PROFILE WEEK OF THURSDAY, MAY 30, 201332 MIAMI TODAY

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

The AchieverEmilio T. Gonzalez

DirectorMiami-Dade Aviation DepartmentPO Box 025504Miami 33102(305) 876-7066etgonzalez@miami-airport.comAge: 56Born: Havana, CubaEducation: University of South Florida,B.A. International Studies; Tulane,University, M.A. Latin Americanstudies; US Naval War College, M.A.Strategic Studies and National SecurityAffairs.Personal Philosophy: Never walk by amistake.

Emilio Gonzalez says he has a 12-item wish list to accomplish as aviation director butdoesn’t see it as the last stop in a career that included being US immigration director.

Emilio Gonzalez pilots Miami International Airport, plans...

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Emilio Gonzalez’s broad knowledgeof domestic and foreign business, gov-ernment and policy practices has landedhim as director of the Miami-Dade Avia-tion Department in April.

Prior to his new role, Mr. Gonzalezwas president and CEO of NPI Advisors,an international and government affairsconsulting firm, and president and CEOof Indra USA, the US subsidiary ofSpain’s Indra Systems, a European-basedIT solutions international company.

Additionally, he served as director ofthe US Citizenship and Immigration Ser-vices within the Department of Home-land Security in Washington, as seniormanaging director for global and gov-ernment affairs at a major local lawfirm, and as director of Western Hemi-sphere Affairs at the National SecurityCouncil at the White House. He retiredwith a rank of colonel from the US Army.

Mr. Gonzalez hit the ground runningonce he took office with an extensive listof goals to fulfill to grow and prosperMiami International Airport, rangingfrom smart parking to an overall im-provement of every passenger’s travelexperience.

Miami Today reporter Blanca Venegasinterviewed Mr. Gonzalez in his officeinside the Miami International Airport.

Q: How long have you been in Miami?A: I have been in Miami off and on

since 1997.Q: Are you a member of organiza-

tions in or outside of Miami?A: I’m a member of the Cuban Ameri-

can National Council, which is a socialservice agency here. I’m a member ofthe Council in Foreign Relations in NewYork, a member of a couple of advisoryboards, technology companies. I’ve hadto resign actually most of my member-ships to take this job.

Q: Miami International Airport facesdebt service charges relating to morethan $6 billion revamping of the air-port. How big are those charges eachyear and how will the aviation depart-ment repay them?

A: We repay them through our ownbudget process where we raise our ownmoney. This is about a $430-million-a-year enterprise. The debt service is about$1 million a day when you add it up.

We have no problems in paying thatkind of a debt service because we’re oneof the few airports that continues togrow. Our passenger levels are increas-ing. We have income from other sourcesand it all stays with us. Last year we rana surplus. This year I hope we run asurplus as well so we’ll be able to keepour bondholders very happy.

Q: Do you believe you will have toraise landing fees to handle part of the$6 billion repayment of the revampingof the airport?

A: Several components contribute tothe landing fee; annual principal and in-terest payments on outstanding bondsare only one factor. We constantly en-deavor to control all the factors contrib-uting to the landing fee and have kept thelanding fees from rising. We hope to beable to continue to do so in the future.

We have been repaying debt associatedwith the Capital Improvement Program(CIP) for many years, and our last major

borrowing for the current CIP was in2010, so the principal and interest onthose bonds have long been part of thelanding fee computation.

Q: How will that position the airportin relation to its competitors?

A: We have a strategic advantage, onebeing geography and two being the factthat we have four very large runways.There aren’t that many airports that havethis many runways. The fact that we arewhere we are and we can handle thecapacity that we have puts us in a num-ber one position as far as airports go.

Q: The department has a number ofinitiatives to raise funds. Which are thebiggest and where are they now in thepipeline?

A: Everything we do here is raisingfunds. This a $400 million business mas-querading as an airport, but we get ourrevenue from our concessions, from ourlanding fees, from the parking garages,we get our revenues from licensing agree-ments, so our non-aviation revenues arevery important because that’s what helps

us fulfill our budget.Q: The Airport City project with

Odebrecht has drawn criticisms fromsome Cuban Americans. If legal ques-tions surrounding the issues were clearedup, how would you feel about goingforward with the project?

A: Legal questions have been clearedup, and this is a project that I believe themayor is very supportive of, and I willsupport our mayor.

Q: The aviation industry is complex.How have you gone about gathering theinformation you need to operate thecounty’s airports?

A: Surround yourself with great people.This is an enterprise that has a lot ofmoving parts and you can’t be an expertin all of them. As a result, you have to relyon a very professional and dedicatedstaff, and a long-term staff.

I’ve been surprised at the seniority ofthe staff. People like working here. It’slike nobody leaves. Once you come towork here you stay and you make this acareer, and that tells me a lot about theorganization.

