November 13, 2024 Trustee Luncheon featuring Alvah Chapman Awards

Neisen Kasdin serves as co-office managing partner of Akerman’s Miami office. A former mayor of Miami Beach and leader in the revitalization of South Beach, he brings extensive civic experience to his work on urban revitalization and the development of complex, large-scale, multi-use projects.

Respected as a leader in urban development, he served as vice chair of the board of directors for the Miami Downtown Development Authority and was responsible for leading the creation of Miami’s Downtown Master Plan. Many of his clients’ projects – from Brickell City Centre to Miami’s Design District and the Faena District – have been groundbreaking, transforming Miami’s urban spaces with a blend of retail, office, and residential properties. In addition to large-scale projects, Neisen has represented clients in developments in emerging Miami neighborhoods such as Little Haiti and Wynwood.

Neisen is recognized by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 as a leading land use and zoning lawyer in Florida. Clients value his attention to detail and thorough knowledge of building codes and government agencies, as well as his deep understanding of what a neighborhood needs, what is achievable, and what challenges may arise in the future.

Notable Work
Brickell City Centre: Represented Swire Properties in development of the Brickell City Centre project in downtown Miami, a $1.5 billion, 5.5 million square foot mixed-use development in the city’s financial district. The project includes office space, retail, residential units, hotel, and underground parking. A model of large-scale mixed-use projects, it is the first Special Area Plan built under the Miami 21 Zoning Code.Miami Design District: Represented Miami Design District Associates in the development of an unprecedented one million square foot retail, residential, and arts district. Handled all aspects of development approvals, including vacating rights of way, re-plating and zoning, and site plan approvals as a Special Area Plan built under the Miami 21 Zoning Code.
Faena District: Represented Faena Group in the acquisition, approval process, and environmental work for an approximately $1 billion, three-block, mixed-use oceanfront development, including hotels, condominium apartments, retail, restaurants, arts and cultural center, and underground parking.

A force in local, state and national politics for nearly three decades, Manny Diaz was first elected City of Miami Mayor in 2001, having never before held elective office. He was reelected to a second term in 2005, and was chosen to lead the US Conference of Mayors as its president in 2008.

As mayor, Diaz developed a vision for Miami as an international City that embodies diversity, economic opportunity, effective customer service and a highly rated quality of life. To achieve this goal, he re-engineered Miami government from top to bottom.

During his two-term tenure, Diaz was recognized for completely transforming the City of Miami, and for many nationally recognized innovative programs in the areas of urban design, sustainability and green initiatives, education, infrastructure investment, affordable housing, law enforcement, poverty and homelessness, and arts and culture.

Diaz was recognized as one of America’s Best Leaders by US News and World Report and The Center for Public Leadership (Kennedy School of Government); the Urban Innovator of the Year by the Manhattan Institute; Americans for the Arts-National Award for Local Arts Leadership; American Architectural Foundation Keystone Award; Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce Power Leader of the Year and Green Visionary Awards; the Government Award by Hispanic Magazine; the Business Leader of the Year Award by South Florida CEO Magazine; and was named an Outstanding American by Choice by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.

He is a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council of the US Department of Homeland Security and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Alliance for Digital Equality Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Board of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Urban Research, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, City Year Miami, the Florida After School Network, the advisory board for the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation and the Florida Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

He recently served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, and has now resumed his successful corporate and real estate law practice as a senior partner at Lydecker Diaz in Miami, Florida.

Daniella Levine Cava was elected Miami-Dade County's first-ever woman mayor in November 2020. She entered the Mayor's Office following a 40-year career as a relentless advocate for South Florida families. As mayor, she oversees a metropolitan government of more than 31,000 employees, serves nearly 3 million residents, and manages an annual budget of approximately $12 billion. 
 
Mayor Levine Cava's administration is focused on building a stronger, more prosperous, more resilient Miami-Dade. She protected lives and livelihoods by deploying a people-focused coronavirus pandemic response. She is prioritizing reforms to keep our county safe and free from gun violence through the Peace and Prosperity Plan, reinvigorating a thriving economy that delivers economic security and welcomes new investment, tackling the housing crisis by protecting tenants and building more affordable housing, preserving our environment, including Biscayne Bay and the Everglades, for generations to come, connecting every corner of Miami-Dade with the efficient and reliable public transit, and directly engaging with residents to make county government more transparent and accountable. 
 
A social worker, lawyer, and community activist, she was first elected in 2014, and re-elected in August 2018, to serve as the Miami-Dade County Commissioner representing District 8. Previously, Levine Cava served vulnerable children, families and immigrants at Legal Services of Greater Miam and the Guardian Ad Litem Program. In 1996, she founded Catalyst Miami to help low- and middle-income families through service, education, and advocacy, which she ran for nearly two decades. With her husband, Dr. Robert Cava, a Miami native and practicing physician, she is proud to have raised two children, Eliza and Edward, in Miami-Dade.

In a journalism career covering news from high global finance to neighborhood infrastructure, Tom Hudson is the Vice President of News and Special Correspondent for WLRN.  He hosts and produces the Sunshine Economy and anchors the Florida Roundup in addition to leading the organization's news engagement strategy.

Hudson was most recently the co-anchor and managing editor of Nightly Business Report on Public Television. In that position, Hudson reported on topics such as Federal Reserve interest rate policy, agriculture, and global trade. Prior to co-anchoring NBR, he was host and managing editor of the nationally syndicated financial television program “First Business.” He overhauled the existing program leading to a 20 percent increase in distribution in his first year with the program.

Tom also reported and anchored market coverage for the groundbreaking web-based financial news service, WebFN. Beginning in 2001, WebFN was among the first live online streaming video outlets. While there he reported regularly from the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and the CME. Additionally, he created original business news and information programming for the investor channel of a large e-brokerage firm distributed to six large market CBS Radio stations. 

Before his jump to television and broadband, Tom co-anchored morning drive for the former all-news, heritage 50kw WMAQ-AM/Chicago. He spent the better part of a decade in general news as anchor, reporter, manager and talk show host in several markets covering a wide variety of stories and topics.

He has served as a member of the adjunct faculty in the Journalism Department of Columbia College Chicago and has been a frequent guest on other TV and radio programs as well as a guest speaker at universities on communications, journalism and business.

Tom writes a weekly column for the Miami Herald and the McClatchy-Tribune News Service. He appears regularly on KNX-AM/Los Angeles and WBBM-AM/Chicago for commentary on the economy and investment markets.