860 Business Magazine- October/November 2015

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850 Magazine October – November 2015

IN THIS ISSUE

25 FEATURES 25

Meet the Presidents Northwest Florida has three major state universities that have shaped the region and been a major factor in economic development. John Thrasher and Elmira Mangum are celebrating one year in their new roles — Thrasher as president of Florida State University and Mangum at the helm of Florida A&M University. And Judy Bense, president of the University of West Florida for seven years, marks the beginning of her last year in the job.

PHOTO BY JOEBAY AERIALS / JOEBAY.COM / DAVID WENTZEL / PORT ST. JOE FLORIDA (78) AND COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA (25)

By Rosanne Dunkelberger and Linda Kleindienst

61

The Pinnacle Awards 850 is proud to honor the 2015 recipients of the Pinnacle Award, an honor designed to shine the spotlight on women who have set high standards for themselves and exceeded them, women who are a moving force in both the private business arena and in non-profit organizations. Their drive and their success have made this region a better place for all.

By Linda Kleindienst

On the Cover: The 2015 Pinnacle Award recipients.

Photo by Ryan Manthey of Pure7 Studios.

78 In This Issue

Corridors

10 From the Publisher

FORGOTTEN COAST

14 News and Numbers

74 Camp Gordon Johnston is planning a makeover in hopes of luring in more tourists to the region, especially the children and grandchildren of veterans who trained there for the D-Day invasion at Normandy.

88 Sound Bytes 92 The Last Word from the Editor

Departments THE BOTTOM LINE 16 Why do businesses fail?

Some things to consider before you start operating.

LEADING HEALTHY 20 In the fast-paced work world, older adults will usually opt for a cup of coffee or tea to get a jolt of caffeine. Younger workers are turning to energy drinks — and that could be destroying their health.

GUEST COLUMN 23 Randi Zuckerberg talks to 850 about Facebook, social media and how businesses can succeed.

I-10 78 Want to move your house or business?

Call on Ducky Johnson House Movers in Jackson County. By land and by water, they’re moving buildings across the country.

EMERALD COAST 82 Okaloosa County is making an extraordinary effort to encourage its young residents — from elementary to post graduate — to focus on the STEMM industries and prepare for high-paying jobs.

Special Section DEAL ESTATE

86 What’s trending, what’s selling and what’s hot to buy in the 850?

Find out here.

BAY COUNTY 2 015

B U S I N E S S

JO U R NA L

Special Report BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL Bay County economic developers and local officials are focusing their 37 attention on growing an entrepreneurial workforce, selling the major benefits offered by the county’s deepwater AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT

port and international airport and identifying sites ready for development.

JOBS OVERVIEW • EDUCATION • ENTREPRENEURSHIP • SITE DEVELOPMENT • PORT • SPORTS • TOURISM • DEMOGRAPHICS

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October – November 2015

850 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA

Vol. 8, No. 1

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER BRIAN E. ROWLAND

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Steve Bornhoft EDITOR Linda Kleindienst SENIOR STAFF WRITER Jason Dehart STAFF WRITER Chay D. Baxley CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lazaro Aleman, Rosanne Dunkelberger, Tisha Crews Keller, Rochelle Koff, Mary Leslie, Rebecca Padgett, Sandi Poreda EDITORIAL INTERN Casey Feindt PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan COPY EDITOR Barry Ray CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lawrence Davidson PRODUCTION MANAGER/NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR Daniel Vitter SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Saige Roberts ART DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Shruti Shah, Rebecca Sumerall ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Jillian Fry, Amanda Hartsfield CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Dave Barfield, Steve Beaudet, John Blackie, Matt Burke, Lawrence Davidson, Doug Dobos, Jennifer G. Photography, Drew Green Photography, Holly Gardner, Scott Holstien, Bill Lax, Kay Meyer, Bruce Palmer, Stephen Ramsey, Brian Rowland, Logan Stanford, David Wentzel, Chase Yakaboski SALES, MARKETING & EVENTS DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING McKenzie Burleigh Lohbeck DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS Daniel Parisi AD SERVICES COORDINATORS Tracy Mulligan, Lisa Sostre ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Bess Grasswick, Darla Harrison, Lori Magee, Rhonda Murray, Dan Parker, Will Patrick, Linda Powell, Paula Sconiers, Alice Watts, Brianna Webb SALES AND MARKETING ASSISTANT Christie Green EVENTS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Leigha Inman OPERATIONS CORPORATE CLIENT LIASON Sara Goldfarb STAFF ACCOUNTANT Robin Ballard ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT Tabby Hamilton ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Caryn Nelson RECEPTIONIST Lisa Snell

