Stanley Rigaud With Miami-Dade Beacon Council

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law. Your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio is Stanley Rigaud and he is with the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. Welcome, Stanley.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:00:35] Hey, Lee, how are you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] I am doing well. I’m so excited to be talking to you. For those who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about the Beacon Council? How are you serving folks?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:00:45] Yeah, sure. Well, the Beacon Council is Miami-Dade County’s official economic development organization or partnership where public-private partnerships we’re governed by and led by a volunteer group of board of directors who are both business and government leaders in the community. A subset of the board makes up our executive committee and they are delegated with decision making authority for the board annually. I guess you could say too that the organization helps to market the county as a world business class destination. So our job is to attract and retain companies that invest in and create high value jobs in this community, driving long term economic prosperity and inclusive growth.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] Now, what was the genesis of the idea? How did this come about?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:01:31] Yeah, so the organization was founded in 1985, and the focus of this organization was to focus on Miami-Dade County, which is one of 67 counties in the state of Florida. Interestingly enough, people tend to think that Enterprise Florida, which is the state agency that does economic development for the state, preceded Beacon Counsel. But Beacon Counsel was actual was actually the model that enterprise use to create Enterprise Florida. So we’ve really been sort of ingrained in this community for the longest. We are we’ve been recognized as one of only 62 economic development organizations in the country that is designated by the International Economic Development Council as an accredited economic development organization. And all that mumbo jumbo means is that we are audited on a regular basis on the work that we do here.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:25] Now, what is kind of a day in the life for someone at the Miami-Dade Beacon Council?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:02:31] Yeah, every day is different because of the number of companies that were were assisting the different industry sectors that the team here focuses on. I personally, I’m responsible for the Trade Logistics Committee and, well, the trade logistics industry sector. We focus on six targeted industry sectors outside of hospitality and tourism, which we typically see to the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau. But the six targeted industry sectors are aviation, financial services, creative design, which we now call creative industries, innovation, technology, life sciences and health care and trade and logistics. So those are our six targeted industry sectors. And you can imagine for each of these industry sectors, there are just a host of subsectors in those. So no day is the same.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:28] Now is your work trying to attract businesses from around the world to headquarter or have a presence in Miami-Dade? Or is it to help businesses within Miami-Dade to help kind of grow their businesses within Miami-Dade and the world? Does it work both ways or is it are you doing one more than the other?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:03:49] Yeah. No, definitely. It’s it’s our focus is on foreign direct investments to Miami when it comes to especially on the trade logistics side, when it comes to exports or work with some of the delegation or some some of the trade offices, we we partner with the International Trade Consortium at Miami-Dade County, but definitely defer to them as the lead. Our focus is in bringing foreign direct investments to Miami and helping other companies within the United States that understand the value that Miami brings to this community, particularly as we are the gateway to the to Latin America and the Caribbean, as an opportunity for them to have a regional headquarter here in in South Florida or Miami in particular.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:37] So what’s kind of your elevator pitch to them?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:04:41] Yeah, I mean, my I mean, the data shows this is I guess the easiest elevator pitch is that we market Miami as a world business class destination. We help local companies grow. And the work that we do is really focused on helping to shape the direction of our economy.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:01] And then has it been working like you’ve been around since 85? I imagine it’s worked pretty well. But can you share some of the stats to, you know, for our listeners to understand the impact? You’re all making?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:05:14] Absolutely. Well, for for one thing. As you said, we’ve been around for, I want to say, 37 years now, if I’m not mistaken, since since 1985. Since then, we have assisted over, I want to say, 1000 companies. There’s, I think, close to $7 billion in capital investment. I should have had some of these numbers.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:43] Yeah, but it’s billions of dollars that are being generated through the efforts. And I’ve been not solely through your efforts, but the impact that you’re making is real on the and I would imagine in all the sectors that you’re focusing in on, those are all growing as well.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:05:59] Yes, they are. We have I think we’ve seen continuous growth even throughout the pandemic, both in the financial services and the tech industry. The cargo industry has been just exploding since even before the pandemic. But even throughout the pandemic and since the pandemic, the numbers have really not not stopped to grow. And and it’s it’s it’s interesting because you would think, especially since we’re in this sort of inflation mode, that we would have seen a dip in some of the numbers. And I think maybe this week or within this month, we’re starting to see a slight decline. But nothing that suggests that we’re there’s there’s a there’s a recession around the corner now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:53] How has the ability to help the people who do kind of move into the Miami-Dade area finding talent? Are you having a challenge there or do you have a good pipeline for them to have the right folks in place to help them?