Q: In your last federal post you hadsignificant challenges. What were thebiggest of them and how did you meetthem?

A: Major challenges were many. Butthe key ones were the long immigrationcase backlogs and the lack of adequatestaffing and facilities.

In the first, we worked out a cost-sharing agreement with our partners atthe FBI to expedite cases.

Regarding personnel and facilities, weinventoried what our needs were to cre-ate an efficient world-class immigrationsystem. Then we brought in the re-sources to get it done. As a result, wecreated a master building plan that calledfor 40 new sites. The new USCIS build-ings in Miami-Dade County are the resultof this plan. We also hired almost 3,500new immigration agents to help withworkload and other pressing personnelissues that were stressing the system.

Q: Do you think the community hasa generally good opinion of MIA?

A: Yes. MIA is the crown jewel of ourcounty’s economy. The new construc-tion orchestrated by my predecessor JoséAbreu has given MIA a new modernlook. We will build on those initiatives as

well as move in other directions to ad-dress passenger concerns.

This is, after all, a business in a verycompetitive market. To grow and pros-per, our passengers must feel that theirexperience at MIA has been worth theflight. Our community values who weare, what we do and that we strive torepresent the very best of Miami-DadeCounty every day.

Q: Do you have a wish list for whatyou want to accomplish in this position,and if so what are the top three items?

A: I have a wish list, but I think it hastop 12 right now. They’re not in anyorder. I have them written down, but Iwant to bring back the airport to what itneeds to be.

For many years, rightfully so, thisairport was all about construction. Weneeded to finish the north and southterminals. There was an imperative to dothat. We’ve done that already and wherethe north terminal has maybe three gatesleft to finish and we’ll do those hopefullyby the end of the summer, my goal nowis to now turn our attention to what weare, which is an airport.

This is a service industry. We’re a city.It’s a small city. We have about 100,000people a day come through here. Wehave about 36,000 people that work here,so we need to look at those areas that weneed to upgrade and, you know, I’mlooking at technology across the board,innovation across the board. I’m lookingat everything from smart parking to en-ergy conservation, to how we do travelfor our passengers via the cab system.You name it, I’m looking at it.

So, it’s not a sequential list, it’s asimultaneous list.

Q: What opportunities does MiamiInternational have to add internationallinks with new airlines and new routes,how close are some of them and can weexpect any in the coming months?

A: The new routes is one of my priori-ties because without airline routes you’renot an airport and, as a result, I want tomake sure that we have the appropriatestaffing in our marketing department todraw these airlines and the airlines withwhich we’ve had continuing conversa-tions but haven’t made up their minds. Iwant to help them make up their minds.

Between now and the end of the year,I’ll be doing quite a bit of traveling,visiting these airlines, marketing Miamias a place where they should be, and myexpectation is that by the end of the yearwe’ll either have an additional foreigncarrier or at least a letter of intent from anadditional foreign carrier.

Q: In your last federal post you hadsignificant challenges. What in yourmind were the biggest of them and howdid you meet them?

A: Well, the biggest challenge wasthe fact that immigration is a verypassionate and controversial topic. Welive in a country where people loveimmigrants but they hate immigration,and when you have that kind of aduality of thought everything you dobecomes contentious.

My job was to make sure that theagency ran to its full potential, to reformthe agency, to restructure the agency.You’ve seen some of that restructuring

PROFILEWEEK OF THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013 MIAMI TODAY 33

...to take to the air to bring home an additional foreign carrierhere locally that was all part of a masterplan to bring the agency out into thecommunities that they serve. We’ve fixedour backlog. We added more employees,we added more offices.

I left because I had done everything Ineeded to do and it was time to comehome.

Q: Looking down the road, do you seeair travel in general forever facing longlines and security checks?

A: Both.The security check issue is one not of

our making. We have to rely on ourfederal partners for things like luggagescreening, passenger screening, immi-gration, customs control. We can helpthem along as best we can. We’ve of-fered financial support to the Depart-ment of Homeland Security to helpstreamline the matter, but it’s somethingthat all we can do is mitigate it.

When the lines get big, we’ll put womenand children up front, we’ll put the eld-erly up front, but it’s something that wehave no control over, which is a terribleplace to be because, to some degree,we’re responsible but we have no con-trol.

So when a passenger has to spend fourhours in a line to have their passportsstamped, he doesn’t really care that itwas an immigration officer, he cares thatit happened in MIA, and that gives us ablack eye.

Q: Do you see innovations that willease travel?

A: I’m looking at some potential tech-nology companies that are offering toolsto speed things along, and that’s one ofthe things that I’m taking on personally.I think there are more than enough pri-vate sector companies out there thathave tested their products to speed thingsup and make the experience quite a biteasier than it is now.

Q: Cargo is a significant part of MIA.How big is that and what do you see thedepartment doing to increase Miami’smarket share, both domestically andinternationally?

