Member Spotlight: Gabriel Marques

This month Gabriel Marques is featured in our member spotlight. Gabriel is a JD/MBA, licensed to practice law in New York State and the United States Supreme Court. The Gabe can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Interview

Question: What is your business or profession?

Answer: Attorney, Professor, Public Figure

Question: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?

Answer: I am the proudest of my current role in Government as the Nassau County Fiscal Officer. Since 2016, I am responsible for overseeing about $2 billion across 75,000 transactions in accounts payable each year, covering over 1,500 agreements. It is a challenging position and requires me to push myself to improve every moment of every day.

Question: What do you hope to accomplish by the end of your career?

Answer: By the end of my career, I hope to impact as many people as possible. Whether they are students, interns or young professionals, I enjoy living vicarious through their success and accomplishments. The more achievement I see they achieve, the more fulfilled I become.

Question: How do you spend your time when you are not working?

Answer: I love to travel. Immersing myself in a new and exotic culture is in incredible way to learn and explore new things, as well as to reflect and use those experiences to enhance my own knowledge and abilities.

Question: If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 20 year-old self?

Answer: Your career, like life, is a marathon and not a sprint. Never be afraid of losing an opportunity or trying a new industry. If you believe in your vision and in your abilities, no challenge will ever be too great for you to champion and success will never out-run you.

Question: Who inspires you?

Answer: My parents. They came to this Country in the 1970s, without speaking a word of English, working several jobs each to give me the opportunities I have today. It is thanks to them I am who I am, and the reason for everything I will be able to accomplish in the future.

Question:  Do you do any community service?  What do you do to give back to the community?

Answer:  Anything I possibly can- whether it is service in a non-profit, mentoring young professionals, or teaching students. I find community service always helps a person stay centered and a gives a sense of fulfillment in helping others. Perhaps my greatest accomplishment in this regard was founding the New York Portuguese American Leadership Conference (NYPALC) in 2012 and uniting the many communities in New York State under one autonomous organization.

Question: Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.

Answer: In 2019, I was knighted by H.R.H. Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza (Royal House of Portugal).

Question: What is your advice to other professionals who may want to join LIP?

Answer:  The one thing that sets LIP apart from other networking organizations is that there is an emphasis on the “social” component of “networking.” When networking is successful, it should be productive, natural and of course fun- LIP has perfected this to a science.