Mariano Diaz-Bonilla is a seasoned finance and investment professional with a career spanning management consulting, investment banking, and infrastructure development. After beginning in consulting, he spent a decade at Goldman Sachs in New York, where he advised corporate and private equity clients on mergers, divestitures, and public market investments across industries including media, telecommunications, and government contracting — representing more than $5 billion in total transactions.

He later joined Skanska, a global construction and development firm, where he led multi-million-dollar equity investments and helped raise over $2 billion in debt financing for large-scale infrastructure assets. Today, Mariano invests in and provides strategic and financial counsel to small businesses, bringing the same rigorous analytical approach he honed on Wall Street to the entrepreneurial world.

Born in Ecuador to Argentine parents and raised in Virginia, Mariano is a product of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the Darden School of Business. He serves on multiple boards in the Virginia area, is active in the governance of Thomas Aquinas College, and lives in Vienna, Virginia, with his wife and ten children.

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Alex Stieb is an entrepreneur and investor based in the Winchester, Virginia area, best known as the founder and owner of LUX Foundation Solutions, a leading foundation repair company serving Northern Virginia. With over a decade at the helm of LUX, Alex has built the company into a trusted local name, helping homeowners and property owners protect their most important investments.

Beyond his work at LUX, Alex has expanded his reach into the world of finance and investing. He serves as a Partner at a private equity firm focused on finance and business development, and is a Co-Owner of Aisling Ventures, LLC, a family office dedicated to business and real estate investments — bringing the same entrepreneurial instincts that built LUX to a broader range of opportunities.

Alex is also an active angel investor, backing early-stage companies like Blotout since 2021. Whether he's repairing foundations in Northern Virginia or building the next great business from the ground up, Alex brings a hands-on, long-term mindset to everything he does.

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Steve O’Keefe is a graduate of Christendom College and has his master's from George Mason University. Mr. O’Keefe is the CEO of VSO, LLC, a cloud managed service company providing services to customers in the commercial and government sectors. Partnering closely with the Department of Defense and leading companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon, VSO recruits, trains,and hires military veterans with a goal of a significant portion of the workforce being veterans and many being wounded warriors. Mr. O’Keefe and VSO have been the recipients of many awards for their work, including the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) small business of the year award. Prior to VSO, Mr. O’Keefe was a co-founder of NovusCG (acquired by IBM), an executive at IBM, and a partner in Strategic Business Systems. He has been in the technology industry for over 25 years with a patent in complex systems, which he was awarded during his tenure at IBM.Mr. O’Keefe is married to Paula O’Keefe. The O’Keefe have 7 children whom he has had the privilege of coaching in many sports over the years. He is Chairman of the board ofChristendom College and serves on the Board of Directors at Seton School in Manassas, VA.

After graduating from Christendom College in 1993, Sean ventured into the world of IT, quickly proving that he was not only a creative thinker but also a savvy entrepreneur. In 1997, Sean founded Phaedo Consulting, a venture that showcased his visionary approach to business and his willingness to learn by making mistakes. His innovative spirit led him to sell Phaedo to eBay in 2000, allowing him to co-found Novus Consulting Group with his friend and fellow graduate Steve O'Keefe. His journey in consulting began to flourish, leading to a successful acquisition by IBM in 2007. At this point Sean founded Virgil Advisory Services, guiding businesses across various industries.

In addition to Sean's business roles, he is also a devoted family man, married to Rosanne Hawley and being the father of 5 children. Sean has remained deeply committed to education and community, with roles such as being a founding member of Renaissance Montessori School with Mary Penneather Waldron, where he serves as Chairman of the Board twenty years later.

Sean's commitment to the culture of life runs equally deep. He established the BVM Trust Foundation in 2015, a charitable trust that purchased and closed an abortion clinic in Manassas, VA, and today supports the Mother of Mercy Free Clinic operated by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington. He also serves on the board of Divine Mercy Care and Tepeyac Family Center, assisting Dr. John Bruchalski in his mission to provide culture of life medicine in OB/GYN, and most recently joined the board of Human Life International in their global pro-life efforts.

It is this rare combination of entrepreneurial vision, dedication to family, and tireless service to the Church and community that makes Sean an ideal judge for this award — a man who knows firsthand what it means to build something meaningful, and to do so with both boldness and humility.

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A proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Jim Koehr has been growing as an entrepreneur and investor since 2001 when he left life as a corporate IT, Sales, Quality, Planning and Operations Vice President to run without a net. Since then, while running his own Manufacturer’s Representative agency to supply toilet paper and paper towels to very large distributors nationwide, he has founded or acquired numerous entrepreneurial ventures that became the largest commercial flooring company in central Virginia, real estate investment companies in the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia and Richmond, VA, three real estate services firms. His real estate investment activities involve more than 100 separate properties.

At 50 years old, Jim completed an Executive MBA in the top 10% of his class at the Darden Graduate School of Business at University of Virginia. Out of Darden, Jim formed a small venture capital firm called Sorin Angel Capital that focuses on investments in seed-stage companies. Sorin Angel Capital has made more than 100 investments in early-stage companies across nine (9) Funds. Jim has served on the Board for numerous these companies representing investments by the New Dominion Angels and the IrishAngels. He also served as an independent director for Clean Earth, a portfolio company of the public private equity firm Compass Diversified

Holdings. Jim is very active in school and community. He has coached eleven (11) Virginia State Championship high school swimming teams, was recognized by the VISAA with their silver anniversary legacy award for his “vision, dedication, and enduring contributions to the VISAA during its first 25 years”, earned the Outstanding Educator award from the Virginia Governors School for his work as a high school math teacher at Seton School, and serves (served) as Chairman of three charitable foundations. Jim is also a founding member and the treasurer of the BVM Foundation, a group that purchased the assets and real estate of the Manassas abortion clinic and helped Catholic Charities redeem it into the Mother of Mercy Free Medical Clinic. Married 41 years to his college sweetheart from the University of Notre Dame, Jim and Colleen have 12 children, one of whom is a Catholic Priest, six of whom (plus one son-in-law) are or were military officers deployed into harm’s way, and nine of whom are Eagle Scouts. Jim and Colleen also proudly have their 19th grandchild on the way.

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