A: We’re the largest airport for inter-

national cargo in the US and we hope toremain the world’s largest or the US’slargest.

It’s an area that I’m very familiar with.I go over there and visit with those folks.This is not two airports, it’s one airport.It just so happens that we have a passen-ger side and a cargo side. They have thesame problems with federal inspectors,especially when they’re bringing in per-ishable goods, flowers, seafood and soforth. So far they’ve been able to manageit and we’ve been able to help whereverwe can, and we’ll continue to be helpfuland continue to grow that side of thebusiness. It’s every important.

Q: Different airports handle airportgates differently. Sometimes airlines havetheir own gates and sometimes they sharegates. Explain MIA’s system and why theairport chooses to function that way?

A: Most of it is based on economics ordifferent models. For example, at FortLauderdale, airlines rent gates and youcan push as many planes in and out ofthere as you can in a day.

Here we don’t do that. Our businessmodel is on a per passenger basis. So weknow exactly what we’re going to bemaking based on how many flights andhow many passengers come in. It’s avery different model.

It’s the same model that tells us that wedon’t take any money from the countynor do they take money from us. Themodels of airports are very differentthroughout the US. Tampa’s model isdifferent; Fort Lauderdale’s model is dif-ferent.

Q: What is the difference?A: In Tampa, I believe they have an

airport authority and it reports to thecounty government, or at least the countygovernment backstops all of their bud-geting. So if they lose money, the countypicks it up, whereas right now ourbackstopping comes from the airlinesthemselves.

Q: Retail at the airport has been aconcern and the department has tried toupgrade quality and variety. How doesthat upgrade stand and is there change

ahead? Can you tell us of any newcom-ers?

A: What is the concern? We have like250 stores here and they’re all doing verywell. What I want to see going forwardis not only increasing the numbers ofconcessions, but mixing up what thoseconcessions are, bringing in newer andfresher ideas and concepts so that you’renot offering just different versions of thesame thing.

Q: Do you see your direction of thecounty’s aviation as an interim step ora long-term career change?

A: Neither. It’s not interim becauseI’m not on my way anywhere, and it’snot long term. I’m 56 years old. Longterm for me is relative.

I’m here because the mayor asked meto take this job on. I think it’s exciting.I’ll be here as long as I need to be to getdone those things that I’ve told you about– particularly the central terminal – andessentially just finish what needs to befinished.

Q: The airport has several passengerlounges that it has operated for multipleairlines. There was also a thought ofletting other entities take over thelounges. Where does that thinking standright now?

A: That’s one of those concessionissues. Originally it had been set out forRFP and then they changed their mind.

Q: How closely is the airport involvedin the development of Miami’s newgrand central station at the MiamiIntermodal center?

A: We’re right next door. Even thoughwe don’t own the MIC, it’s all about realestate. We’re involved in the sense thatwe’re going to manage the rental careagencies. There we are responsible forsome of the maintenance there, so we’reinvolved.

Q: Are you married?A: Yes. 35 years.Q: And children?A: Two daughters.Q: I see a baby picture up there.A: That’s my grandson, Noah. Both

my daughters are married and Noah is

our first grandchild, he’s 6 months old.He’s a lot of fun.

Q: What has been the biggest lessonthat your children have taught you?

A: Wow! Patience. Patience is a vir-tue. It’s true. My children are great, mychildren are wonderful, but you have tobe patient because they’re going to de-velop and grow into their own personali-ties no matter what you say or do orthink.

I only have two children, but you canhave four kids and each one of them isgoing to have their own personality andyou’re going to ask yourself “My gosh,I raised them all the same.”

Q: Who is the strict one of the family?A: Because I was in the military, I

spent a lot of time away, so I would haveto say that it’s my wife because she wasthere. But when I’m there I’m the strictone. It’s terrible to have a colonel as yourdad.

Q: Do you play any sports?A: I use to play a lot of racquetball,

mainly because it’s great sport to beatout your frustrations, but I enjoy watch-ing sports. I enjoy football, college foot-ball, baseball and soccer.

Q: Do you practice any of those sports?A: No.Q: Why not?A: Because I now have a grandson and

a boat. My grandson is my new sport.Q: Is there anything else that you

would like to tell our readers about you?A: Anything else you want to ask?

Catch me now when I’m kind of weak.Q: Have you ever been afraid of flying?A: Never. In fact, I use to jump out of

planes when I was in the army. I enjoyflying. I’ll tell you that getting to the planeis getting harder and harder. That I don’tenjoy. But flying is one of the safestthings you can do, and I enjoy flying.

Q: “Never walk by a mistake” is aninteresting personal philosophy.

A: Yeah, because if you see a mistakeyou should fix it right then and there orbring it to somebody’s attention. Youjust shouldn’t just brush it off and say“it’s not my business.”

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