Manuel (Manny) Mencia is CEO of MAM International Consultants, advising companies and economic development organizations engaged in international business.

From 1996 to 2021, he served as Senior Vice President of Enterprise Florida’s International Trade and Development unit, directing the State of Florida’s export promotion and foreign direct investment recruitment programs across a Miami-headquartered operation with offices in six Florida cities and seventeen countries. Under his leadership, the division earned the field’s top honors: the 2000 Gold Award from Export Magazine and the Council for Urban Economic Development as the nation’s best statewide export development organization, the 2001 Presidential E-Award for Export Development in its first year of eligibility, and the 2009 President’s E Star Award for Export Promotion Excellence, the nation’s highest trade development honor.

His four-decade career also includes serving as Senior Vice President of World Marketing at the Miami Dade Beacon Council (1992 to 1996) and executive positions at the Florida Department of Commerce (1977 to 1991). He is immediate past Chairman of the World Trade Center Miami and a member of its executive committee, served two terms as President of SIDO, the national organization of state trade development agencies (2010 to 2012 and 2016 to 2018), and co-chaired the International Committee of the Council of State Governments (2016 to 2018). He serves on the boards of the Florida Export Finance Corporation, World Trade Center Miami, St. Thomas University’s School of Business, and the Florida District Export Council.

Mr. Mencia has been named Government Hispanic Business Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (1990) and International Businessman of the Year by the International Business Council of South Florida (2003). He received the World Trade Center Miami’s International Achievement Award, Miami’s most prestigious lifetime achievement honor in international business (2010), the Champion of Trade Award from the Florida International Bankers Association (2011), and induction into the Florida Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association Hall of Fame (2016). In 2017, King Felipe VI of Spain awarded him the Order of Queen Isabella the Catholic for advancing business ties between Spain and the United States, and in January 2021 Brazil conferred the National Order of the Southern Cross, Rank of Official, among the highest distinctions it grants foreign nationals.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Florida International University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from St. Thomas University.