Florida business leaders have launched a new national campaign aimed at attracting more CEOs, founders and investors to South Florida, positioning the region as one of the best places in the country to build and scale a business as rising costs and regulatory pressures mount in traditional business centers.
On Tuesday, the Florida Council of 100 – with the support of Citadel founder Ken Griffin and Related Companies founder Stephen Ross – announced the “Ambition Accelerated” initiative, with advertising and branding aimed at encouraging decision makers to build or relocate to South Florida, from West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale to Miami.
“Where you choose to build a business determines how much time you spend driving growth versus navigating bureaucracy,” says Griffin. said in a press release. “Miami and the broader South Florida Gold Coast offer deep talent, regulatory clarity and an exceptional quality of life. These are not secondary considerations; they are the foundation for long-term success, and their impact compounds over time.”
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Griffin and Ross contributed a combined $10 million to start the campaign. Both are billionaire executives who founded their respective companies in traditional blue-state cities and have openly supported Florida’s business-friendly landscape in recent years.
Stephen Ross, chairman of Related Companies, and Ken Griffin, CEO and founder of Citadel, have teamed up to convince more business leaders to move south. (Kevin C. Cox/Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“In previous generations, there were a limited number of U.S. cities where companies could access opportunities and build at scale,” Ross also said in the release. “That’s why I started my career building my businesses in those cities. But it’s clear to me that the next generation of businesses belong along Florida’s Gold Coast, from West Palm Beach to Miami.”
“This region offers a clear competitive advantage – a strong working environment, a thriving innovation ecosystem and public leadership that works constructively with the private sector,” he continued. “This combination of factors helps companies based on Florida’s Gold Coast outperform competitors based elsewhere.”
The campaign aims to reach business leaders through national advertising and direct comparison messaging in hubs such as New York, Chicago, California and the greater Northeast. According to the Florida Council, some ads may raise questions like, “What if you could scale the largest metro for GDP growth?” or “What if your company could reduce energy costs by 30%?”
Florida is famous for having no state income tax, but the Council also points out that the state has become the second-lowest state in business regulation per capita in the U.S. – and consistently ranks high or at the top nationally in GDP growth, new business formations, talent attraction and higher education systems.
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As the campaign gets underway, interested executives can contact the Florida Council of 100 for concierge conversations and relocation or expansion guidance. The Council also said it plans to make its own direct contacts with CEOs across America.
“Every CEO right now is making the same set of decisions: where can we hire, where can we operate efficiently and where can we scale with confidence,” said Mike Simas, president and CEO of the Florida Council of 100. “Florida’s Gold Coast answers these questions better than anywhere else in the country, and this campaign is about bringing that advantage directly to the leaders who decide where to build next.”
