By Dessalines Ferdinand |Le Floridien
Theresa Therilus, a Harvard law grad who resigned last February as North Miami City Manager, has a new job within the Miami-Dade County government.
When she took office in mid-July 2020 as City Manager, she found a city with a $14.7 million deficit. And just one year later, she had managed to flip the city’s financial statement from red to green. A released audited report for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021 posted a $3.9 million surplus. That was North Miami’s first budget surplus in seven years. This stunning reversal was credited to her skills and leadership abilities.
There is no doubt Ms. Therilus is one of the well-qualified Haitian-Americans professional leaders in the nation. Her successful works as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of North Miami makes her a desirable collaborator many would wish to have on their team.
Many have wondered how someone can decide to resign from a job with an annual base salary of over $267,000, especially after putting the city on the path to fiscal stability. Well, Ms. Therilus had already been moving forward with a plan to take her career to the next level.
She was recently hired as the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners (BBC) Executive Director under the Chair Oliver G. Gilbert, III with a $320,000 per year (base salary), making her the 18th highest paid individual in county government. This is a highly responsible executive/legislative level responsibility for planning and directing the activities of the Office of the Chairperson of the Board of County commissioners and the various divisions for which the Chair has oversight.
As part of the nature of her new job, Mrs. Therilus will be responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the work of legislative and professional staff as well as liaising with the Office of the County Attorney and the County Administration. Responsibilities will also include directing office staff and ensuring the execution of goals and objectives as identified by the Chair, reviewing organizational and staffing plans to ensure that they are consistent with designated objectives, and recommending modifications to office procedures, as necessary.
Her new position also requires an extensive knowledge of the county structure, functions and organizations, extensive knowledge of executive protocol and order of etiquette in dealing with various elected and appointed government officials. Therilus is not new to Miami-Dade County, but it’s a new role for her. It is safe to say the Harvard law grad is well-qualified to handle the task, since she previously worked for the county (from 2015 to 2018).
Theresa Therilus holds a B.A. in Economics and Legal Studies from the University of Miami and a Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School. The Haitian-American native of Miami also boasts an impressive resume. She is a results-oriented, strategic lawyer with more than 13 years of legal, compliance, and corporate governance experience. She specializes in helping companies in highly regulated industries or with uncertain regulatory affairs manage acquisitions, navigate legal landscapes and strategically position themselves. She excels at assessing the legal risks of business activities and knows how to generate, select, and implement workable solutions.
She served in the past as Interim Director of Procurement for Santa Clara County in California where she led the county’s more than $6 billion in spending. She managed acquisitions in health and hospital, technology, facilities, public safety, and professional services provided directly to the community. Therilus was also responsible for successful negotiations resulting in contract awards to support the county’s needs in every function of services provided to its residents. She managed and led a 100 member procurement team that lead the county’s sourcing activities.
Before taking over the Santa Clara County job, Ms. Therilus served as the Assistant Director of the Miami-Dade County Internal Services Department. At that time, she became the youngest-ever Senior County Administration Official for Miami-Dade County. Additionally, she served as Florida’s Assistant Attorney General in economic crimes and consumer protection.
Prior to her work in the public service arena, Ms. Therilus also represented professional athletes as an NFL Agent and worked as president of TGT Sports & Marketing. Theresa has appeared as a legal sports analyst on CNN, CNBC, and various syndicated sports talk radio shows.
Miami-Dade is fortunate to have Ms. Therilus remain in this area, working tirelessly for our communities and being a beacon of strength, intelligence, fortitude, honesty, and integrity. We are grateful that she has a new job that will benefit us all in the short and long-term aspects of our lives here in South Florida.