Leslie Pantín left Cuba at eleven years old in the summer of 1960, convinced he was going on vacation. His parents told him they were heading to Miami Beach. He whispered to his brother: maybe we won’t have to go back to school this semester. They arrived with 30 bags, a bicycle, a newborn sister in a stroller, and a family that had made this same trip before. By December, when his parents admitted they weren’t going back, they moved to Coral Gables. Sixty-five years later, he’s still there with his wife Martha, who is City’s communication director.

After graduating from Miami’s Cristopher Columbus High School he earned a business degree from Florida State University, served on the Board of Trustees for ten years, last four as Vice Chairman; he was a member of 5 presidential search committees for FSU. His greatest honor was handing the FSU diplomas to his son Les and daughter Alex. He then spent 17 years in his family’s insurance business, which had operated in Cuba since 1910. Then he pivoted to public relations and special events, founding The Pantín Partnership in 1988 with clients including Merrill Lynch, Ford, Bacardi, and McDonald’s, a relationship that lasted more than 30 years.

In 1975, with a group of friends he founded the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana, and served on the board for 25 years, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The club’s first project was an inner-city basketball league, still going on now. Currently 460 scholarships have been handed to colleges like MDC, FIU, UF, USF and of course FSU. A charter school in Little Havana, Three Kings Toys distribution project, summer camps, among many other projects. His daughter, Alex, was an active member. Now her and her husband, Javi have two daughters, which Leslie’s most important task is to pick them up at school.

In 1977, fellow Kiwanians and he sketched an idea on a napkin and called it, purposely in English, Open House Eight, an Invitation to SW 8 Street. The Anglos were the ones that called it Calle Ocho. Optimistically they expected 10,000 people. The Miami Herald’s headline next morning: 100,000 Attend Calle Ocho.

In 2001, he created arteaméricas, the first art fair dedicated to art from Latin America — a 12-year run that helped make Miami the international art market it is today. He also created CubaNostalgia, an annual expo of Cuban heritage that Pulitzer Prize winner Liz Balmaseda of the Miami Herald covered by calling him “Miami’s marketer extraordinaire.”

Inspired by his father, who became the first Cuban member of the Miami establishment pillar, Orange Bowl Committee, Leslie became its first non-Anglo president — a moment so significant it made the front page of the Miami Herald. Leslie’s father, a past Excellence Awards winner, served, along with Leslie, on FACE’s first board of directors in 1982. Leslie’s son Les, now sits on that same board, the third generation of Pantíns to serve. He recently married Gaby, a fellow FSU graduate. The Miami Herald named Leslie one of 18 private citizens who shaped Miami in 1988, and one of 100 people who shaped the history of South Florida in 1993. He was a trustee of Miami-Dade College and chaired the Barry University Board of Trustees. His current main project, a new Ronald McDonald house, is due to open early 2027 at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

In 2026, he was inducted into the Arbetter’s Hot Dogs Hall of Fame. He considers it among his finest moments.