Boys & Girls Clubs’ Paul Martinez Honored as 2023 Ultimate CEO
Congratulations to our inspirational and fearless leader, Paul Martinez, for being named one of the Jacksonville Business Journal's 2023 Ultimate CEO's. Paul exemplifies what it means to “lead with purpose.” Every day, he works hard to ensure that young people in our community have an opportunity for a better life and a great future. We want to recognize Paul for this outstanding accomplishment and thank him for his leadership.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida’s President & CEO Paul Martinez was honored as one of the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 2023 Ultimate CEOs.
Article & Photo Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal
For more than a decade, the Jacksonville Business Journal has celebrated some of the men and women whose stewardship of their organizations, community involvement and overall leadership has helped shape the First Coast and its economy.
Jacksonville has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years — and the interest in the program has grown as well, with a record-setting pool of nominees from a variety of sectors.
This year, that Ultimate CEO award is being bestowed on 25 individuals who have led their companies to success through times of challenge and of growth. Selected by the Business Journal with the input of local business leaders, these honorees stand as an example of leadership in the Jacksonville area.
Honorees had to have been in their role for at least a year and demonstrate organizational leadership, community engagement and other attributes that are helping create the Jacksonville of the future.
Join us in celebrating Paul as one of these leaders who are helping create the First Coast of the future!
Ultimate CEO: Paul Martinez of Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida
Name: Paul Martinez
Company: Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida
CEO Since: 2015
Employees: 645
Meet the Honoree:
Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida CEO Paul Martinez experienced the organization for the first time when he was seven growing up in Queens, New York.
It made a huge difference in his life, he said. After moving to Florida, to work at an advertising agency and municipal government, he got a phone call inquiring if he would run the local Club.
He couldn't turn it down.
"I said, 'Let's go,'" Martinez said. "We started with 12 Clubs in Northeast Florida, now we have 56 Clubs."
Every day, 5,600 children head to a Boys & Girls Club. They get food, help with homework and the chance to participate in one of 60 recreational program the Clubs administer. He said only about 10% to 12% of the market is being served by Jacksonville's nonprofits and there's plenty of room for expansion.
Safety, fun and education are the tenets he runs the organization by.
"We have a covenant, stronger than a contract, with parents and our children. The parents are giving us their kids and for me there's no greater honor for a parent to say, 'Take care of my baby Monday through Friday after school and help them,'" Martinez said. "It's a pretty big responsibility, and we don't take that lightly."
While Boys & Girls Clubs is a non-profit, it has several facets of a for-profit company like managing employees and payroll.
"If you show you can execute on plans, it's simple," Martinez said. "I think at a lot of nonprofits, mission creep sets in. You do things you shouldn't do and take them on yourself as opposed to partnering with other groups that do that well and complimenting them."
The organization is working hard on the prevention side to ease the future impact on the enforcement side.
"If you are living in Jacksonville or any major city, you've got to make a choice. You can do all of the right things, go to school and learn," he said. "Or you do the wrong things such as a gang or selling drugs. They have a proven distribution model ... The difference is you can die or get incarcerated."