Talk 2 Brazil, The Business Connection: January 2016

WTC Sao Paulo, Brazil has acquired the license for a World Trade Center in Fort Lauderdale and plans to develop a hub initially to help Brazilian companies expand into South Florida.

The new owners already hold the licenses for World Trade Centers in Sao Paulo and seven other cities in Brazil. Those centers have more than 1,000 companies from Brazil and 500 from other Latin American nations as members.

The idea is to tap that base and other companies to help them expand into Florida through the Fort Lauderdale hub, said Marcos Aguirre, the Brazilian-Chilean executive starting up the Lauderdale operation.

Plans call for helping as many as 200 small and mid-sized companies in the first two years to enter the Florida market, either to find a representative or distributor, invest in a business or set up an office. Those companies might be in the technology field, such as software development, or in services, including logistics, said Aguirre, 45, an engineer who formerly worked for consulting giant KPMG and telecom company Ericsson in Latin America.

"We will offer a one-stop shop concept for Latin American companies," Aguirre said. "Now is a time that companies are looking abroad" because of an economic slowdown in Brazil and some nearby nations.

Contact Marcos Aguirre , Manging Director WTC Fort Lauderdale: +1 954 332 2301

wtcfl.com