In 1989, Elite International Realty Co-Founder Leo Ickowicz didn’t set out to build a real estate company in Miami. He was trying to protect his family.
A successful travel agency owner in Rio de Janeiro during the 1980s, Leo had already built a thriving business and a comfortable life. Then his business partner was kidnapped. “Everybody in the market and clients thought it was me who was kidnapped,” Leo recalls. The partner was ultimately released (after paying his captors $2 million), but Leo took it as a sign that it was time for a change.
Leo sold the travel agency and, with two young children, left Brazil and arrived in Miami, effectively starting over. Neither his training in civil engineering and urban planning nor the fact that he had built a successful company from scratch in Brazil guaranteed a clear path forward in the U.S. He did have something very valuable, however: relationships. “When I came here, all my [travel agency customers] began to call me because of the kidnapping, saying, ‘Listen, find me a home,’ ‘I want to send my children to study,’ ‘I want to buy a second home,’ ‘I want to move to Miami,’” Leo says.
What started as informal advice soon revealed a market gap. Wealthy Brazilian families were increasingly looking to relocate or invest in U.S. real estate, and they needed someone they trusted to guide them. But the demand was undeniable. He earned his license, rented a small office and began building what would become Elite International Realty. “And like this, I got into real estate by accident because I never thought I’d be a realtor. And here we are, 35 years in the States and, since the beginning, working in real estate.”
Leo’s early success wasn’t just about relationships. It was also about shrewd timing. Throughout the 1990s, economic instability in Brazil began pushing more families to look abroad. Miami, with its proximity and cultural ties, became a natural destination. At the same time, Leo explains, the U.S. real estate system, with its access to financing, offered opportunities that were largely unavailable in Brazil. Leo positioned his business squarely at the intersection of those forces, helping international clients navigate a new market while building a reputation for trust and expertise.
Eventually, the business grew from a couple of brokers serving Brazilian clients into the Elite International of today, a global operation, with more than 85 agents and hundreds of affiliated agencies worldwide. It also grew into a multigenerational family business.
A Reluctant NextGen
If Leo’s entry into real estate was unexpected, his son Daniel Ickowicz’s path into the business was reluctant. As a creative and ambitious college student at Florida International University, Daniel had his sights set on advertising. “I resisted [joining the family business] because I said, ‘I’m not going to work with my dad. My passion is advertising,’” says Daniel, who today is Elite’s CEO.
Outside forces intervened again, this time in the form of the September 11 attacks. With the job market frozen, Daniel found himself struggling to land a position after graduation. After months of searching, “I called my father and said, ‘Can I work with you?’” Daniel recalls with some amusement. He joined the business in an entry-level role, writing newspaper ads for property listings. It was hardly the glamorous creative career he had imagined but it was a start down a path that would ultimately turn out to be even more fulfilling.
‘A Privilege’
Early on, Daniel wrestled with a question that many next-generation leaders face: Was he being taken seriously because of his work or because of his last name? Over time, that uncertainty faded as he earned credibility. “The way to do it is you’ve got to earn respect,” Daniel says. “I knew that I had that respect when 40-, 50-, 60-year-olds would come to me to ask me for advice. The veterans in the industry would sit with me and want my input. That’s when I knew that I got over the barrier and I made it, but it took a long time.”
As he grew into his role, his perspective on the family business began to shift. What started as a fallback option in a rough job market became something more meaningful, both professionally and personally. “I see him every day, which is a privilege,” says Daniel of his father. That daily proximity, he realized, was something many people never experience with their parents. And while working together came with its challenges, it also created a shared sense of purpose.
Still, Daniel acknowledges the stakes are different in a family enterprise. “When you quit a job where you’re not related to the people, you move on — people are mad but then they move on. But when you quit [the family business] on Friday and you’ve got to have dinner on Saturday with the family…” Daniel trails off, laughing.
That reality has forced both father and son to be intentional about maintaining a healthy working relationship that sets the tone for the rest of the organization. “I always think that the example for the agents and the employees comes from the top. So, imagine if we’re fighting over everything and we’re not getting along. That creates a bad environment for everybody else,” Daniel says, adding that when he and his dad do disagree, “We know that we need to somehow get along and move on, otherwise we could destroy the whole company.”
It helps that the two leaders clearly defined roles. Leo continues to focus on international relationships, particularly in Latin America, while Daniel oversees the domestic market, marketing and agent operations. “This is good, not working in the same field,” Leo says.
Scaling with Structure
As Elite International Realty grew, so did the need for structure. Today, the firm includes more than 85 agents and operates as part of a broader global network. Despite that scale, Leo and Daniel have worked to preserve a sense of family within the business. At the same time, they are careful to avoid becoming too informal. “It’s a family business, but we’re not here to have fun only,” Daniel says.
They describe the company as a “corporate family” business, blending a supportive culture with clear expectations and professional standards. “We have rules and regulations that we follow just like any other company,” says Daniel. “And I think that’s very, very important in both good times and bad times. Especially through bad times, you need to maintain that team unity, but rules must be in place. I don’t call him dad — usually, I call him Leo. We try to maintain a professional environment as much as we can.”
When Daniel mentions the “bad times,” he’s speaking from experience. Like many real estate firms, Elite was tested during the 2008 financial crisis. With transactions slowing dramatically, survival required adaptability. The company leaned on rental income and disciplined financial management to stay afloat. Much of the credit for that goes to Daniel’s wife, Paula, who serves as Elite’s CFO. “I think we would not have survived if she wasn’t managing the company,” Leo says. “We survived out of rentals that year, but because she had savings and she was organized, we were able to make it through ‘08, ‘09.”
That period reinforced the importance of operational rigor—especially in a family business, where emotional and financial stakes are closely intertwined.
Innovation, Expansion and a ‘Hokie’ Tradition
With Daniel helping to lead Elite, the company has continued to evolve. He has played a key role in expanding Elite’s capabilities beyond residential real estate, including into commercial transactions and emerging areas such as cryptocurrency-based deals.
At the same time, Leo has continued to bring entrepreneurial ideas into the business, drawing on his background in travel. One example: offering airline miles to clients who purchase property through the firm. “I call that project his other son because he dedicates 80% of his time to it,” Daniel says, laughing. “Basically, his goal is: Everybody that thinks about purchasing real estate has to think of Elite because they know they’re going to get miles at closing, which is a great deal. Nobody else does it. … That’s where his tourism instinct kicks in. He’s always had the relationship with the travel business and he’s continuing what he used to do in Brazil, but now in real estate.”
Today, both Leo and Daniel are also thinking about continuity in terms of legacy. Daniel’s children have already been exposed to the business from a young age, spending time in the office and absorbing its culture. Whether they ultimately choose to join remains to be seen. But the goal is clear: to build something that lasts.
It’s a purpose that’s shared by the entire organization and reinforced every day at Elite. The company even took a culture-building cue from college football: When Elite reps leave for sales calls they touch a piece a wood salvaged from Elite’s old office and posted above the door, in a nod to Virginia Tech’s “Hokie Stone” tradition in which players touch a stone slab in the tunnel on their way onto the field.
The company even borrowed the rallying message from the Hokie Stone, which also happens to be a fitting mission statement for a multigenerational family business: “For those who have passed, for those to come, reach for excellence.”