Seat D – Robert Weinroth
By: Quezia Salgado
The combination of a management and law degree doesn’t usually land you a career in the medical field. Growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in Long Island, New York, the idea of becoming president of a medical supplies company, let alone running for city council, was probably far from Robert Weinroth’s mind. Out of high school, Weinroth attended Boston’s Northeastern University, going for a degree in management, where he acquired vast experience in many different areas from salesperson, to produce stocker at a grocery store, as part of the school’s co-op program. This took place during the time when the U.S. was at war in Vietnam, but as a college student, Weinroth was able to get deferment. During his junior year, however, he dropped his deferment for about 6 weeks, but was not drafted. Realizing he needed to add something to his management degree, Robert looked at all the possibilities and decided to attend the New England School of Law: “I thought, law school would be a good addition to my degree, with being a manager, having the ability to do legal analysis would be a nice complement.”
Robert completed his degree, passed the bar exam, and was satisfied, although he did not wish to start his own practice. Instead he began working for insurance companies in their legal departments, in Boston, New Jersey, and eventually took his last job in insurance at AIG in New York City. After working for AIG for some time, Weinroth decided that rather than starting a new adventure in the Northeast, he would move south, to the Boca Raton area, where he had some relatives: “Boca sounded like a nice place to put my stake in the ground,” he affirms.
In 1999 Robert took his expertise as a manager and lawyer and combined it with his wife Pamela’s experience in running a small business, and created FreedoMed, a medical supplies company: “My wife and I built the company from nothing.” The business has had tremendous success through the years, now with over 6,000 patients. In addition to providing for the Weinroth family’s financial security, FreedoMed also afforded them the ability to become embedded in the community by supporting several organizations such as the Rotary of Downtown Boca Raton, Boca Raton Helping Hands, and many Jewish organizations, among others.
Through this network of organizations and companies, Weinroth was able to see and hear the concerns of citizens about the community and its future, which brought him to the decision to run for city council. If elected, Robert’s main focus will be on issues such as development, making sure to bridge the needs of developers and that of the community; traffic, making certain that expansion is done with a purpose, and creating planned mobility; and economy, doing whatever it takes to maintain its vitality, always keeping in mind where the city is and what is the best way to move forward.