DIGITAL SERVICES DIGITAL SERVICES MANAGER Carlin Trammel DIGITAL SERVICES COORDINATORS Jennifer Ireland, Rebecca Padgett DIGITAL SERVICES PRODUCER Chelsea Moore 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE 850businessmagazine.com, facebook.com/850bizmag, twitter.com/850bizmag, linkedin.com/company/850-business-magazine ROWLAND PUBLISHING rowlandpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTIONS A one-year (6 issues) subscription is $30. To purchase, call (850) 878-0554 or go online to 850businessmagazine.com. Single copies are $4.95 and may be purchased at Barnes & Noble in Tallahassee, Destin and Pensacola and Books-A-Million in Tallahassee, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Pensacola, Panama City and at our Tallahassee office.

850 Magazine is published bi-monthly by Rowland Publishing, Inc. 1932 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308. 850/878-0554.

850 Magazine and Rowland Publishing, Inc. are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. Editorial contributions are welcomed and encouraged but will not be returned. 850 Magazine reserves the right to publish any letters to the editor. Copyright October 2015 850 Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Member of three Chambers of Commerce throughout the region.

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® 12 A ofVour attorneys r At e d are . among the lawyers nationwide that have received this honor from Martindale-Hubbell.

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FLOrIdA BAr BOArd certIFIed. FLOrIdA BAr BOArd certIFIed. While of eligible we have nine on staff in a variety of practice areas: F L only O r I6% dA B A r Florida B O A rlawyers d c eare r tboard I F I ecertified, d.

While only 6% of eligible Florida lawyers are board certified, we have nine on staff in a variety of practice areas: While only of eligible (4), Florida board we have nine Real Estate (4),6% Construction and lawyers Civil Trialare and Laborcertified, and Employment (1). on staff in a variety of practice areas: Real Estate (4), Construction (4), and Civil Trial and Labor and Employment (1).

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by Super Lawyers* Magazine in 2015.

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From the Publisher

The Walton County Commission: Reckless disregard for the economic future of Walton County I wrote the following column for publication in EC Magazine, whose circulation is concentrated (for now) in Okaloosa and Walton counties, but I find that it is appropriate, too, to the regional audience that 850 enjoys. The vote by the Walton County Commission to continue flying a Confederate flag at the courthouse in DeFuniak Springs will be seen not as a reflection on four individuals, but on our area as a whole. And we will remain tarnished until the action is reversed.

It is time that we all heed the post-war advice of Robert E. Lee and “obliterate the marks of civil strife and commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.” – B.R.

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Left unreversed, the regrettable decision regarding the flag, as county commissioners should have known, will have significant and deleterious ramifications for Walton County both as to its economy and its reputation.

Many will find the decision to continue to fly the Confederate flag more than 150 years after the Civil War to be unconscionable and inconceivable — particularly given recent events.

We are talking about a cultural moment that easily could affect Walton County for the next 20 years or more.

The senseless killing of nine participants in a Bible study at a Charleston, South Carolina, church by a lost soul who effectively draped himself in the stars and bars focused attention on the Confederate flag, around the country and throughout much of the world. In South Carolina, the Legislature, which 15 years ago had voted to merely reposition the Confederate flag at the state capitol, this time got it right.

