CEOs: Brain drain ebbing, but housing costs a problem

“Florida has many qualified people, but they don’t seem to stay here. Our experience is that it is difficult to find qualified, skilled people for decision-making roles in our company and almost always must recruit from out of state.” — Ben Baldanza, CEO, Spirit Airlines

“Many people who leave would prefer to live in Miami but cannot find a job that suits their skill level.” — Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, CEO, Codina Partners

“South Florida has a net surplus of talent, and it’s up to the companies here to establish strong ties with the local schools to showcase the exciting opportunities locally — if we don’t, our best and brightest will leave.” — Daniel Cane, CEO, Modernizing Medicine

“I would now contend that our region has made significant progress toward retaining its talent — as well as attracting new talent from other areas of the country and the world.” — Marcell D. Haywood, CEO, Dirt Pros

“Density of good-quality talent is one of our biggest bottlenecks to growth. We have had to ‘import’ two of our most recent hires from out of state.” — Jose Li, CEO, 71 lbs

“We see a large number of young talent that wants to come to Miami now.” — Steve Owens, president, Swire Properties

“It depends on the field, but what is going to continue to be one of the biggest factors is South Florida’s shortage of affordable housing.” — Lauren ‘Lolo’ Reskin, owner, Sweat Records

“Market conditions foster brain drain. Both Houston/Dallas and Atlanta have more-diversified service and industrial sectors — contributing to this situation.” — Mark Rosenberg, president, Florida International University

“I have seen a growing number of educated workers returning and relocating to our region in recent years.” — John Sumberg, managing partner, Bilzin Sumberg

This story was originally published October 5, 2014 at 3:30 PM with the headline "CEOs: Brain drain ebbing, but housing costs a problem."