WorldCity Business Magazine

An extraordinary meeting

by Ken Roberts

PALM BEACH GARDENS As I was walking away from the World Trade Center / Palm Beach event here last week, I turned and was surprised to see a relatively slight, balding and bespectacled elderly gentleman a step or two behind me.

One of the great joys of being publisher of WorldCity is the opportunity, on a regular basis, to rub shoulders with fascinating people. People of great accomplishment, people of great vision, people of great tenacity, people with extraordinary charisma, people of great integrity.

I meet them at our CEO Roundtables, I meet them at our Connections events. I meet them. The gentleman behind me last week was one, a true giant. His name is Guy Tozzoli. You might know the name, you might not.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he took a different path to work than normal, lost precious time to a traffic accident, and was blocked as he tried to head into Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel to his office.

As he looked ahead, he noticed a gaping hole in the first tower of what was then, but not for much longer, the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers.

And, as he looked up into the sky, he saw a second plane soar past the Statue of Liberty and accelerate into the second tower.

I know what I felt and feel about that day, and so do you, but what must Guy Tozzoli, the president of the World Trade Centers Association, feel? What must the man who oversaw the construction of what were then the world’s tallest buildings feel? What must the man who is the very embodiment of the World Trade Center movement, begun with a handful of nations meeting in Tokyo in 1970 and now with 277 franchises in 78 countries, feel?

“It still hurts,” he told me as we walked together for just a moment, his keynote speech completed only moments before to a standing ovation, a keynote speech that was not about Sept. 11 so much as it was about an extraordinary career pursuing trade, free and open trade, as a salvo against the weapons and worst intentions of the world’s leaders.

In the four decades since the World Trade Center concept was hatched, international trade has risen as a percentage of GDP, he said, from less than 3 percent to more than 22 percent.

In South Florida last year, trade will have topped $57 billion when figures are released this month, the highest total ever. Hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on it, probably yours included.

The epicenter for South Florida’s international economy is Miami International Airport, of course, but the ripple from the center of the pond is spreading, spreading to Broward County, where the percentage of international inquiries jumped more than 50 percent last year at the Broward Alliance, all the way to Palm Beach County, where, for the first time, World Trade Centers from across North America were meeting last week.

All three South Florida franchise holders were represented in Palm Beach last week host Al Zuccaro of Palm Beach was joined by Fred Frankel of Fort Lauderdale, now looking to reinvigorate, and Charlotte Gallogly of Miami, a board member of the international organization and host to the annual State of the Ports luncheon the first week of February.

Last week, in a hotel ballroom, we all sat hushed as this physically unimposing giant of a man pushed a remarkable four decades of journey and discovery into 15 minutes. The room was so hushed and attentive you could hear the wait staff trying to quietly take away lunch dishes.

He told of reworking the design of the Twin Towers with the architect decades ago, making a structural change that allowed for extra height and, he said, prevented them from falling in 1993 and not as quickly in 2001, perhaps saving thousands of lives.

He told of negotiating in the late 1970s with the Chinese, who wanted his advice but refused to establish a World Trade Center in China as long as there was one in Taiwan.

While the Chinese may understand that “the longest journey begins with the first step,” they were confused by Tozzoli’s reply to their request for assistance: “To make love to me, you have to marry me first.” Translation: If you want my help, open a World Trade Center in China. The organization is avowedly non-political, and the problems between Taiwan and China were not his concern.

It took time and patience, but he was able to see World Trade Centers established in Shanghai and Beijing.

He has seen World Trade Centers established in Russia, in Cuba “and I went on the FBI’s Most Wanted List” after that, he said in Afghanistan, in Libya and he is now working toward helping in North Korea. Most World Trade Centers are, of course, in less controversial places and all serve the same basic mission to better facilitate trade.

He called himself “a fortunate guy, in a small way trying to bring stability to this world.”

I meet a lot of extraordinary people. It comes with the territory. Rarely do I meet one like Guy Tozzoli.