Fred Voccola is the vice chairman of Kaseya, a Miami-based firm that provides remote IT monitoring and management for clients here and abroad. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/TNS) Emily Michot TNS
Frustrated by corruption and the career politicians who call Miami City Hall home, the co-founder of a software company whose name is on the Heat’s downtown arena is considering a run for mayor.
With about two months to go before the city’s Nov. 4 election, Fred Voccola, vice chairman and former CEO of the IT management company Kaseya, is thinking of entering the crowded Miami mayor’s race.
A downtown resident and major Republican donor, Voccola hasn’t spent much time engaged in local politics. But Voccola said he was prodded into action after the City Commission voted 3-2 in June to postpone the November 2025 election to 2026 without voter approval. The city’s move plunged the election into uncertainty. For now — after two courts blocked the city’s efforts to postpone it — the election is scheduled for November.
“What would happen if Donald Trump or Joe Biden decided to delay an election for a year?” Voccola said in an interview this week. “Only in Miami.”
Voccola, 51, told the Miami Herald that he’s not quite ready to commit to a mayoral run. Candidate qualifying begins on Sept. 5 and runs through Sept. 20. Either way, he said he plans to be engaged in civic issues in Miami moving forward.
“We could be the Dubai of the Western Hemisphere,” Voccola said. “We have such an opportunity, and we’re shooting ourselves in the foot with all this crap that goes on in City Hall. It’s an embarrassment.”
If he decides to throw his hat in the ring, Voccola’s entry could be a major shakeup in a field of official and prospective candidates that includes former mayors Xavier Suarez and Joe Carollo, as well as Democratic politicians Eileen Higgins and Ken Russell. Former City Manager Emilio González, who sued to stop the city from changing its election date, is also in the mix.
Voccola, a tech executive who describes himself as a political outsider, doesn’t have the same name recognition as his potential opponents. For most political newcomers, the prospect of fundraising for an election that’s less than 10 weeks out would be daunting.
But Voccola is willing to spend his own money to make it happen. Earlier this month, he created a political committee called Leadership for Miami’s Future. So far, he said he’s given $200,000 to the PAC.
Speaking broadly about Miami City Hall, Voccola said he can’t be bought by special interests.
“Ain’t nobody gonna bribe me,” Voccola said. “There ain’t enough money someone can give me. I don’t need it. I don’t want it.”
He added: “I’d love for them to try.”
Politics and tech
Voccola, who built his career in the software industry, had high praise for the current mayor, Francis Suarez, whom he credited with turning the global perception of Miami from a “resort town” to a “technology-forward city.”
He added that Suarez — who’s faced his own controversies related to his public office and private business dealings in recent years — set the table for Miami to become “the number one technology town in the world.”
The next mayor, Voccola said, has big shoes to fill to shepherd Miami into the future and ensure the city’s recent tech boom wasn’t “a flash in the pan.” He pointed specifically to the rise of artificial intelligence, saying Miami could become “the first true AI-first city in the world.”
Voccola was CEO of Kaseya from 2015 to 2025. He stepped down at the start of the year before the company had a successor lined up. He helped create the company in 2000 in Silicon Valley before it relocated to Miami in 2015. The company, which makes software that helps businesses manage information technology systems and security, now brings in more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Voccola said he decided to leave the position because it “was time to move on and do different things in life.” Voccola, now vice chairman of the company’s board, said he remains the largest individual shareholder in the company.
Voccola has positioned himself as somewhat of a political novice, saying he’s “not really political, per se.” But Voccola was appointed this summer to the Florida International University Board of Trustees. And he’s given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last five years to Republican politicians or political committees supporting them, according to campaign finance records, including Trump, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and the Republican National Committee. That includes two contributions totaling $150,000 to one of Trump’s fundraising committees in the fall of 2024.
Voccola is a Republican, although he briefly registered without party affiliation in 2022 before switching back to Republican this year, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
Going forward, Voccola said he wants to focus on non-partisan issues specific to Miami.
One of his ideas: commissioning a study to calculate how much extra money an average Miamian pays per year because of the misuse of public funds or policies that are in place “for no reason other than to lubricate someone’s personal incentives” — akin to a “corruption/incompetence tax,” Voccola said.
Voccola says he’s never held elected office, but he’s prepared to wade into Miami politics.
“I would love the first time someone tries to do something shady,” Voccola said. “I would have so much fun. I would destroy that person, and it would be so much fun.”