Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017
Vol. 104, No. 77 • Two SecTioNS
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
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Meredith O’Malley Johnson, Jack DeYoung, Grant Nielsen and Joe Sampson outside the Nuera Marketing office at 1807 Hendricks Ave.
Work ethic inherited from dad Sampson has been entrepreneur since his first lemonade stand
By Marilyn Young Editor
Sampson’s office includes reminders of his days with One Spark.
Photos courtesy of Joe Sampson
EverBank Financial Corp. will continue to be based in Jacksonville after its acquisition by TIAA, expected midyear, but its name going forward hasn’t been decided. That means for now, the EverBank name remains on the buildings it leases and on EverBank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The name will be decided on what TIAA President and CEO Roger W. Ferguson Jr. said was “marketing science.” “We want to make sure it’s thoughtfully done,” Ferguson told reporters after he spoke Tuesday to more than 500 members and guests at a quarterly JAXUSA Partnership meeting. “It takes some time to do the kinds of surveys that are called for to figure out what does the brand stand for? How well known is it?” he said. Such a review does not happen quickly, he said, and the company is under no pressure to do anything quickly. Ferguson acknowledged the presence of the EverBank name in Jacksonville. “We’re deeply respectful of the fact that the name has a huge presence here. I totally understand that,” he said. The name is of special interest in Jacksonville because of EverBank Field, the city’s football stadium where the Ferguson Jaguars play. EverBank and the team signed a five-year, $16.6 million naming rights deal in 2010 and agreed to a 10-year, $43 million extension in 2014. “TIAA is committed to continuing the positive relationship that EverBank and the Jacksonville Jaguars have had over the past few years,” Ferguson said during his presentation. He said not all of the post-acquisition decisions have been made, but he wanted JAXUSA to hear from him “that we are completely committed to supporting the kinds of things that EverBank has been doing historically here, including the …
Photo by Bobby King
EverBank stays; will the name?
Sampson often rides the skateboard in the office, including once when he fell. His team has it on video that’s locked away for inevitable blackmail, he said.
Joe Sampson has been an entrepreneur for pretty much as long as he can remember. If his mother was having a yard sale, young Joe set up a lemonade stand there. If a teenaged Sampson needed to buy clothes or pay costs associated with playing high school sports, he’d do everything from cutting grass to running a mobile detailing business. Doing that was more out of necessity than anything in a family where both parents had jobs, but his father also had to work on nights and weekends to make ends meet. Sampson’s career has been fueled by mirroring his father’s work ethic, something that has helped drive his entrepreneurial hustle. “I’ve always viewed his work ethic as my inheritance and the greatest thing he passed down to me,” he said. Early on, Sampson had a few
jobs where he worked for established companies, each of which taught him something that helped shape his career. His first was with Lockheed Martin, where he said he learned about time management and people. At Watson Realty Corp., Sampson said he developed more sophisticated sales skills and grew his marketing talents. But mostly Sampson, 35, has spent his career building and molding new ventures, either with others or by himself. The most public was as executive director and chief operating officer with the One Spark crowdfunding festival that showcased creatives and entrepreneurs. His time there ended after two years, a parting that he has said little about publicly until now. But it’s something that’s had a lasting impact on Sampson and, he believes, the city, as well. “People started trying things, relationships were formed, collaborations were born and as a WORKSPACE
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Hemming historic designation creates controversy Two council members suggest removing Confederate statue By Max Marbut Staff Writer
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Preserving Jacksonville’s history was generally supported Tuesday when City Council considered an ordinance that would designate Hemming Park a historic landmark. What was called into question was what kind of history should be preserved and how that should be done.
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Supporters of the proposal cited the historic value of the park in general and of the statue in the park that depicts a Confederate Army soldier. It was donated to the city more than 100 years ago as a memorial to Florida’s military veterans by Charles Hemming, whose name was placed by the city on the public space in recognition of the donation. After nine people went to the
podium during the public hearing on the bill to speak in favor of the designation and the importance of honoring veterans of all eras, council member Reggie Brown said support for the monument is not unanimous in the community. “To some, the Confederate statue is offensive,” he said. Brown said he’s concerned if the park and the statue are protected by law, future generations might not be able to remove and
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relocate the statue if that’s what they would want to do. He said if the monument must remain in the park forever, “in 100 years, folk of that time can’t move the statue.” Emily Lisska, executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society, said the organization’s board of directors voted to support designating as historic the statue and a coquina marker in the park that COUNCIL CONTINUED ON PAGE A-3
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