Miami-Dade Mayor Levine Cava announces new Economic Development and Innovation leadership

Today, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that Francesca de Quesada Covey will join her economic development team as Chief Economic Development and Innovation Officer. In this role, de Quesada Covey will lead efforts to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment in Miami-Dade to drive continued growth and build a “future ready” economy where all residents can succeed and thrive. 

Francesca de Quesada Covey has served the County as Tech Innovation advisor to the Mayor since September 2021, a position funded through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. In that role she helped develop the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, an independent public-private nonprofit created with seed funding from the Knight Foundation, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, and Miami-Dade County to find innovative private-sector solutions to some of our community’s pressing challenges. She was also Chief Investment Officer at TheVentureCity, an early stage investment firm based in Miami. In this role, she oversaw the investment strategy for pre-seed and seed investments and supported the growth of their 108 portfolio companies. 

 “Miami-Dade’s economy is ranked one of the most-recovered in the nation and continues to grow with new investments, business relocations, and workers in search of opportunities – particularly in tech,” said Mayor Levine Cava. “It’s more critical than ever that our government works hand-in-hand with the private sector to scale innovative solutions and invest in strong talent pipelines and workforce development, to ensure all our residents can succeed in the new economy. With robust experience across the public and private sectors and driving innovation within government, Francesca is the perfect person to lead our FutureReady economic development strategy as we work to make Miami-Dade the best place in the country to live and work.” 

 “Miami-Dade’s economy is one of the strongest in the nation, made up of world-class corporations, small businesses employing nearly 60% of our residents, and a burgeoning tech ecosystem. To cement our future growth and to ensure Miami-Dade’s status as an innovation hub, we need to provide more resources for entrepreneurs, increase opportunities for local talent, and modernize and streamline the County’s economic development functions to better serve the people building and scaling businesses,” said de Quesada Covey. “I am thrilled to bring my experience from both the federal government, and fast moving private and public companies, to lead the economic innovation and development team – helping drive forward Mayor Levine Cava’s efforts to grow and ensure a more inclusive, diverse, thriving economy for all.” 

Francesca is a seasoned business development technology executive and investor with over 15 years of experience developing public-private partnerships and advising technology firms, elected officials, and government agencies. de Quesada Covey worked at Meta where she led and grew Business Development and partnerships teams focused on internationalization and growth. In her tenure she worked on connectivity, payments, and small and medium-size business efforts, culminating with a cross-company strategy role in the CEO and COO’s office. Before joining Meta, she served as Deputy Counselor of Strategic Engagement in the Office of Public Engagement under President Obama. 

de Quesada Covey holds degrees from Columbia University (B.A., political science and French) and Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France (M.A., finance). She is the daughter of Cuban immigrants, and along with her husband and two daughters she proudly calls Miami-Dade home.