WASIM SHOMAR, INC.
CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA

Dr. Shomar has a private equity firm, is a community leader, and philanthropist Over the years, Dr. Shomar’s philanthropic efforts and his work with IBM, in higher education and as founder of The Lynx Companies, have helped him foster an environment of inclusion and opportunity. “At the Lynx Companies, we focus on a world that is a composite of the best practices I had observed throughout my career. We are creating a model that would be replicated by others and have a significant positive impact on our world.” Dr. Shomar has a private equity firm, is a community leader and philanthropist. His current philanthropic work includes establishing an oncology center, helping children with life threatening diseases, making music education more accessible and fighting for historic preservation, among many other efforts. It was an innate curiosity and an ability to view problems from fresh angles that led Dr. Wasim Shomar to some of his biggest discoveries. In 1993, Dr. Shomar began working as an engineer at IBM. The Berlin Wall had fallen, but East Germans and West Germans still couldn’t pick up a phone and talk to each other. East Germany had an aging copper wire system, West Germany had advanced digital equipment, and the two didn’t work together. IBM landed a contract to fix that. Dr. Shomar helped create a system that could convert the data from the old and new systems to a common platform, then convert it back to analog or digital, so a person on either type of system could speak. Finally, the East Germans and West Germans could communicate by phone. Because the system could also read phone numbers, users with an additional inexpensive box had Caller I.D., could tie in another call to get Call Conferencing or use Call Waiting. He and his team hold four U.S. patents and two European patents for the scientific theory. When Dr. Wasim Shomar left the engineering field to teach at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Florida in 1995, he wanted to make an impact beyond the classroom. Making things better In 2001, at age 34, Dr. Wasim Shomar became the youngest president of a nationally accredited college in the United States. He served first at Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson campus in downtown Miami. In 2003, he was named president of the college’s Kendall campus, overseeing 70,000 students and 8,000 employees. Secured $7.92 million in state funding and helped create ETCOTA, the Emerging Technologies Center of the Americas, a 40,000 square-foot facility. At it’s opening, then U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao called it the most advanced technology and workforce development center of its kind. Wasim Shomar needed a challenge. Helping struggling small businesses With money in his pocket courtesy of funds from family and friends, Dr. Shomar began investing in real estate. He looked for mom-and-pop businesses run by people with a lot of heart, but not much business experience. Through his real estate work, he came across two small property management companies, each struggling to stay afloat. He counseled them, eventually helping them to merge operations and become profitable. Dr. Shomar branched out to affiliated fields, creating companies to handle construction, technology, real estate development, engineering and financing. His brother, Shadi Shomar, a certified public accountant, was instrumental in working with him to create and implement this business model as his partner and took a leadership role. Over time, the portfolio of companies grew to more than 20, including Lynx Construction Management, Lynx Property Services, Johnstek Inc., Incite Innovation Labs Academy (the i2 Labs), Sunnyside Retreats, Seven Lynx, Lynx Business Solutions, Lynx Equity Group and Lynx Development Group. The Lynx Companies and its affiliates employ hundreds of people. The team of Lynx Construction Management alone has completed over a Billion dollars in projects. Over his career, Dr. Shomar has been an engineer and an educator. He has worked in both the public and private sectors. When he founded his own company, he wanted to take the lessons he had learned and build The Lynx Companies based on the best business practices he had seen. Smarter workforce development was high on the list. Dr. Shomar wanted to create more productive connections between higher education and the workforce, and bridge the gap between the public and private sectors. In an industry traditionally dominated by men, Lynx Construction Management is paving new pathways for women. Half of the Coral Gables-based company’s administrative team are female, and 25 percent of its field operations crew are women. In 2017, Lynx Construction Management was named Business of the Year by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, and a Top General Contractor by the South Florida Business Journal. In 2016 and 2017, the company received Diamond Awards from the ABC, Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. In 2016, Lynx Construction Management was named the No. 1 Fastest Growing Company Over $25 million by South Florida Business Journal. It also has been recognized by American City Business Journals as one of the Top 100 Private Companies in Florida by revenue. Growing up in Israel brought the vulnerabilities of society to Dr. Shomar’s doorstep. It became a life lesson, as he saw firsthand how his own parents worked to improve society. Dr. Shomar’s father, Joseph Shomar, as Rotary Club president in Nazareth, helped create a state-of-the-art hospital dialysis center that not only saved lives, but turned the facility around financially. And it shaped Dr. Wasim Shomar’s philosophy of giving back. Make-A-Wish helps lift the spirits of seriously ill children by granting them a special wish. Wasim Shomar was featured as the donor of the year by Make-A-Wish in its 2016 Annual Report. In honor of the agreement, Nazareth’s mayor, a Muslim, donated a four-acre parcel of land to Nazareth Baptist School, an American high school in Israel. In return, Dr. Shomar helped secure a $3 million donation from an American donor — $2 million for the school, and $1 million in support of an orphanage in Nazareth.