Staff

Ben Molina

Company : CET Position : Entrepreneurship Program Manager
bmolina@cortexstl.org

Ben Molina serves as Entrepreneurship Program Manager with a mission to deliver high-quality entrepreneurship support through an inclusive, holistic, and empathetic lens. Ben is responsible for managing entrepreneurship talent training programs and partnership to elevate the diverse entrepreneurial talent in the St. Louis region. In his career, Ben has demonstrated success in leading programs and building community through collaboration, transparency, and trust.  

Ben’s leadership and passion for supporting the St. Louis region is exemplified through his Board leadership with Social Work Leaders in Healthcare of Metro St. Louis and the Hispanic Leaders Group. Ben resides in St. Louis City and is known by many to be one of St. Louis’ biggest fans. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano

Company : CET Position : Executive Director
gramirezarellano@cortexstl.com

As the Executive Director of CET, Gabriela brings inspiration from her own experience growing up as an immigrant in the United States to the Cortex Innovation Community. In addition to running CET’s flagship training program for entrepreneurs, Square One, she is responsible for an array of programs and services to support the entrepreneurs in residence at CET and throughout the St. Louis ecosystem. Through her podcasts,  Auténtico and We Live Here Auténtico in collaboration with St. Louis Public Radio, she empowers and showcases bilingual Latinx professionals and small business owners and through her work at the BALSA Foundation she promotes social equity and prosperity

Gabriela has dedicated her career to empowering others to improve their personal and professional well-being through professional and business development.  She has been recognized as a thought-leader in social innovation and entrepreneurship and was named one of the Top 100 people to know in St. Louis to succeed in business as well as a Diverse Business Leader in the St. Louis region. She is also an author, a marathon runner, and business owner.  Gabriela holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Missouri – Columbia and an MBA from Lindenwood University.  She is a Diversity Initiative Fellow and just graduated from the 2021 Leadership MO class.