About Carmen Olazabal
Carmen Olazabal is the President and Founder of 4City Consulting. 4City Consulting is a strategy consulting company focused on providing effective solutions for public sector organizations. Carmen founded 4City Consulting in 2016. The objectives of the company include focusing in areas of sustainability, mobility, and responsible development to deliver strategies that enhance the vitality and livability of communities.
As president of 4City Consulting, Carmen Olazabal is responsible for business development, strategy execution, and project delivery. In the past few years, she has undertaken several impressive endeavors including converting 915 streetlights in Miami to LED fixtures. Carmen also led the way on a canal stabilization project that required installing a stacked geographic web system. As a result, the canal system became more stable, sustainable, effective, and it also reduced the amount of debris and vegetation that enters the canal, which improved stormwater capacity through the South Florida Water Management Department canal system.
Carmen Olazabal has over 20 years of experience in engineering, government, and project management. Before founding 4City Consulting, Carmen worked as the Assistant City Manager of Operations for the City of Coral Gables. In that role, Carmen was responsible for implementing city-wide strategic and operating initiatives and policies. Among her accomplishments there, Carmen co-led the design and permitting phase of a $24 million project that created new civic promenades with extensive gardens and landscaping, decorative street lights, and outdoor dining spaces.
Carmen’s career began when she worked for LeMessurier Consultants as a project engineer and for CMA Architects and Engineers in San Juan, Puerto Rico as a structural engineer. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in Florida.
In 1998, Carmen Olazabal graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While working towards her undergraduate degree, Carmen was a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and received two awards from them for Service and Academic Excellence.
Carmen furthered her education with two masters’ degrees. First, she earned a Master of Science (MS) in structural engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Later, after working several years in the structural engineering field, she returned to formal education to earn her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School in 2007. In addition to her degrees, Carmen has a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional Certification as well as an Envision Sustainability Professional Certification.
After business school, Carmen Olazabal joined a real estate development firm called Hines as Assistant Project Manager. As part of her role at Hines, Carmen supervised architectural, engineering, and construction management and broker teams for the pre-development of three projects that totaled approximately $500 million in costs.
Carmen Olazabal began her public service career in 2009 when she worked for the City of Miami Beach Building Department as an Assistant Director and Operations Manager. After that, she worked for the city of Coral Gables until she eventually founded 4City Consulting.
When she isn’t hard at work for her company, Carmen spends time volunteering. Since 2015, Carmen Olazabal has volunteered as an Admission Interviewer for Harvard University. She has also been volunteering as a Budget/Audit Advisory Board member for the City of Coral Gables since June 2019.
