and gently remind us that enthusiasm is not yet an accounting system.


Community Builders

Other members of the team are also seasoned business veterans committed to empowering Belizean business owners and community leaders with training, tools, and faith-based encouragement to lead with excellence and purpose.

John Black

As CFO/Treasurer, John keeps our financial house in order. He constantly reminds us that money doesn't grow on trees and good accounting practices are more important than personal hygiene. He oversees our financial health, budget planning, and compliance with the same precision he uses to balance his morning coffee intake. His commitment to maintaining strong financial oversight helps ensure the organization's long-term stability and impact - and he's been known to make spreadsheets actually sound exciting.

Stephen Brack

Stephen serves as the Commander of the Arkansas Army National Guard Aviation Brigade and is a graduate of the US Army War College. He is also an Executive Pilot for Walmart Global Aviation. Stephen’s day job involves scrambling Blackhawk helicopters on occasion and ensuring Walmart execs reach their LZ on time. He approaches each sortie with the calm of someone who’s executed complex landings in high crosswinds more times than he can count, while his wife Sherri maintains home base (and Juntos workshop) ops with military precision. Stephen’s ability to translate military doctrine into business best-practices makes him our secret weapon for coaching entrepreneurs into becoming seasoned field commanders.

Mark Gibson

Tending toward focus on facts more than feelings, Mark’s candid perspectives and sharp business acumen make him an invaluable asset to Juntos Belize and the seasoned leaders, entrepreneurs, and community influencers we serve. Mark's ability to cut through complexity and deliver priceless, straight-shooting advice helps guide business leaders through challenges of all shapes and sizes. We thrive on his shrewd business judgment and refreshing honesty to help propel us forward.

Josh Howard

After years advising on complex deals across multiple continents and owning several businesses himself, Josh knows the difference between strategies that sound good in PowerPoint and ones that actually work in the real world. His numerous mission trips have reinforced what he already believed: integrity beats spreadsheets every time, and success without purpose is just expensive failure. His favorite quote captures it perfectly: "Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." Welcome Josh!

David Kiehle

David Kiehle brings his extensive background in financial matters and leadership development to the Juntos Project, where his ability to make spreadsheets exciting and turn budget meetings into inspirational TED talks makes him our secret weapon. As our newest team member, David has already proven he can calculate compound interest faster than you can say "dink shot"—which, coincidentally, is a pickleball term he definitely doesn't know because he's "barely played a few times." We're thrilled to have someone who can balance books by day and deny his pickleball obsession by night, all while insisting that knee brace is "just precautionary."

Tim Keith

If you’re ever charting unfamiliar terrain in a storm, Tim’s the guy you want in the navigator’s seat. He’s the calm voice in chaos— the one who sees through the fog and quietly guides you toward the destination (often better than the one you had in mind). After decades in full-time ministry service, Tim has developed a deep compassion for pastors and ministry leaders ‘in distress’ from the 24/7 on-call nature of their calling. He has a unique capacity to lead others through choppy waters — offering wisdom, clarity, and steady encouragement to leaders who need someone trustworthy at their back.

Lori Rehn

We're thrilled to welcome Lori Rehn to Team Juntos. Her entrepreneurial background has equipped her with supernatural multitasking abilities and the rare gift of making everyone feel like the most important person in the room—even when she's simultaneously fixing the printer, answering emails, and planning next quarter's sales strategy. What makes Lori truly dangerous (in the best way) is her authentic leadership style. She's the kind of boss who celebrates victories with the enthusiasm of a high school football coach and tackles challenges like they personally offended her sensibilities. We're excited about our front row seat to observe Lori's proven ability to charm, deliver, and occasionally work miracles in action.

Richard Talbot

Richard has the unique capacity to successfully navigate high wind and shallow water to keep Juntos Belize between the red and green buoys. Some might say he tackles the thorniest of issues just to earn enough karma points for perfect fishing weather, but either way he’s fully onboard for untangling knots and keeping our hooks in the water.