Home The Cointelegraph Top 100 2023 Francis Suarez

#47

Francis Suarez

Mayor of Miami

Keeping the city gates open for crypto

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“Miami’s diversity reflects America’s strength where anyone — from any background — can build a future as great as their heart, dreams and talent can take them!”

Biography:

Francis Suarez is the 43rd mayor of Miami. He was born and raised in Miami and is the son of Xavier L. Suarez, who was at one time also a mayor of Miami. Suarez holds a finance degree from the Florida International University and a law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

In July 2020, Suarez was nominated by American mayors to the role of second vice president and president of the United States Conference of Mayors to serve for the 2022–2023 term. He currently practices law at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. He joined the law firm in 2021 after his stint at Greenspoon Marder. 

Suarez has, in recent years, been active in Miami’s tech scene and is the creator of the Venture Miami initiative, an organization that strives to connect investors with talent in a way that promotes equity and diversity. 

Suarez’s 2022:

2022 was a busy year for Suarez. He was particularly involved in efforts to transform Miami into a leading tech hub. In December, Suarez reached out to Twitter CEO Elon Musk, urging him to relocate the social media company’s headquarters from San Francisco to Miami. This was after San Francisco authorities started to investigate reports alleging that the company had illegally converted part of its business premises into bedrooms to enable workers to work for longer hours and sleep there if possible.

Suarez touted Miami as a city that upheld liberty and freedom of expression, making it the ideal place to set up Twitter’s headquarters. Speaking to the media about the proposal, Suarez said that he had yet to hear back from the tech company’s management. Some other companies that shared his vision to turn the city into a center for technology did move to Miami in 2022, including financial services company Citadel.

Citadel reportedly made the decision to move its headquarters from Chicago due to the better weather and favorable tax conditions. Besides reaching out to the tech industry, Suarez worked on converting Miami into a major crypto capital. In April, he unveiled a 3,000-pound Miami Bull fiberglass statue at the Bitcoin 2022 conference. According to the mayor, the statue symbolized the transition to a new economy.

Suarez also encouraged FTX to open an office in Miami in 2022, before the FTX scandal. He also promoted the use of the MiamiCoin cryptocurrency, which was created by the CityCoins organization. It, however, performed abysmally during the year. 

Suarez’s 2023:

Suarez is set to continue promoting Miami as a state that’s conducive to the tech and crypto industries in 2023. He is also likely to weigh the options of running for the presidency in 2024, as he announced in 2022.

Apart from this, Suarez is likely to continue promoting regional collaboration in social-economic endeavors in his state through his Venture Miami organization, which was created to bring together private, government and economic development agencies.