Lawmakers voted to remove it. Immediately, organizations including the NCAA, which had avoided South Carolina given its flag stance, ended their boycott of the state.

Reasonable people can agree that the Confederate flag has a place in our history, but not in our present, not in our hearts. As a symbol, it is today inseparable from hatred and bigotry. It’s a swastika, a step backward.

For decades, Northwest Florida tourism officials, business people and residents have tried to live down the area’s reputation as the Redneck Riviera. That brand had faded, in large part because of a rebounding economy, progressive leadership and investment in the region by major corporations and smaller businesses. Then came the regressive vote by Walton commissioners, an action that restored “Redneck Riviera” to flaming crimson.

850businessmagazine.com

No collection of rebel flag wavers will emerge to make up for the revenue Walton County has lost and could lose owing to the commissioners’ vote.

Walton County likely can say goodbye to the African-American leisure and business market and to corporate meetings arranged by decision-makers who are sensitive to American ideals. And the ripple effect won’t stop there. All other things being equal, site selectors representing businesses looking for places to land will steer clear of a county seen to cling to the 19th century.

Consider, too, the sales tax revenue associated with that lost business, revenue which is used to build schools, roads and other public amenities and to maintain the high quality of life that people have come to expect. That lost revenue, then, is likely to equate to an increase in taxes.

Tallahassee Magazine, EC Magazine, 850 The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida and the entire portfolio of titles at Rowland Publishing urge the residential and business communities of Walton County to stand up and send a strong and unequivocal message to Sara Commander, Bill Chapman, Bill Imfeld and Cindy Meadows, the four commissioners who voted to send Walton County back to one of the saddest times in our nation’s history.

If they will not reverse their decisions — or have not already — then it will be time that Walton County voters fire them at the polls.

It’s the right thing to do.

BRIAN ROWLAND browland@rowlandpublishing.com

PHOTO BY SCOTT HOLSTEIN

It is late August as I write this and I hope that by the time you read this the Walton County Commission will have come to its senses and made the wise decision to remove the Confederate “Stars and Bars” flag from the lawn in front of the County Courthouse.

Left unreversed, the vote by four county commissioners to continue to fly the Confederate flag stands to affect every Walton County business and every resident of the county on every side of the issue.

Let’s take a dispassionate look at the consequences the flag decision could produce.

Tourism is the lifeblood of Walton County and produces 52 percent of the tax revenue collected by the county each year.

The flag vote triggered an almost immediate reaction by the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, which withdrew plans to hold its annual retreat at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa in 2016. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum decided not to attend this year’s retreat in Sandestin despite the significance of the gathering for Tallahassee’s business leaders and public officials.

The Chamber convention represents a quarter-million dollars in business to the host resort, alone. The Hilton, as a large brand, can absorb the loss, but it may be enough to affect employment levels at the Sandestin property and to have serious impacts on individuals.

Walton County is home to numerous small businesses that rely heavily on dollars brought to town by visitors. If tourism is affected generally by the flag flap, they may not have enough financial staying power to survive.

While BP dollars flowed into the county following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, there will be no “Stars and Bars Disaster Recovery Fund.”

LONG LIVE LOCAL SOLUTIONS

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Our solution was to create the custom Life Happens! Loan program at no cost to medical providers. With flexible terms and affordable interest rates, now more patients than ever can afford the care they need and deserve.

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850businessmagazine.com CURRENT ONLINE POLL

Social media guru Randi Zuckerberg in this issue suggests businesses learn how to make use of all the social media sites used by potential clients and especially keep track of the trends set by millenials.

Which social media platform will your business focus on to reach customers in 2016? a

The Pinnacle Awards luncheon at the LakeHouse at WaterColor Inn & Resort.

b c d e

THE 2015 PINNACLE AWARDS AND DAY OF DIALOGUE: WOMEN OF INTEREST Ten women of integrity and character were honored at the 2015 Pinnacle Awards. These leaders, mentors and community servants attended an intimate luncheon, which included inspiring speeches that led up to the presentation of awards to the Pinnacle honorees. The theme of empowering women continued at the Day of Dialogue: Women of Interest speaker series. U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and Florida A&M University President Elmira Mangum inspired and enlivened their audiences with stories of their professional accomplishments and personal triumphs. Our recap blogs will give you a glance at these events, which featured ladies in leadership.