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:07:12] Yeah. You cut out just a little bit. Lee, can you repeat that?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:16] Sure. Can you talk about how you help the people who, when they do relocate to Miami to help them find the talent that they need to be successful?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:07:27] Yes, absolutely. So. We’ve got a team of experts here that are very familiar with the trends of our industry sectors and some of the sort of key services that we offer here. They vary between some of the finance financing programs that we have here. As you mentioned, we we assist with recruitment and training in collaboration with some of our partners, like career South Florida. We’re very adept at helping to expedite the permitting process or anything with permitting and regulatory issues. We certainly partner with our real estate community in helping with site selection. Some companies that are relocating here, if they need employee assistance, relocation, we have a program for that as well. And I think the biggest value that we bring is our customized research. So we can create customized reports to include demographic profiles of Miami-Dade County, whichever municipality that they might be interested in, outlining the different firms by industry that’s that’s here any employment by industry, the percentage of distribution of employment. So there’s some really good data points that can help a company in making that final decision about coming to Miami.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:49] And it sounds like that the the business environment is very collaborative where you have these public private partnerships that can really accelerate a company’s ability to be successful faster.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:09:05] Yes. And I think aside from the research piece, I think the other sort of biggest value that the Beacon Council brings because of our how long we’ve been around, is the relationships that we have forged over the last 35 years, both in the private and public sector. So when a company comes here and whether or not they’re part of a cluster, because we’ve had these really deep relationships with private companies, the public sector as well, that allows them to really get to know the community, get to know the industry in as part of the Miami-Dade area and how they can begin to move the the company’s growth and progress a lot sooner than they than they could have without the Beacon Council.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:58] Now, is there a story you can share, maybe a success story? You don’t have to name the name of the company, but maybe explain the challenge that they were facing when they found the Miami-Dade Beacon Council and how you were helping help them get to maybe a new level once they kind of got plugged in with you and your team.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:10:17] Yeah, it’s interesting. I get this all the time when I when I meet someone that either found out about us three months later or six months later or even a year later, they go, Gosh, had I known about you guys, you guys, you would have saved us so much time and effort. So that’s that’s that’s really a common theme. And I think part of it is really because we we’re very familiar with the industry sector. We know all the players here and the committees have really helped for each of our targeted industry sectors. We have a committee that comes together quarterly, in some cases monthly to talk about all of the sort of impending issues that an industry could face in terms of potential impediments, but also opportunities for growth. So all of our industry sectors has a is tied to a committee, and each of these committees, they serve as a as a platform for not just for industry intelligence, but also for communication of industry knowledge. And and as a result of that, when a company comes here, we start to make those introductions. It really helps to expedite how quickly they establish themselves here in Miami.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:11:37] So, I mean, it’s hard to kind of pick one because we get this on a regular basis. But you can tell when we meet with the company, they are just elated that that there’s an organization that’s here that’s able to kind of help them sort of leapfrog a few months rather than than having to do this by themselves. And the other sort of major point that I want to make sure that I bring up is that we operate under confidentiality. And, you know, and because of the sunshine laws here in Florida, when you when you’re dealing with either a municipality or with the county itself, any kind of exchange of information is subject to to public record. And in the case of the Beacon Council, because we are. Under confidentiality. It really does allow private sector companies to come in and and do business in a way that they know that nothing will be shared until they’re until they’re ready to share that information, whether it’s through a press release or however they might choose to do that.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:42] Now, what are the size of the companies that are kind of coming to you at the Beacon Council and coming to Miami-Dade? Are they kind of of all sizes? Are startups kind of knocking on the door or these enterprise level companies may be in another country that are looking to, you know, get into America and use Miami-Dade as the launching point, like what is the typical size of the company that is coming in?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:13:11] Know. That’s exactly right. It’s a great question. It really runs the spectrum. I think other than maybe perhaps before the or during this this pandemic period, we really focused on small to midsize companies all the way up to your large multinational corporations. But during the pandemic, we’ve begun to work with some of the micro businesses, and that’s really had to do with especially in the hospitality area, where a lot of the businesses that were struggling the most were some of those micro businesses. But traditionally it’s been small businesses of 2 million, $3 million in revenue to your your biggest companies that are out there. So it’s not unusual, for example, for me to be working with a maersk or a CMA CGM on the shipping side or a rider or FedEx, but also a very sort of local Miami company. So it runs the gamut.