Eric David Benari, PMP

Founder & Executive Director

Eric is an IT business expert and master-technologist who has founded and/or built the infrastructure for a large portfolio of ventures, spanning sectors of social networks, e-commerce, B2B, open-source, online advertising (while in a senior-role at Yahoo!) and others.

He has been invited to speak at numerous conferences and universities, including NYU and MIT, and is a published writer for Forbes.com, MIT CIO Corner & other journals.

Eric is also organizer of the world's largest community of database-technology professionals and chairman/coordinator of the biannual Database Month festival in New York City.

Manny Acosta

Director of Youth Affairs

Manny has been guiding and coaching Techie Youth students since 2016.

Manny is a Navy veteran, former teacher and retired civil servant who has an exceptional ability to build rapport with youth from challenging upbringings.

Manny shares with our youth demographics his own personal life experiences, including having spent most of his childhood in foster care, raised by a parole officer foster parent. Later in life, he has raised several of his own foster children into their adulthood and is currently caretaker for his foster mother.

Barbara Kay

Program Manager

Barbara is an expert in managing career-training programs. She has 18-years of experience in employment strategy along with job readiness and skills training, and is also a former teacher.

Barbara has conducted programs in previous roles teaching job skills to displaced refugees, that has resulted in the successful employment of hundreds of newly-arrived immigrants.

Barbara has been with Techie Youth since 2018.

Paul Johnson

Safety Director

Paul is dedicated to maintaining the safety of our youth and facilities.

Paul was previously a teacher and tenured NYC football coach with several decades of experience coaching and mentoring children.

Paul has been with Techie Youth since 2019.