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GM division leads South Florida business with $18.9 billion in sales
By Doreen Hemlock and Lucía Baldomir | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Pop quiz: Of the nearly 1,200 multinational companies with offices in South Florida, which one manages the most revenues from a local base?
Hint: It's not Carnival Corp. or Office Depot, which both keep world headquarters in South Florida.
The answer: General Motors' Latin America, Africa and Middle East region, run out of Miramar.
While GM slumps in North America, its South Florida office oversees a booming business in a region that's now its most profitable. And the woman who heads up the operation, Maureen Kempston-Darkes, has been ranked by Forbes magazine among the top women in international business.
GM saw such strong sales last year in the region it runs from Miramar - up 29 percent to $18.9 billion - that those revenues topped the total for Office Depot, which held the top spot in 2006, according to a study by WorldCity Media.
The Coral Gables publisher studied revenues managed from South Florida to show the area's weight in the global economy as a trade gateway.
"We're just 5 to 6 million people living in South Florida, but we have almost 1,200 multinational offices here managing more than $200 billion in sales - an amount larger than the economies of many countries," said Ken Roberts, WorldCity's chief executive. "There are very significant people here playing hugely important roles for their companies, and they're largely unheralded."
Under the radar
Kempston-Darkes and her Miramar office may be among the least known of South Florida's powerhouses.
The Canadian lawyer said GM opened its South Florida office in 1991 to be closer to Latin America and tap its diverse work force. It grouped several emerging markets in one region for their similarities: a preference for small vehicles and a history of volatility.
Nowadays, the developing region is performing better than GM's North American market.
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