MICHAEL KASBAR

CHAIRMAN & CEO, WORLD FUEL SERVICES, DORAL

World Fuel Services — one of only three Fortune 100 companies in Florida — acts as an international middleman marketing and financing commercial fuel. It also provides a platform that optimizes energy, logistics and related services for aviation, marine, commercial, industrial and land transportation customers worldwide. “We’re a solutions company,” Kasbar told Maritime Executive magazine. “We’re more than just fuel.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the economy has proved challenging for World Fuel. In 2020, the company reported revenue of $20.4 billion, down 45% from the year before. The company acquired Universal Weather and Aviation’s UVair fuel business in 2020 but also sold its multiservice payment solutions business to Corsair Capital.

Kasbar grew up in Brooklyn and at one point aspired to be a baker. He joined the oil industry after graduating from SUNY-Plattsburgh with a degree in environmental sciences. After several years working as a broker, he launched the maritime oil business Trans-Tec with partner Paul Stebbins in 1985. They sold it to World Fuel Services in 1995. Kasbar, an avid motorcycle rider, then worked his way to the top of Miami-based World Fuel, becoming CEO in 2012 and chairman in 2014.