|
 Arriving
in Miami just as development began reshaping South Florida, then
22-year-old Rosa Sugranes made her name selling the defining
feature of a sub-tropical abode: ceramic tiles.
Sugranes has been in the tile
trade since the age of 13, when she swept the floors of the
family business, the Barcelona-based Cerámica Sugranes. Then, in
1979, her father, Ramon Sugranes, asked her to open a subsidiary
called Iberia Tiles in the United States.
In those early days, Sugranes
barely spoke English and worked in a Miami warehouse with just
five employees. Eventually, she learned the language, hired
about 100 employees, opened up showrooms and expanded Iberia
Tiles to Atlanta.
“Americans are leaders in
most things, but ceramic tiles was one of the few things that a
Spaniard could teach an American about,” Sugranes told
Hispanic Magazine in 2003.
In 2006, the
Iberia Tiles chair became a director of Florida East Coast
Industries, a giant rail and real estate holding company that
was acquired this summer by Fortress Investment Group LLC. She
also is an active member of the community. She is the immediate
past president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, a
member of the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council and
chair of the Florida International University executive
committee and board of trustees. |