850businessmagazine.com/Pinnacle-Awards/ 850businessmagazine.com/A-Day-of-Dialogue/

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Visit 850businessmagazine. com/polls/ to participate in our newest poll now.

CALENDAR EVENTS

Want to be in on the business buzz? Want to network and make connections in your area? Visit our Events calendar to learn about meetings, greetings, speakers, workshops and luncheons in the 850 region.

Visit 850businessmagazine. com/calendar/ to see upcoming events now.

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CONNECT WITH US …

No matter what device or social medium, we want to be a resource to you. Find 850 Business Magazine in all the best spots. And be sure to join our group on LinkedIn and engage with other business professionals in the area.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

Flip Books: View this issue and past issues in a digital book format.

Archived Stories: Peruse our vast archive of articles.

Deal Estate: View the latest real estate happenings and listings.

Restaurant Guide: Browse our listings of select Northwest Florida restaurants.

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PHOTO BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (PINNACLE AWARDS)

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Executive Mindset

Business Arena NEWS AND NUMBERS

Good News for Shopping Local As shoppers grab their wallets and purses to purchase goods and products for their families and homes, many will opt for local businesses and mom and pop establishments instead of their big-box competitors.

According to results from a national small business perception survey by Web.com, consumer concerns about the risk of online security and privacy may be the motivator behind this shopping behavior.

THE SOUTHEAST

IS HOT

The survey found that consumers are less concerned about security issues when it comes to shopping with small business retailers than large retailers. In fact, it found that consumers are more than twice as concerned about online security at large retailers (27 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS) than at small business retailers (12 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS).

Here’s a snapshot from the first quarter of 2015, comparing it to the same time period in 2014. »

The hottest industry in attracting new revenue?

Manufacturing. A majority, or

56%

of manufacturing business owners, report they have received more calls from private equity groups this year than last year — AS OPPOSED

nearly all consumers (97 PERCENT) now use online media when researching products or services in their local area, but more than half of businesses still don’t have a website. Another study conducted by Weebly found 56 PERCENT of consumers would not trust a business without a website. Another tip: Make sure customers can find you with a professional website that is optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

Housing statistics from the Florida Board of Realtors affirm that the single family housing market in Northwest Florida continues to improve, and prices are still rising.

AT LEAST 10 PERCENT GROWTH IN 2015.

,

Think your business doesn’t need a website? Think again! According to market researcher BIA Kelsey,

REAL ESTATE RISING

According to a new survey

by FourBridges Capital Advisors, business owners, investors and business advisors in the Southeastern U.S. expect businesses to register

TO ONLY 36 PERCENT OF NON-MANUFACTURING BUSINESS OWNERS. And

89%

of investors listed manufacturing as the industry they are most likely to target.

HOMES SOLD

INCREASE

MEDIAN PRICE

INCREASE

59,599

18.6%

$182,000

8.3%

CRESTVIEW/ FORT WALTON BEACH*

769

29.5%

$184,950

9.4%

PANAMA CITY/ LYNN HAVEN/ PANAMA CITY BEACH**

574

19.8%

$185,000

14.2%

PENSACOLA/ FERRY PASS/BRENT***

1,549

24.3%

$149,900

7.1%

TALLAHASSEE****

756

18.1%

$170,500

6.6%

FLORIDA

*Okaloosa County, **Bay County, *** Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, ****Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon and Wakulla counties

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Enjoy Life.

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2015.08.004 850 Business Magazine

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OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2015

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15

Executive Mindset

Bottom Line HOW TO AVOID A BUSINESS FAILURE

Staying

Alive Planning, adaptability are key to longevity in business

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

W

hen Shannon Bruzek and her business partner opened a blueprint service in Panama City four years ago, they looked like an ideal tandem.

