This profile on The Miami Foundation’s leader is the fifth in a weekly series highlighting the South Florida Business Journal’s 2024 South Florida Ultimate CEO Awards honorees.
Original By Jeff Zbar – South Florida Business Journal
Rebecca Fishman Lipsey
President and CEO, The Miami Foundation
Age: 43
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
Residence: Miami Beach
Rebecca Fishman Lipsey’s career speaks to her commitment of equity for others.
Named president and CEO of The Miami Foundation in 2020, the business leader has grown the organization by 50%, witnessing firsthand its impact across the community.
She previously founded Radical Partners, an incubator for social impact ventures, and later became the youngest person ever appointed to the Florida Board of Education.
The University of Pennsylvania graduate started her career as a teacher with Teach for America, and was later named its executive director and moved to Miami. Some warned she’d never break into the community. Instead, she fell in love with the area.
“It’s an amazing city and I got to be part of the magic.”
On leadership … I’ve evolved a lot. We all do. In my previous leadership roles, if I knew then what I know now, I would have led differently. When you’re first starting out as a leader, you measure success through your own achievements. I am really relishing this chapter of helping build other leaders. It’s not about managing specific outcomes; it’s about helping them see their goals get accomplished. It’s also about being really failure-friendly. You don’t want to get things wrong. But if you can, be brave and take risks and learn to pivot in front of people. I’m going to get things wrong on live television in front of my team and my board. It’s about building your own tolerance for being imperfect. You’re not there because of what you know or because you get things right. You’re there because of how you handle it when things blow up.
On her mentors … Everybody has guided me. I really believe in having elders who bring a view of the complex issues, and younger people who keep me fresh with my perspective. I’ve had a variety of phone-a-friends when I have good (and sometimes bad) choices to make. My grandparents were refugees who fled here in the middle of a war. They had to leave everything behind. They shaped my perspective of survival through the generosity of survivors. I carry that with me. They told me you may have to leave everything behind, but the one thing you’ll never leave is your education.
On success … The neat thing in this role is that success isn’t about me achieving goals. It’s about other people’s journeys, other people’s legacies. We house 1,000 people’s legacies. What will be left behind from their lifetime in their community? Success is whether we can bring 20 different bedfellows together to collaborate on an impactful project. These can be so complex and dependent on so many people succeeding. For me, some of the things I’m most proud of is when I see something “stuck” become “unstuck” for the community.
On what inspires her … I feel very inspired that I get to help shape the future of my community. This is a community where 50% of the people call somewhere else home, even if they live here. Many of the companies here haven’t been focused on this community and giving here. So what I get fired up about is converting people who aren’t proud to call Miami home to become Miami lovers. Miami is being shaped by all of us. I want to help build that corporate and civic pride in as many people as possible, and build that sense of “go, Miami, go.”
On her vision for Miami … I’m really proud of a couple things about Miami. One is how undervalued we are as a purple city in an increasingly polarized world. We speak 128 languages here, with people from all over. So many cultures and backgrounds, and we co-created a healthy and thriving community. One reason is that we’re a creative and innovative hub in the world. There’s a unique charm and difference here. As things become weaponized and polarized, we have this unique perspective. People who fled political or social challenges in their divided society, they don’t want to experience that again. We have a role to play to fight against polarization, to help people feel a bit more proud to be part of this community.