Executive Vice President, Opportunity Miami, Beacon Council

Currently Matt Haggman serves as the Executive Vice President of Opportunity Miami of the Beacon Council. In his previous role as Miami program director, Haggman led Knight’s communities program in South Florida and launched the foundation’s initiative aimed at connecting and propelling Miami’s emerging entrepreneurs and startups as a way of building community.

Previously, Haggman was an award-winning journalist covering issues of local and national importance. He initially covered legal affairs for the Daily Business Review in Miami before moving to the Miami Herald, where he spent nearly eight years covering real estate and local politics, and worked as an investigative reporter. Haggman won numerous awards for his work, including a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism. In his last two years at the Miami Herald, he twice won the President’s Award, which honors the best work in the McClatchy newspaper chain.

In his last full year as a journalist, the Miami New Times named him as the Best Miami Herald Reporter in its annual “Best of Miami” awards.

In his last full year as a journalist, the Miami New Times named him as the Best Miami Herald Reporter in its annual “Best of Miami” awards.

Haggman serves on the boards of Endeavor Miami, New World Symphony and The LAB Miami. He is co-chair of the Beacon Council’s One Community One Goal initiative, along with serving as an advisory board member of New Leaders Council Miami and The Miami Foundation’s “Our Miami” initiative. He is also a founding member of TEDxMiami, which has presented programs to sold-out audiences each of the last four years. Haggman is a longtime volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University and a law degree from Vermont Law School. Haggman and his wife, Danet Linares, live in Miami.