Bruzek holds a business degree and had worked in construction as a project manager for a builder. She reads blueprints like Bernstein read sheet music. Her partner possessed on-point experience in producing blueprints.

But before the fledgling business could gain much traction, the partner dropped out, leaving Bruzek to go it alone. The difference between the two women likely is what Emmanuel Hernandez, an assistant professor of business and technology at Gulf Coast State College, calls “mindset.”

Hernandez, whose specialty is

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entrepreneurship, finds that businesses fail and entrepreneurs bail for one or more of three reasons.

“The business model may not be durable enough and proves unsustainable,” he says. “The founder of a business may make the mistake of trying to go it alone. Few people can make that work; building a business is a team sport.

“Or it may be that the would-be entrepreneur just didn’t have the right mindset.”

Whenever someone with a desire to start a business approaches Hernandez seeking consulting services, he screens the person by asking two fundamental and related questions: What do you really want to do? What makes you happy?

If the answers are consistent with business ownership, Hernandez drills

deeper to discover how risk-tolerant the person is and whether he or she is prepared to develop relationships with others in pursuit of the individual’s goals.

“If you’re thinking about opening a business because you don’t like the experience of selling yourself to employers, think again,” Hernandez advises. “You’re better off just finding a job.”

As a new business owner, Bruzek anticipated that profits would not come quickly. Fortunately, her husband’s income as an Air Force officer was enough to support the Bruzek household by itself. Her partner, however, couldn’t get comfortable with uncertainty. Confronted by a reality check, she recognized that she had to have a regular paycheck.

SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES » Don’t be the post office.

Develop a business model that works.

» Don’t go it alone. Pursue relationships with helpful people, even if you don’t like them.

» Know your costs.

Customers will feast on underpriced products or services.

» Maintain control of the “No business owner enjoys immediate financial success,” says Johnny Branch, a certified business consultant with the Small Business Development Center at the University of West Florida. “For six months to two years, you’ll be losing money. You’ve got to be able to sustain your business with savings or income from elsewhere.

“And if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up spending more money on marketing alone than you generate in sales.”

In combination, Branch and his Small Business Development Center cohort Len Eichler have worked more than 40 years as consultants to businesses young, old and unborn. In aspect, if not in effect, the two men bring to mind Laurel and Hardy.

Branch, the angular member of the pair, is the numbers guy. The more expansive Eichler, fittingly somehow, focuses not on pencil sharpening but on operations and marketing.

Each recognizes the other’s expertise as critical to a business.

“Sitting here right now,” Eichler comments admiringly, “Johnny can tell you if he made money today. Other

businesses don’t know until they get their monthly financials.”

Branch’s knack that way is the product of decades of experience. For 33 years, he has owned and managed a seemingly timeless Panama City drivein restaurant, Tally Ho, that was established in 1949.

“But even in my business, change is the only constant,” Branch has found.

“You’ve got to track your numbers. Are you achieving your goals or not? If not, take that business plan you wrote in pencil and change it.”

Assuming you have a business plan. Eichler encounters a surprising number of businesses that are “too much like the post office. They don’t have a plan — and they don’t have taxpayers to bail them out.”

Eichler concedes that business failure statistics — eight of 10 startups crash and burn within the first 18 months, according to Bloomberg — are sobering. But he says that if you could look only at those enterprises that launch with a good business model and solid management, the success rate would be impressively high.

checkbook. Some duties just can’t be delegated.

» Pay the civic rent.

Choose ways to be visibly involved in the community.

» Ask customers to

recommend you to others. Word of mouth never gets old.

» Respect change as

inevitable. Stagnation leads to fossilization.

» Don’t open a new

restaurant. Acquiring one with good numbers is a better bet.

» Understand your

business’s potential. And set goals accordingly.

» Adapt to your

employees. Work with them and they’ll help you succeed.

