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Southeast: Seizing Opportunities
Creative thinkers build on region's strengths to support new sectors and forge a prosperous future.
BROWARD COUNTY
 “We found Broward was the best pool of engineers without going to Silicon Valley.” — Frank Peake, left,
with JR Thelemaque |
Biofuels take off: When Craig Ash looks at the 10 idle molasses tanks at Port Everglades, he sees opportunity. As vice president of Brazil-based Cepemar World Renewable Fuels, Ash is overseeing the company’s $30-million bid to rehab the tanks and convert them into storage devices for its sugarcane-based ethanol, biodiesel and biofuel imports. His hope is for a future distribution hub to service the Southeast. “You can draw a direct line between the northern coast of Brazil and the Southeast U.S.” he says. “It makes geographic sense for Cepemar to be here based on the location.”
Communications cluster: Sarasota-based xG Technology Inc. is the latest company to find a home at the burgeoning wireless communications cluster in Sunrise. Canada’s Research in Motion, Hong Kong computer and electronics manufacturer Foxconn International Holdings and General Dynamics C4 Systems already have facilities here. The appeal is a ready pool of workers with the ideal brain-power to create xG’s low-cost mobile broadband networks, says Frank Peake, deputy COO. “We found Broward was the best pool of engineers without going to Silicon Valley.” Another plus is the proximity of Florida Atlantic University; xG uses FAU interns and taps its courses for technical training.
