Joshua Wallack is COO of Mango’s Tropical Café, one of the top grossing restaurant/nightclub establishments in the United States. With a staff of more than 250 people, strong leadership is necessary on a daily basis to ensure continued prosperity of the business and its employees. For this lifelong Miami Beach native and graduate of North Beach, Nautilus, and Beach High however, Mango’s is where his leadership merely begins. In addition to the operations of Mango’s, Wallack along with his father, David, also plans the Company’s expansion locations to other US markets and serves on several Miami Beach boards and groups including the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, Mount Sinai Hospital, The Ocean Drive Association, The Miami Beach Nightlife Task Force, and the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board. Philanthropy and civic responsibility are passionate matters that drive much of the moral fabric of Wallack’s business style.
A highly regarded executive and entrepreneur, Wallack’s core focus for Mango’s includes creating new dynamic business and thickening current revenue streams, streamlining marketing and sales efforts, reorganizing under-performing assets, delivering new and expanded profits through product development and enhancement of current product lines. He oversees all product and business strategy, utilizing entrepreneurship and tireless efforts to break new boundaries of capability, which has led to an explosion in revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction.
During a multi-year hiatus from Mango’s in the early 2000’s, Wallack founded and led several media companies to successful launches and national rollouts. In 2005, after securing an exclusive contract with Amtrak® for his startup Railway Media, Wallack raised millions of dollars in venture capital and built a network of retail stores in train stations across the Amtrak system which rented the first ever pre-loaded portable media player that had been approved by the Hollywood Studios. After securing content contracts from Walt Disney Studios, Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, SONY, DreamWorks SKG, and others, the system launched to great fanfare and operated in more than 10 top Amtrak markets. As well, during that time (back before the advent of Apple’s current products such as iPad), the demand for the pre-loaded portable for travelers brought Wallack to Hertz® Rent-a-Car, the world’s largest car rental company. Wallack secured another exclusive contract for “backseat entertainment”, and after a lengthily courtship with Disney, ultimately chose Nickelodeon as the 3rd partner which gave rise to Nick on the Go™ at Hertz. Wallack, as CEO of CR Media Corp, led a much larger scale rollout to more than 50 Hertz airport locations. With the sale of CR Media, Wallack looked to take his relationships in the electronics and content space into global retail, and became Senior Vice President of Kids Station Toys and Craig Electronics Ltd. In a whirlwind of global travel, Wallack worked with Company officials in the US, Hong Kong, and China, as well as led the forward motion into the retailers themselves, with frequent travel to the headquarters of many including big box (Wal-Mart, Target), specialty (Best Buy, Radio Shack), etc. Wallack worked with buyers and officials to place merchandise all over the country. As luck would have it though, Wallack’s continued work with Mango’s during these years created the opportunity to rejoin to his family’s business.
Wallack returned to Mango’s in 2010, streamlining the operations from back to front as Mangos invested millions in facilities and entertainment. The business has grown substantially, celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2011. Wallack, together with his father, plot other Mango’s locations in top tourist markets, both domestically and internationally.
Unwavering leadership, discipline, and community responsibility are factors that drive all aspects of Wallack’s career. Through the new Community Partnership program with Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Foundation, Mango’s is now the 2nd largest doner to the hospital in the entire city. On the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Governors and now Executive Board, he is a voice of reason, progress, and optimism in many issues facing our community. Together with Chamber leaders, Wallack lobbied in Tallahassee against the recent gaming bill, which died in the Florida House but he expects will be back in discussion soon. Most recently, he was appointed to the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board by Commissioner Ed Tobin, where he supports and works toward the vision of a world-class, non-gaming involved Convention Center and on-site hotel that can make Miami Beach much more competitive for landing larger conventions and events that will surely have a largely positive economic impact for all who live and work in the City.
Joshua Wallack has been married for 10 years to his wife Elida Wallack, and they have 2 children, Brett, 9, and Mia, 7.