Sources: Johnny Branch and Len Eichler, Small Business Development Center, University of West Florida; Emmanuel Hernandez, Gulf Coast State College

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Hernandez notes that more than 60 percent of businesses hatched by incubator programs survive five years or longer.

A good business plan will distinguish a business from its competitors, Branch and Eichler agree. And good management requires an ability, Bruzek has learned, to not just tell customers what you do, but specifically what you can do for them.

Eichler draws upon lawn services as an example of a business that can be hard to sustain. The barriers to entry are slight, so a lot of people get in — and that makes arriving at a distinctive, competitive edge hard to do. Those that survive tend to develop customer relationships that others neglect.

“I see lawn services that arrive at a residence, cut and edge the lawn, blow off the driveway and leave without ever knocking on the customer’s door,” Eichler says. “You need to maximize your visit and enhance your reputation by doing more. There’s nothing that says a lawn service cannot wash windows or sweep off a roof.”

“Be a personable person,” Branch advises. “People like doing business with people they like.”

Bruzek gets that.

“I’m old school,” she says. “I’ve built my business based on word of mouth and approaching people and asking them to give me a chance. My father was a pharmaceutical sales rep for 40 years (back in the day when males were hired into such jobs), and he taught me the importance of doing right by your customers and making them feel appreciated.”

Bruzek’s business is modestly appointed, but it does offer a couch where contractors can and do take a load off while trading good-natured ribbings with Bruzek.

“The first few years were white knuckle,” Bruzek easily recalls. “From month to month, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pay my bills. But I told myself that the opposite of immediate gratification doesn’t have to be disappointment. I set weekly goals for myself and derived satisfaction from making them while maintaining a long-term perspective.”

Bruzek has cleared hurdles that trip many others. She has a part-time employee and plans to hire a second one soon.

Four years later, she has time for her.

“I can go to an appointment now,” she says. “The only frantic moment I experienced so far this year was when my accountant showed me my tax bill.”

Not that there is any opportunity to relax.

“You’ve got to have a change strategy,” Eichler stresses.

“Technologies change radically overnight. Given e-commerce, businesses today face international competition when a few years ago they just had to worry about the guy across the street.

“Just think, 10 years ago, 50 percent of the people in the world had never made a phone call. Now we’re hearing that in 2020, 80 percent of adults worldwide will have a smartphone.”

And at that, Eichler’s cell phone vibrates.

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Executive Mindset

Leading Healthy ENERGY DRINKS — HEALTHY OR HAZARDOUS?

THE DANGERS OF

Energy Drinks Doctors say these popular pick-me-ups can change the course of your health BY TISHA CREWS KELLER

I

f energy drinks had a doctor-prescribed warning label, it would read something like this: Product contains caffeine and may also include medicinal herbs. People with anxiety or psychiatric disorders, heart conditions and children should avoid their use. Avoid combining them with alcohol. Everyone in general and elderly people in particular should be cautious using them, especially if the person has a known history of fainting spells, lightheadedness, high blood pressure, diabetes or cardiac rhythm disorders.

Did you note the “everyone in general” statement?

Energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster and “shots” such as 5-Hour Energy are far more than just a quick pick-me-up — and certainly more complex than soda or a cup of coffee. As more and more patients are discovering, these concoctions may have longterm effects on your health.

“I would tell people to simply not drink them — ever,” advises a local physician.

He’s not alone. Doctors are becoming more and more concerned as the effects of these energy drinks compound at an alarming rate in America’s emergency rooms. Commonplace on the market, the products are unregulated.

Dr. Douglas Rigby, a pediatrician at White-Wilson Medical Center in Fort Walton Beach, has a real concern for those using energy drinks — especially the target population of young males.

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“As doctors, we’ve known for a long time that caffeine is a potent drug,” he warns. According to Rigby, doctors use caffeine to stimulate breathing in premature infants, and it can be very useful if used correctly. Unfortunately, most youth (and adults, for that matter) don’t know the dangers the common drug can pose.

