Profile: FCBFÆs Rivera wants to grow the team
Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association President Fred Rivera likes teams.
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FCBF president Fred Rivera |
He has season tickets for the Miami Heat and the Florida Panthers, and says watching team sports is his favorite way to unwind. He traces his respect for a well-run unit all the way back to his high school days, when he attended La Salle Military Academy on Long Island, N.Y., where six cadets would share a single living quarters, in the process building friendships that have lasted into adulthood.
So it's not surprising that when he talks about his role as the president of the FCBF, he stresses the talent throughout the organization.
'We've got a tremendous amount of experience on the executive board. All the vice presidents are also past presidents,' he said. 'Roger Madan (from Air Marine) is first vice president focusing on air freight. Second Vice President Dante Versace II (from Rivera's company, All Freight) has been a licensed broker forever and he's very involved with Customs issues. John Abisch (from Econocaribe Consolidators) is third vice president and handles ocean. Karma Ruiz, the immediate past president (from World Wise Consulting), stays on as chairman. You couldn't really ask for more in an executive board as far as I'm concerned.'
Rivera himself grew up in the industry. His father, also Fred Rivera, was a partner in a forwarder-broker company called Rank Shipping in Valley Stream, N.Y. That company, with Rivera's cousin now a partner, has relocated to Jamaica, Queens, a few minutes from John F. Kennedy Airport.
The younger Rivera started out as a teenager working summers as a messenger at his father's company in New York, then worked his way into doing Customs entries and working with some of the first made-for-brokers computer software.
By the time he was in college, his father had sold his share in Rank Shipping and started All Ports in Miami in December 1988. The company moved into a new facility on the outskirts of Miami in Medley a year ago. It is a forwarder/broker company that handles all kinds of air and ocean freight, but specializes in non-vessel-operating common carrier services to the Dominican Republic and Central America.
Fred worked in retail while he was attending Adelphi University on Long Island, but went to work full time for his father in 1993 after he finished college.
'I've done all aspects of the business,' he said. 'I helped out in the warehouse when we started. We used to unload cases of cigarettes for a customer. It was King Ocean actually. We used to flip containers over for them. I've worked in the warehouse, and done pretty much everything else at one time or another. You have to know how to do everything, especially an owner with a warehouse.'
Today, he focuses mainly on managing day-to-day operations at All Ports. His father focuses more on sales, working mornings when he is in Florida and still traveling extensively. Fred said his father probably spends a four weeks a year visiting customers in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Central America.
'My dad's better at sales there,' he said. 'My Spanish isn't as fluent as his.'
The family business also includes Fred's sister, Gina Horowitz, who joined the company a couple years after him, and has recently taken time off after having her second child in May.
Rivera has been a member of the FCBF since 2001, but attended a lot of general membership meetings in the years before becoming a full member. This is his four year on the board of directors. He served as treasurer last year.
What are his goals now that he is president?
He wants to continue FCBF's efforts to expand beyond its base in South Florida.
'We're trying to add new locations. We have Neal Mooney (The Mooney Law Firm) up in Tallahassee, who is a customs broker and lawyer who used to live down here, and he's helping us expand in Jacksonville and the northern part of the state.
'Roger Madan is involved in Orlando, and we're hopefully going to get to Tampa to host some meetings there. We want to focus on expansion, and bring in new members,' he said.
He added FCBF is also increasing its emphasis on the needs of the Broward County/Port Everglades community, again diversifying from the group's Miami focus.
The FCBF is also beefing up its already extensive efforts to provide industry information to members through seminars, workshops and regular monthly meetings.
Again, while looking at the group's goals, Rivera defers to the work being done by other members.
'The seminars are put together by Greg Kritz of Roanoke (Trade Services) and Lenny Feldman from Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg. They head up the education committee, and work with Barbara Pimentel, and Peter Quinter (FCBF executive vice president), who is also a board member, from (the law firm) Becker & Poliakoff,' he explained.
Rivera also sees a need to help keep members abreast of changing federal security rules and regulations for air and ocean shipping. The hot topic this year is the new rules for Indirect Air Carriers, which includes not only air forwarders, but also other logistics services operations that touch air freight.
The FCBF has been working closely with local staffers from the Transportation Security Administration on that, Rivera noted. But he added the subject is challenging, not only because the rules are changing this year, but also because the TSA has to be careful how it disseminates information. That sometimes makes it difficult for even qualified companies to get the detailed information they need to stay in compliance.
But Rivera doesn't mind taking on tough battles. Six years ago, when Roger Madan was working with All Ports' on warehousing at the company's old Doral location, Madan asked Rivera if he wanted to go to a Tae Kwon Do session during lunch. Madan is a fourth-degree black belt, and thought Rivera might enjoy the sport.
'I tried it and stuck with it ever since,' Rivera recalls. 'The discipline from the military academy is similar to the discipline of Tae Kwon Do. It's a great way to stay in shape. It keeps you agile.'
That’s a good quality for someone helping to lead a team in a fast-changing industry.
