About Platform Group

Tito Porrata, VP of Design and Construction

Tito discovered skateboarding in 1985 and has worked in the skateboarding industry for the majority of his professional life. He has experience in both retail and events, and is an expert in skateboarding culture. In 2001 Tito aligned his career to focus on skatepark design and construction. His expertise lies in municipal, private, and specialty structures and has been a part of building hundreds of skateparks. After two decades working for various companies, he founded Platform Group with Ryan Clements and Rob Meronek. His goal: create skatepark environments that not only function well, but also honor art and aesthetics, providing an inclusive and positive experience for the skateboarding community and beyond. Aside from skateboarding, Tito is passionate about his family, art, and food.

Byron Hubbard, Landscape Architect

Byron Hubbard is an experienced and versatile professional. He is a Landscape Architect and skateboarder from St. Augustine, Florida. For the last 10+ years he has had extensive experience managing multiple project types, designing for different programs and needs, and working with different team colleagues, clients, and city staff members. Those projects include city and small-scale community park spaces, mid-high rise podium level amenity, resort amenity, assisted living and memory care community, and multi-family development design. When he’s not searching for the best solution to your design challenges, Byron greatly appreciates a well-balanced life of health, traveling, and family. Byron started skateboarding in 1994, following in his older brother’s footsteps, and fell in love with the sport, passion, and culture it embodies.

Ryan Clements, President

Ryan Clements was put on this earth to ride skateboards and own businesses. His first entrepreneurial taste came in the form of a lawn service he started shortly after graduating high school.

In 1998, after figuring out he wasn't a lifer in the blue-collar world, Ryan sold that entity and got a job that would cater to his one true passion of skateboarding. As GM at Skatepark of Tampa, he helped grow SPoT to a world-renowned facility that runs the best amateur and professional contests in the industry. This led to him co-founding SPoT Productions in 2006, a company whose sole focus was producing skateboarding events on a global scale. It was also around this time that Ryan started investing in real estate and building an impressive portfolio of rental properties.

Upon his departure from the SPoT businesses in 2013, Ryan's complete focus turned to Excel Management, a company he co-founded in 2010 to provide financial services to some of the biggest names in skateboarding. With a client list that contains names like Mark Gonzales, Ishod Wair, and Nora Vasconcellos, it's no surprise that Excel has become the go-to agency for contract negotiations and the cultivation of credible skateboarding careers.

Although Excel was flourishing, Ryan still had the itch to run events, so after a reunion with former SPoT colleagues Rob Meronek and Jorge Angel, The Boardr was founded. Since its inception in 2013, The Boardr has become pinnacle in the skateboard event/contest realm.

The crazy thing is, he wasn't done. In 2021, along with Tito Porrata, The Platform Group was created to offer cities and municipalities a more modern approach to skatepark design and construction.

In 2023, Ryan's dedication and contributions to skateboarding earned him an induction into the Florida Skateboard Hall of Fame. When he's not traveling the world on his beloved Delta Airlines, Ryan likes to spend time at home with his wife and two daughters, while skating his "Dream Driveway" and constructing insane ice cream sundaes.

Rob Meronek, VP

Rob Meronek is a software engineer, Certified Public Accountant, and photographer with over 25 years invested into skateboarding. He was born in the Philippines, and started skating in upstate New York, where skateboarding went from childhood toy to lifelong dream. He started working at Skatepark of Tampa in 2001. He created the SPoT’s POS system and on-line retail store, one of the first live inventory websites in the industry at the time. After parting ways with SPoT in 2013, he joined back up with Ryan Clements to create The Boardr, a new agency with a new vision and approach to how skateboarding events are organized and run. With that came the development of "The Boardr Live,” an innovative scoring app that is now used by event organizers around the world to handle every task necessary in running a proper skateboard contest.