Janá Sigars-Malina

Janá Sigars-Malina is President and CEO of Malina Industrial Properties, Inc. a real estate investment company. She is Of Counsel to Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. an international law firm. 

Over the past 15 years, Ms. Sigars-Malina has lead the growth of her real estate investment company. Her legal practice has involved representing national and multinational corporations in international commercial transactions, acting as their domestic and international trademark counsel, and advising them regarding the protection of their intellectual property rights through various legal vehicles including licensing, merchandising, and distribution agreements, technology transfer, and joint ventures. Ms. Sigars-Malina has lectured extensively and authored numerous articles on topics such as U.S. and international intellectual property rights, product development, protection, distribution, and licensing in the U.S., Latin America, and Asia.  

Ms. Sigars-Malina has always been very active in the business, legal, and cultural life of Miami-Dade County. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Baptist Health of South Florida and serves as Assistant Secretary of the organization. She is involved with its corporate-wide Long Range Planning, Finance and Risk Management, and its International Advisory Board, which have been strategically important during the pandemic, recent health care changes, and the development of the Miami Cancer Institute. She has served on the Board of the Children’s Bereavement Center, has assisted its marketing, and Co-Chaired its fundraising event. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden where she co-chaired and helped develop the rare plant auction, which in its first year raised three times its goal. After serving for several years as a member of the Board of the Miami City Ballet, Ms. Sigars-Malina served as its President for three years. Under her hands-on leadership, the ballet raised 15 million dollars to build its permanent home on Miami Beach. She was instrumental in strategically positioning the ballet to the business community and corporate sponsors as a valuable economic development asset for Miami-Dade County and Southern Florida. During her tenure, she was closely involved in the business aspects of running this major cultural organization. Ms. Sigars-Malina, who has been a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild since her appearance in the movie Caddyshack, co-produced the popular musical comedy/satire “Flamingo Follies.” in Key West, Florida. She is also a member Emeritus of the Board of Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts, now a part of the interdisciplinary arts program of Nova Southeastern University.  

Ms. Sigars-Malina has served on the Cultural Affairs Council, as its First Vice-Chair as well as the Chair of its Green Task Force which helped launch the Arts Resilient 305 Initiative. She  previously served on the Board of Directors of the Jay Malina International Trade Consortium. She has served on the Board of Governors of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, where she was Chair of the Chamber’s Southern Cone Committee as well as Chair of its Miami-Brazil Committee, its Export Development Committee, and Editor of The Exporter, Miami’s Guide to Export Resources. Former Florida Governor, Lawton Chiles, appointed her to the Florida/São Paulo Sister State Cooperation Committee. Ms. Sigars-Malina has served as Chair of the International Law Section of the Florida Bar Association. She has also served as President of the Florida Chapter of the International Women’s Forum, an invitational organization of over 7,000 diverse and preeminent women from 33 nations. She has been a member of the International Trademark Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Bar Association.   

Ms. Sigars-Malina grew up in San Diego, California, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a BA in Anthropology. She received her law degree from Cleveland Marshall School of Law, and after two years of practicing international law in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, she settled in Miami. She joined Fowler White as a partner and then merged her practice with Holtzman, Krinzman, Equels, Sigars & Furia before becoming Of Counsel and Head of the International Intellectual Property Department of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg in 1998. While on the Beacon’s Council’s first international trade mission to Asia in 1987, Ms. Sigars-Malina met Jay Malina in Singapore and the two were married in 1990. Their twin daughters Brezlan and Makenna were born in 2001. Janá has traveled and worked extensively abroad and is conversant in Spanish and Portuguese.