JAVIER ALBERTO SOTO

President & CEO
The Miami Foundation

Javier Alberto Soto is President and CEO of The Miami Foundation — a community foundation using civic leadership, community investment and philanthropy to improve quality of life in Greater Miami.

Javier has successfully transformed the Foundation’s business model and positioned the organization as a prominent civic leader in the South Florida community. He has led the development of key Foundation projects including the “Our Miami Report," a biennial report providing a data-focused picture of Greater Miami’s quality of life, showing the community’s greatest challenges and opportunities, and "Give Miami Day," a 24-hour, annual online charitable giving event that has raised more than $47 million for over 750 Miami-Dade County nonprofits since 2012. 

Prior to joining the Foundation, Javier served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Grayling, a multi-disciplinary public affairs firm. He spent much of his career in the public sector as a litigator in the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office; the County's Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; and as Chief of Staff to County Mayor Alex Penelas. Javier also worked as a litigation associate at Holland & Knight. He is active on a number of community and professional association boards including: Chairman of the Council on Foundations Board of Directors; Board of Directors for America’s Promise Alliance; Board of Directors for the Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade; member of Knight Foundation's Miami Community Advisory Committee; and member of the Orange Bowl Committee. Javier graduated cum laude in History and Political Science from Florida State University and earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He is also a 2013 Henry Crown Fellow, a two-year leadership program of the Aspen Institute that engages the next generation of leaders to develop community-spirited leadership and put thought into action.