Alejandro Gonzalez: Heads expanding Idea Center for Miami Dade College

Alejandro Gonzalez, executive director of The Idea Center at Miami Dade College, has followed what he calls a “non-traditional path” to get to lead the space where college students can learn innovation, technology and entrepreneurship skills. Born in Güira de Melena, Cuba, he came to the US in 1997 with his parents through a diversity visa lottery and later became the first in his family to go to college. 

A product of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Mr. Gonzalez graduated from high school in Kendall. He went to Georgetown University for his undergraduate program and stayed a couple of years working in Washington before moving back to Miami. 

“When I left away for college, my eyes totally opened as to what were the possibilities for me,” he said. Georgetown University, an Ignatian Spirituality institution, guided Mr. Gonzalez to live a life and career rooted in growing as a person while caring for others. “I really try to live that in my career and I don’t separate what I believe personally from what I’ve tried to pursue professionally,” he said. 

Mr. Gonzalez started in consulting, working with companies growing into Latin America. He worked at a boutique firm and had the opportunity to meet with CEOs and C-suite executives at a very young age. “I was able to understand how important it was to just be a go-getter and have grit and resilience in getting work done.” 

After two and a half years, he joined Yoani Sánchez in 14yMedio, Cuba’s first independent digital media outlet, and developed a business model, and within four years he took the $30 million from pre-revenue to create a five-revenue stream to being profitable. 

“One of my proudest accomplishments from that time is launching and building a membership model for 14yMedio that is still in existence and provides recurring revenue from folks from all over the world who contribute on a day-to-day basis to the sustainability of the outlet in an independent way,” he said. 

But because of the difficult context in which the media operated, Mr. Gonzalez moved forward and began working at The New Tropic, an independent community-based outlet in Miami. Mr. Gonzalez then began his master’s degree and came back to South Florida, joining the United Way team of Broward County working with their programs and with the way they were thinking about systemic change. 

“I did public policy work with United Way to think about what that collective impact could look like and then how can we take some of those successes and create legislative change to be able to disperse more throughout the county and the state,” he said. 

Then, the opportunity to lead The Idea Center came up, he applied, and since February he has been leading the center. 

“I wanted to come back home to Miami. I really did miss it,” he said. “This is the community that has given me so much.” 

Mr. Gonzalez spoke with Miami Today reporter Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow.

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