miami-business
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Tina Engineer-McRae Built a Search Firm on the Art of Being Remembered
She arrived in Florida with no local network, a stubborn belief in relationships and an accent that sometimes needed translating. Eighteen years later, the founder of M SEARCH still treats attention as the rarest currency in executive hiring.
Christine Barney’s Big Bet: Build the Agency Before It Arrives
She missed the interview, got the job anyway, then helped turn a seven-person Miami PR shop into an independent agency built to compete above its weight. Her method is less glamorous than the result: prepare early, tell the truth and trust people with real decisions.
Diego Leiva Has Spent Five Decades Reading What Comes Next
From a 1966 arrival in New York to a public telecommunications company and a second act in Florida land, Diego Leiva’s career is a study in translation - between countries, industries, and the numbers beneath an opportunity.
Ivan Herrera Built UniVista by Betting on the Overlooked
A biology graduate arrived in Miami with a family, a dog and an accent corporate America underestimated. His answer was to learn sales, risk the house and build an insurance company around customers the industry had learned not to see.
The $40,000 Bet That Turned Bilingual Insurance Into a 280-Office Machine
Ivan and Ania Herrera bought a name with no customers in the middle of a financial crisis. Their useful insight was less glamorous than disruption: speak the customer’s language, compare more carriers and turn the neighborhood agent into a repeatable franchise.