Our Leaders
Mac McNeil: CEO Visionary
Chief Executive Officer
With 15 years of experience in corporate leadership, Mac has a proven track record as an executive in the financial services and banking sectors, including 20 years with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Synchrony Bank. He is also a published author of the leadership book, My Great Aunt EDNA. Additionally, he spent 7 years cultivating international business partnerships and operations, along with 5 years in fund structuring and fund administration. His contributions to the industry have earned him recognition as one of the 10 Most Influential Black Corporate Leaders to Watch by CIO Views Magazine, highlighting his role within our leadership team.
Ed Brinson: COO Logistics Innovator
Chief Operating Officer
Published author of The BRIDGE and The BATTLEGROUND, Ed Brinson is a strategic and performance-driven operations executive with over 25 years of experience in corporate leadership. He has successfully led complex, high-volume environments across commercial aviation, logistics, and ground operations. As the Sr. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Bertha Inc., Ed oversees the company’s end-to-end operational strategy—including fulfillment, infrastructure, last-mile delivery, and customer experience—as the organization scales to compete with global e-commerce giants.
Ed is recognized for his executive profile in building and leading large, mission-critical teams with precision, agility, and a people-first approach. Throughout his career, he has managed thousands of frontline employees while enhancing operational reliability and driving measurable improvements in safety, service delivery, and organizational performance, notably in multi-airport operations for American Airlines Group as Regional Manager for the South Region Territory.
Harouna Cherif: Africa Negotiator
Chief Operating Officer - Africa
With over 15 years of experience in African dealmaking and negotiations, Cherif brings a strong background in corporate leadership to the table. His expertise includes market entry strategy, joint venture structuring, risk and cost analysis, and government relations. As part of an executive profile that emphasizes board-level B2G negotiation, he successfully secured a full permit stack for a €40M FMCG rollout in Nigeria by negotiating directly with NAFDAC, Customs, and State Ministries, cutting lead time by 40%. Additionally, he facilitated direct MoUs between Côte d’Ivoire’s trade ministry and manufacturing groups from France and Switzerland, unlocking €25M in FDI with firm local-content guarantees. Furthermore, he won $12M in tax and duty relief for mining and infrastructure clients through high-level negotiations with finance ministries in DRC, Angola, and Guinea, contributing to a robust leadership team dedicated to driving success.
James Boyce: Global Air Expert
Chief Global Air Freight Flight Operations
James brings over 15 years of experience in aviation and corporate leadership, focusing on business operations that drive large-scale transportation execution and enhance global logistics infrastructure. As a key member of the leadership team, he spearheads high-impact initiatives, aligning strategy, resources, and stakeholders to ensure efficient, compliant, and scalable operations.
His expertise includes:
- Leadership in strategy, finance, workforce, procurement, and performance management
- Large-scale logistics, shipping, and multi-country capacity planning
- Enterprise stakeholder alignment across governments and private sectors
- Transportation safety, compliance, and operational governance
- Data-driven performance, cost control, and on-time delivery
- Scalable operations enabling global growth and diaspora trade
Mike Thompson: Security Authority
Chief Special Operations Security Officer
Areas of Expertise
Michael Thompson is a career security and investigations executive with a 35-year record spanning sworn law enforcement and private-sector fraud investigation. His law enforcement service covers the full arc of American policing: corrections with the New York State Department of Corrections, county patrol as a Deputy Sheriff with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department, federal service with the United States Park Police, and detective-level criminal investigations with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. That career built deep expertise in threat assessment and the protection of people, assets, and operations at every level of an organization.
In the private sector, Thompson has led complex property and casualty fraud investigations for national carriers, developing recognized command of organized fraud schemes, multi-party fraud rings, and evidence-based case construction to prosecution and recovery standards. He recently completed the Executive Leadership Programme at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School, adding contemporary executive management training to a career of operational and investigative leadership. The combination positions him for senior corporate security leadership: enterprise threat assessment, fraud prevention architecture, investigations governance, and the protection of people, assets, and capital.
Executive Education
Executive Leadership Programme - University of Oxford, Saïd Business School
Certifications & Professional Training
-Fraud Claims Law Associate (FCLA) - American Education Institute
-Detective Certification - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
-Federal Law Enforcement - United States Park Police
-Deputy Sheriff - Monroe County Sheriff's Department
-Corrections Officer - New York State Department of Corrections