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:19] So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work? It sounds exciting and very rewarding.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:14:26] Actually, it truly is. And I think the best part is just meeting people in every walk of life. So my background, I actually I worked for FedEx for 25 years. So I know a little a little bit about logistics. And and at the time, they were looking for somebody who had some background in in the trade logistics sector. And and I got hired at the Beacon Council. I’ve been here for just under eight years and have really just developed some great relationships, particularly at the at the airport and seaport, which are two of the key intermodal for moving cargo. But we’ve got some just tremendous assets here. When you when you think about both the seaport and the airport, whether it’s on the seaport side, whether it’s the crew side or the cargo side, just truly an economic engine. Same thing goes for for for our airport here at Miami International Airport, both on the passenger side and cargo. Just some serious assets that we have here. I think for for my for this industry, sector and trade and logistics, we’ve really done a phenomenal job in in investing in this community, investing in our seaports and our in our airport. And as a result of that, tons of companies have benefited from from that investment. So it’s it’s it’s every day is fun. Every day you meet great people. People are excited to to come to Miami. Even the startups. I mean, I can’t tell you how many logistics companies or or logistics I.T. companies that are that are here and they’re here because the infrastructure is here and it allows them to grow. So always, always exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:10] Right. But it’s one of those things where you’re kind of a best kept secret. And we’re trying to help get the word out to make people know that you exist and that they should be partnering with you and getting to know you because it can accelerate their growth, it can flatten their learning curve. And it’s just silly not to. I mean, you’re a resource there that’s meant to be helpful and available. So I’d like, you know, more and more firms that are coming or thinking about coming to America and Miami-Dade specifically to get a hold of you and learn more about the Beacon Council.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:16:43] Yeah, I know. That was that’s well said. You know, this is a diverse community. We were we’re in a region of of over 6.2 million people. When you think about South Florida in general, I mean, South Florida is these three counties I often refer to South Florida as the anchor of the state. To think that just three counties represents almost a third of the entire population just tells you how important we are to the state of Florida. Most people know that we are now the third largest state in the country. But I think what they don’t know is that we are we have more than 1400 multinational corporations that call Miami home. They don’t know that we are the fastest emerging tech hub in the United States. A lot of people don’t know that. Even Miami leads the nation in tech, talent, migration, where we have we’re creating an ecosystem where everyone is welcome. The government is actively supporting the growth here. And we you can see it in the numbers at the airport, at the seaport, whether it’s the cruise industry, our airlines are just seeing just incredible growth. So Miami is a unique geographic location where we’re internationally trained work workforce with what I think is a very modern infrastructure that really enables business leaders to to make Miami a base of operations. So it’s, you know, when people come here, they go, wow, we just thought this was just great weather, beautiful beaches. And little did they know that we are for example, we’re the number one cruise port in the world. We’ve got we’re probably the number one container port in the world. I know that we’re for international cargo. We’re number one in the United States. I think we’re number two in US airport for international passengers. And so the list goes on of of some of our really great rankings. And, and until and unless you, you reach out to organizations like the Beacon Council, you’re just really unaware of some of these great statistics.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:03] Right. And it’s one of those things where trade and logistics is kind of invisible to the average person. It’s not on their radar until something bad happens. And we’re here to talk about all the good things that are happening and how important the trade and logistics is to not only South Florida, but Florida and the country in the world you have. You’re at a hub, and it’s important to recognize that. And it’s important that organizations like Miami-Dade Beacon Council exist to help make business go. I mean, without your help, it would be a lot harder for these companies to integrate themselves in the community and really get the the level of success that they’re able to get with your help. So I think that more and more companies should be reaching out to Miami-Dade Beacon Council. And if they are interested in learning more, Stan Lee, what is the coordinates? What is the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on the team? Is there a website? Is there social media coordinates that people should know about?

Stanley Rigaud: [00:20:04] Sure. Yes, absolutely. We are very much on social media. So but the website is Miami-Dade Beacon Council or just Beacon Counsel dot com. You’ll definitely get a great overview of of of the organization who’s here. If you go into the search bar you can just you put in staff or when you scroll into the website you’ll get all the information. Obviously my name is Stanley Rago, all of us, its first initial last name. So in my case it’s S3 go at beacon counsel dot com but easily reachable through our website and I think our phone number is I should know this but I think it’s 305 579, 1300. My specific line is 3055791346. So yes, we’re all on LinkedIn. Oui, oui, oui, oui, oui. Post a lot of stuff on on LinkedIn as well. So very easy to find.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:11] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Stanley Rigaud: [00:21:17] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate that. The time to come and speak on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:21] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.