People Profiles

Though David Hochfeld worked a variety of jobs over the years, including 10 years in the restaurant industry, a part of him was always stifled. “I was always an actor at heart,” Hochfeld says. “I was in every play in school.” Hochfeld didn’t find an outlet for his talent until he attended the Renaissance Festival

The Martin File ? Martin founded Optime Consulting 1998 to help companies elevate and recognize their employees with strategies that will increase productivity and quality of life. ? The firm is located in Weston (2400 N. Commerce Parkway, Suite 302), with offices in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Spain. Optime has some 130 employees. ? Leading

Creek’s Eduardo Souza shares some long-distance insights on the eve of the butterfly run Eduardo Souza isn’t one to let himself fall behind. When his mother, then in her early 60s, started running and placed in a local church race, he realized that nothing was stopping him from winning races as well. He started small

Some people need to find their talent before they translate it into a calling. Not Shelly Berg. The dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music could play piano with two hands before he even started attending Cleveland Institute of Music at age 6. “If you had asked me when I was 6

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” writes Eliot Weisman in his recently released book, The Way It Was, “that my life and the FBI’s perception of my life would have been very different if I had been in that picture.” It’s a picture that was worth a thousand words to the feds and, ultimately, 10

Coconut Creek resident Irene Feldman had no idea that a trip to the cardiologist would lead to 10 years of generosity. Every holiday season since that visit a decade ago, Feldman has donated toys to needy children through the Fort Lauderdale-based Children’s Aid Club. “There was a sign on the door [from the Children’s Aid

If some people are born natural dancers, then Britt certainly is one of them. The Miami Dolphins cheerleader started dancing tap, jazz and ballet at age 3 and didn’t stop, becoming a ballroom dancer at 12 and learning rumba, salsa, jive and cha cha. Britt (the team doesn’t share its cheerleaders’ last names for privacy

On the days when she dons her traditional white chef’s coat, it can be said that Paula DaSilva wears her heart under her sleeves instead of on them. That’s because the Coconut Creek resident and new chef de cuisine at Burlock Coast on Fort Lauderdale Beach has three (visible) tattoos on her arms that give

Canes in hand, Phil and Orianne Collins take their places on the Faena Theater stage, undeterred. Each in physical recovery—the Grammy Award-winning musician from a foot injury, and his significant other, a philanthropist and jewelry designer, from paralysis after neck surgery—they move forward, embracing the mission they set for the Little Dreams Foundation: Never give

Thanksgiving has been on Mark Adler’s mind since September. He had just a few months to secure the 350 volunteers needed for Meals on Wheels South Florida to tackle the time-honored holiday. “Thanksgiving is a huge undertaking, but it’s super-fun, actually,” says Adler, the organization’s executive director. “There’s a lot going on that day.” For

Developer Jorge Perez, credited for creating Miami’s skyline, has a vision for South Florida in the next decade. He sees one connective region, from Miami all the way to Palm Beach—with Fort Lauderdale as the center of this universe. Perez’s Fort Lauderdale urban center would be a downtown, where people worked, lived and played. Walking,

In this era of iPhone cameras and social media, imagine being the only person on the planet to film a defining moment in history. How long would it take such a priceless piece of footage to reach the masses? Twelve seconds? Twelve minutes? What if it weren’t shown to the rest of the world for