In 1980, Ukrainian refugee Mark Zaslavsky arrived in Miami with only $50. Jewish Community Services gave him volunteer work, supported him and helped him learn English. Soon the one-time organic chemistry student was washing dishes at a restaurant. Then he became a cook, taxi driver, watch repairer, hotel clerk and deli-grocery owner.
MARK ZASLAVSKY
President, CEO / Marky's
MiamiSchool days: The Chemical and Technological Institute in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.Job least liked: South Beach hotel clerk.Home now: Aventura.Favorite vacation spot: "Hasn't taken a vacation in years."His career took a definite turn in 1985, when he co-founded Marky's, a gourmet food importer, with Mark Gelman. Selling foie gras, truffles and 598 other products to restaurants and others is a business with $8 million to $10 million in annual revenue for them.
But amid the escargot and peppercorns, Zaslavsky had a supply problem: Beluga caviar. Killed for their roe, beluga sturgeon populations in the Caspian Sea are collapsing. Fresh beluga meat is so hard to come by that generations here haven't tasted it -- though Zaslavsky says it's delicious and "I've been told I have very good taste."
So Zaslavsky set out to aquafarm beluga, a first for Florida and the nation. After five years of effort, he landed in June in Miami with five live 10- to 11-pound beluga from the Caspian.
It will be years before his brood stock reproduces sufficiently for him to sell Florida beluga caviar and meat. It could be worth the wait, financially and environmentally. Beluga caviar retails for $55 to $100 per ounce.
Beluga sturgeon is the "most valuable fish" in the world, says aquaculture evangelist Frank Chapman of the University of Florida. Chapman has no doubt beluga can be raised here. Florida already has sturgeon farms, though with different species. "Mark went through hell to bring those fish in," Chapman says.
Aside from the years it took to get permission, Zaslavsky spent 72 hours journeying with the fish. Deadpans the 50-year-old, "it was kind of an excursion."
Bon Voyage
Cruise industry executives will tell you that one thing passengers dislike about their vacations is the process of boarding and leaving the ship. Besides security, customs and immigration issues, there's the crush of thousands of people with tons of luggage all wanting on (or off) at the same time.
Bruno Elias Ramos and his Coral Gables-based architectural firm BEA International are making a mark addressing the problem. The 44-person firm designed the Disney terminal at Port Canaveral and modified a second terminal there with a view toward both eye appeal and flow.
BRUNO ELIAS RAMOS
Senior principal / BEA International
Coral GablesLast cruise vacation: With about 20 family members, to the Bahamas last year.Family: Wife, Maritza; daughter, Sofia, 7; and son, Elias, 5.Diversions: Martial arts and his 44-foot boat.The firm is a "state-of-the-art group," says port authority Executive Director Malcolm "Mac" McLouth.
BEA's at work on facilities in Miami; Barcelona, Spain; Long Beach, Calif.; and Singapore. BEA also has designed terminals in St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Italy and, Ramos says, is "anxiously awaiting" a change in Cuba so that it can do work there.
Cuban-born Ramos left the island with his family in 1963, moved to Spain and then Connecticut before settling in Miami in 1972. After getting his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Florida, he joined PBS&J in Miami and later became its director of architecture.
In 1992, he founded BEA, offering architecture, engineering and construction management. Transportation -- ports, terminals, intermodal facilities -- now accounts for half of the firm's $6.5 million in annual revenue. But BEA's also doing projects such as the new Florida International University graduate business school.
Ramos, 42, says picking his favorite project is easy: It's always the most recent one.
Striking Oil
From tiny Gulf Breeze near Pensacola, husband-and-wife Joaquin Lubkowitz and Adela Fernandez have become important players in international petroleum trade, with products in use with major companies in oil fields from Kuwait to Curacao.
JOAQUIN LUBKOWITZ
ADELA FERNANDEZ
President
Vice president, sales and finance / Separation Systems
Gulf BreezeWhy Gulf Breeze? Lubkowitz "fell in love with the beach." But, Fernandez says, "the worst possible location we could have ever picked" for an export business.Education: Lubkowitz: Bachelor's, University of Louisville, doctorate, University of Alabama.
Fernandez: Bachelor's and MBA from the University of West Florida.Their firm, Separation Systems, makes customed-configured gas chromatography equipment and software used to tell the quality of crude oil, gasoline and other petroleum products.
Lubkowitz, a Venezuelan of German descent, worked for Monsanto in Pensacola when he was fresh out of college. He went on to manage the nuclear chemistry department at the Venezuelan Center for Scientific Research and then helped establish the analytical chemistry department at the Venezuelan petroleum institute. He retired in 1983 at age 43 to Gulf Breeze and met Fernandez, a Cuban immigrant.
Lubkowitz started Separation Systems with a couple of partners (basing it in California) and later an environmental lab. He and his partners parted ways; in 1990, with Fernandez, he incorporated Separation Systems in Florida.
Since then, Separation Systems has gone from two employees to 13 and to $3 million in revenue.
Lubkowitz, 63, and Fernandez, 45, have credits that include an award as Small Business Exporter of the Year from the World Trade Council of Northwest Florida. In addition to writing a book on sulfur analysis and holding patents, copyrights and Venezuela's highest civilian honor, Lubkowitz loves cooking. He was named honorary chef by the local Girl Scouts group for creating the menu for a fund raiser.
Fernandez's advice for entrepreneurs interested in exporting: Refrain from trying to control everything from the U.S. "The very hardest thing for us is to give up control" over how the product is handled in another market and letting a distributor make mistakes.