Key Takeaways
- • $10 million seed funding: Stephen M. Ross (Related Companies CEO) and Ken Griffin (Citadel Founder/CEO) have seeded the "Ambition Accelerated" campaign with $10 million to attract CEOs, founders, and investors to Florida's Gold Coast.
- • Francis Suarez joins as Senior Advisor: Former two-term Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has been appointed Senior Advisor to the campaign, positioning him to engage business leaders directly at high-profile events.
- • Formula 1 Miami deployment: The campaign is executing its largest activation to date at Formula 1 Miami (May 2026), leveraging the event's national and international audience of key executives and decision-makers to promote Florida as a business destination.
- • Messaging strategy: The campaign positions Florida's Gold Coast as the next epicenter of American business growth, emphasizing competitive advantages in tax structure, regulatory clarity, talent availability, and quality of life across multiple sectors.
- • Targeting institutional capital: The initiative specifically targets CEOs, founders, and institutional investors evaluating locations to build and scale operations, capitalizing on Florida's appeal to high-net-worth individuals and large corporations.
Summary
The Florida Council of 100 and its Foundation have announced a major initiative to position Florida's Gold Coast as a premier destination for American business growth. The "Ambition Accelerated" campaign, seeded with $10 million from billionaire investors Stephen M. Ross and Ken Griffin, represents a coordinated effort to market the region to institutional capital and corporate leadership. Francis Suarez, who completed two terms as Miami Mayor, has joined the campaign in a Senior Advisor capacity, lending local political credibility and direct access to business networks.
The campaign's strategic positioning draws an explicit historical parallel: just as New York, Chicago, and Detroit anchored 20th-century industrial growth, and San Francisco shaped the technology era, the initiative argues that Florida's Gold Coast will forge the next chapter of American business expansion. This framing positions the region not as a secondary market, but as the logical center of gravity for the subsequent business cycle. The campaign targets CEOs, founders, and investors actively evaluating location decisions for company expansion and scaling operations.
The timing of Suarez's appointment coincides with the campaign's escalation to its largest activation to date. Formula 1 Miami in May 2026 provides a high-visibility platform to reach a concentrated audience of national and international business executives, complementing the campaign's earlier launch at the Wall Street Journal Invest Live conference in West Palm Beach in February. The Formula 1 venue allows the campaign to amplify its core messaging regarding Florida's tax competitiveness, regulatory predictability, available talent pool, and quality-of-life advantages directly to decision-makers evaluating capital allocation and business relocation strategies.
The involvement of Ross and Griffin—two of the nation's most prominent institutional investors—signals serious capital backing for the initiative. Ross, through Related Companies, controls substantial real estate and development interests, while Griffin's Citadel represents major allocations across alternative investments, hedge funds, and venture capital. Their co-sponsorship suggests institutional alignment on Florida's growth trajectory and business environment, potentially influencing broader capital flows into the region across real estate, venture, and private equity markets.
The campaign's strategic positioning draws an explicit historical parallel: just as New York, Chicago, and Detroit anchored 20th-century industrial growth, and San Francisco shaped the technology era, the initiative argues that Florida's Gold Coast will forge the next chapter of American business expansion. This framing positions the region not as a secondary market, but as the logical center of gravity for the subsequent business cycle. The campaign targets CEOs, founders, and investors actively evaluating location decisions for company expansion and scaling operations.
The timing of Suarez's appointment coincides with the campaign's escalation to its largest activation to date. Formula 1 Miami in May 2026 provides a high-visibility platform to reach a concentrated audience of national and international business executives, complementing the campaign's earlier launch at the Wall Street Journal Invest Live conference in West Palm Beach in February. The Formula 1 venue allows the campaign to amplify its core messaging regarding Florida's tax competitiveness, regulatory predictability, available talent pool, and quality-of-life advantages directly to decision-makers evaluating capital allocation and business relocation strategies.
The involvement of Ross and Griffin—two of the nation's most prominent institutional investors—signals serious capital backing for the initiative. Ross, through Related Companies, controls substantial real estate and development interests, while Griffin's Citadel represents major allocations across alternative investments, hedge funds, and venture capital. Their co-sponsorship suggests institutional alignment on Florida's growth trajectory and business environment, potentially influencing broader capital flows into the region across real estate, venture, and private equity markets.
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