Jimmy Morales

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

A Coral Gables resident since 1999, Jimmy Morales was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Miami-Dade County by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in December 2020. In this role, he oversees key county departments, including Aviation, Seaport, Transportation and Public Works, and Housing Community Development. Effective October 1, 2025, the departments of Cultural Affairs and Libraries became part of his portfolio. Under his leadership, his departments have launched major initiatives, including a $1.7 billion Water and Sewer improvement program and the $9 billion expansion of Miami International Airport. He is currently leading the efforts to build a new waste-to-energy facility and to implement a zero-waste strategy. Before joining Miami-Dade County, Morales served as the city manager of Miami Beach for eight years, where he led significant projects, including a $620 million Convention Center renovation. Morales graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School and Harvard.

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Morales considers his most important recent achievement to be securing county control over the privately owned marine “fuel farms” on Fisher Island, which could have become residential enclaves. “That could have put a major dent in the economy, impacting the willingness of cruise ships [and others] to bring bigger ships here… We’re in the middle of achieving a secure source of fuel that hopefully will be owned by the port forever.” Another recent achievement was launching the Rapid Bus Transit (RBT) corridor in south Miami-Dade this past fall, which uses electric buses on a dedicated roadway as a far less expensive mass-transit alternative to an overhead rail system, which would have cost billions of dollars and taken years to construct.

WHAT HE SAYS

“I tell people that the two biggest problems in Dade County are traffic and housing, and so they’re my problems now,” says Morales. For the future, he wants to expand RBT to a northeast corridor and save Tri-Rail, as well as complete upgrades to the infrastructure of both MIA and PortMiami. “I think over the next few years we probably aren’t going to finish all those transit projects, but hopefully we’ll get them geared up, funded, and leave that legacy,” he says. “These legacy type of projects are important for the mayor [Daniella Levine Cava], but for me as well. I got into this business because I wanted to make my hometown better. I was a lawyer on Wall Street, and while I was working on big deals, it just didn’t satisfy me.”– JP. Faber