A legacy of building Miami

Melissa Medina grew up watching her father shape Miami.

He played an integral role in building residential and commercial developments that helped reshape the region’s skyline before later pivoting to technology infrastructure and helping connect Latin America to the world. Years later, Medina (BSBA ’00, MIB ’02) would follow her father into business. With the physical landscape of the city already built, she wanted to shape its future.

As CEO and co-founder of eMerge Americas, Medina is now transforming South Florida into one of the world’s technology hubs, building the connections between entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, universities and government that can help companies grow and scale. In the process, she’s continuing a family legacy of building in the community that gave her Cuban immigrant family the opportunity to create a new life.

“Being a first-generation American from an immigrant family, we’re indebted to this community that gave us an opportunity for my father to build a business,” Medina said. “That is our North Star of why we continue to build here.”

Today, eMerge Americas exists to continue strengthening the thriving technology ecosystem in South Florida, allowing companies to build, launch, scale and receive investment. At its 10-year anniversary celebration in 2024, the Washington Economic Group did a study on the first decade of eMerge Americas’ impact.

The results were astounding – even to the people who work in the company every day. The study concluded that eMerge Americas was responsible for almost $3 billion in economic impact and helped create more than 10,000 high-paying jobs.

“That was the best feeling ever to see that – and now we want to double, triple and quadruple it,” Medina said.

The birth of eMerge Americas dates back to the 1980s. That’s when her father, Manny, founded Terremark, a real estate development business that built developments throughout South Florida. As the business grew, it bid to build a data center known as a Network Access Point of the Americas in South Florida that would connect Latin America with the rest of the world through IT infrastructure. Terremark became Terremark Worldwide after growing into a global leader in building data centers around the world.

The company sold to Verizon in 2011, marking an incredible achievement for what started as a small family business. But through the Medina family’s celebration, their minds shifted to the future. They hit many roadblocks with Terremark that likely wouldn’t have happened if the company was located elsewhere. People didn’t see Miami as a large player in the tech space, and the Medinas were often encouraged to move the company elsewhere. Sometimes it was even hard for companies in Miami to hire talent because it didn’t have the reputation of other technology hubs.

Melissa and Manny co-founded eMerge Americas to fix that.

As they researched technology hubs like San Francisco, Austin, New York City and Barcelona, they found a common thread. They all hosted one or more large technology conferences – and that’s exactly what Melissa and Manny set out to bring to Miami. 

They incorporated eMerge Americas in 2012 and opened its doors in 2014 with its first global technology conference. Now 12 years later, the conference hosts more than 20,000 people from more than 60 countries every year and is a vital part of the South Florida community.

While it started as a conference, eMerge Americas quickly grew into much more. In addition to the annual conference, it is now a global technology platform organizing and hosting year-round executive summits, innovation challenges, startup pitch competitions, masterclasses, webinars, world-class accelerator programs, venture activity and investment insights reports and publications, and more. eMerge brings together entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, universities and government together to inspire growth in technology.

“Empowering entrepreneurs is one of our important goals,” Melissa said. “They’re the heart and soul of everything we do. We run accelerator programs and connect entrepreneurs with investments to help them scale, which feeds into the larger mission to build a thriving and sustainable tech hub across our region. Those companies grow and hire in Miami. They may sell and get acquired. That all helps with our longer vision.”

Beyond the pride she takes in seeing her hometown grow, it’s especially unique for Melissa to be working alongside her dad every day. Melissa learned about business at an early age from him. She was always around Terremark in the company’s early days and had a front row seat to her father’s work ethic. Now she sees it every day.

“He’s the hardest worker I know and a visionary,” Melissa said. “It’s a total privilege and one of the greatest gifts to be able to learn from him. We’ve transformed that into co-founding together and working together day-to-day, and it’s been an awesome ride. I recognize the responsibility that comes with all of this and continuing that legacy is important to me.

“He says all the time, ‘Melissa used to be known as my daughter, but now I’m known as her father.’”

Miami has always been home to Melissa, and the only time she ever left was for college. Today, she and her husband, Tony Jimenez (BA ’04), are raising their five children in the community where she grew up.

When she was growing up in Miami and planning for her future, the University of Florida stood out because of its academic reputation and its location – far enough away to leave home but close enough to return whenever she wanted.

After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in three years, she returned home to work in finance for Terremark. She always knew she wanted to get a master’s degree and started looking at local Miami programs to attend. That’s when she got a letter in the mail about a new Master of International Business program starting at the Warrington College of Business that included one semester in Gainesville and the other in Europe.

Melissa jumped at the opportunity to be part of the inaugural MIB cohort and got the study abroad experience she missed as an undergraduate.

“I loved everything about my Warrington experience,” Melissa said. “It gave me a strong academic foundation and taught me a lot about independence. It gave me confidence and an incredible personal and professional network that I still have today. It’s priceless. When I look back and reflect, I can see how a lot of what I do well in my career started at UF.”

She remains connected to UF and makes frequent visits back to campus, working closely with student entrepreneurs and UF Innovate.

UF is also making a commitment to be more active in her hometown. It recently opened its new location in downtown Miami at the Citigroup Center across the river from the city’s financial district. The new site is anchored by Warrington and its Weekend Part-Time MBA program.

“The alumni network here is strong,” Melissa said. “UF establishing a stronger presence makes all the sense in the world and sends an important message that UF really is statewide. UF is shaping Florida’s economic future with opportunities around the state. When you have a physical presence here, it’s a game changer.”

The UF space in Miami means many of Warrington’s industry experts will be frequent visitors to South Florida. As they work with the community and educate South Florida residents on the future of business, the impact will only strengthen the Miami community.

“UF brings world class research, faculty and talent, and all that can help Miami,” Melissa said.
“Through the eMerge Americas lens, we focus on AI, fintech and national security technology. There’s no question UF provides considerable expertise in those areas. They’re going to contribute a lot.”

For Melissa, that contribution is about more than growing a company or hosting a conference. It’s about continuing to build in the city that gave her family the opportunity to build a life. Her father transformed Miami’s skyline and connected the region to the world. Now, alongside him, she’s building what comes next.