Brian Pearl is a principal and co-founder of Global City Development, where part of his day to day focuses on discovering new opportunities for the nonprofit side of the firm, which is a longtime supporter of Miami Book Fair. The Billings, Montana, native has called Miami home for 20 years.
How long has Global City been a Miami Book Fair supporter and how did that come about?
We’ve been supporters for five years, ever since Lisa Better reached out to me to talk about sponsorship opportunities at the Fair. I’d been aware of it prior to that since it’s such a key part of the community, but because my grandmother was an English teacher who introduced me to all the great poets, the idea of becoming directly involved really resonated with me on a personal level.
Global City has a stated commitment to socially impactful giving in the community – how does your support of Miami Book Fair align with that?
One of our biggest areas of outreach is public education – Book Fair is a great fit for that because it allows people to get closer to literature in a way that’s not intimidating. It’s an amazing opportunity for people to get more excited about and closer to books.
Why is supporting Miami Book Fair so important?
It reinforces the importance of literature in people’s everyday lives. Encouraging people to learn more about books is an opportunity to bring them together and strengthen our community, and connecting people with common intellectual interest builds friendships.
How do you Book Fair?
When my daughter was young – she’s in college now – it was something we did together. When she became a teenager and didn’t want to hang out with her father anymore, I started going with friends.
What was your favorite book growing up?
I don’t know that I had a favorite because I just read so much. Winters in Montana are really long and really cold. It was easy to hunker down with a 500-page book – it’s a lot tougher to do that here in Florida!