MAXING OUT The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s studies show that beverages marketed as energy drinks have become a popular source of caffeine, with some brands containing the caffeine equivalent of one to three cups of coffee or cans of soda. While caffeine is the main active ingredient, energy drinks also include other ingredients that claim to boost physical energy or mental alertness, such as herbal substances, amino acids and sugars.

About 6 percent of adolescent and

young adult males in U.S. civilian and military populations consume energy drinks daily that can have negative side effects, such as caffeine intoxication, overdose, withdrawal and interactions with alcohol.

Rigby says the maximum recommended daily “dose” of caffeine is about 400 milligrams a day for adults.

When the total dose reaches 1,000 milligrams in one day, the toxic effects of the drug are real dangers, including tremors, seizure, kidney and liver problems. At 5,000 milligrams in 24 hours, caffeine is a lethal drug.

Typically, these drinks have anywhere from 200–400 mg of caffeine per container. By comparison, 8 ounces of coffee has 163 mg and one Diet Coke has 45. But many people don’t stop with just one energy drink, and they usually have other forms of caffeine that contribute to their daily total intake — and they reach dangerous levels quickly.

A main side effect of large amounts of caffeine and sugar can result in palpitations and a sensation of a racing heart.

“It seems that a cutoff of six cups of coffee a day is a threshold over which people might be at risk of developing arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or other abnormal rhythms,” says Dr. Farhat Khairallah, an electrophysiologist in Tallahassee. That could be as few as two cans of energy drink.

WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHES Another problem with energy drinks is how they are used. Most consumers are trying to amp up energy that’s lacking because of a sleep deficit — which has myriad effects on the body. Doctors warn that people should avoid using these drinks to prevent sleep when their body needs rest.

Many young people use them as sports drinks and for general hydration throughout the day. Khairallah believes this is a problem because caffeine, as a stimulant, can increase blood pressure and has diuretic properties.

That’s why he and other health professionals warn that you cannot consider drinking coffee or energy drinks as adequate hydration.

One of the main problems with energy drinks from a medical standpoint is how they are marketed. They are almost described as a health food, when in reality it’s more than just the caffeine that is worrisome. And because they are classified as “food products,” the FDA does not regulate them as they do medications.

The vitamins and herbal ingredients in energy drinks can have unintended consequences on health. For instance, taurine is an organic acid used in muscles and brain tissue — it’s one of the body’s building blocks. Too much, however, can be a bad thing.

Vitamin B-6 is another common energy drink component. While too

Photo by MATT BURKE

little B-6 causes neuropathy — a deficiency of peripheral (such as hand or foot) nerves that results in weakness and numbness — the inverse is also true. Too much B-6 in your diet also can cause neuropathy, and it may not be an easy fix.

“An ingredient like guarana has two times as much caffeine as coffee beans, and this is in addition to the ‘add-in’ caffeine that manufacturers list on the label,” Rigby points out. “Often, you can double the listed amount of caffeine to know how much you’re really getting.”

He sees patients of all ages, including a rising number of college-aged individuals, that have anxiety and other health problems that could be caused by energy drinks. As a result, Rigby tries to talk with all adolescent patients about energy drinks. Amazingly, he has seen patients as young as 6 or 7 who are already accustomed to the beverages.

“When you think about it, the 400 mg/day recommendation is for adults,” Rigby says. In the smaller bodies of children, these drugs — and their effects — are more concentrated and thus more dangerous.

These drinks may be linked to cognitive decline, seizures, sleep disturbances, mood disorders such as anxiety and anger, tremors and increased blood pressure — which could lead to a stroke at any age.

MIXING IT UP A simple Google search returns hundreds of recipes for energy drink cocktails, with chilling names such as “The All-Nighter,” “1.21 Gigawatts” and “1-2-3-Floor.” Parents of a Florida State University sophomore sued the makers of Four Loco in 2010 after he drank the high-alcohol malt beverage mixed with caffeine, taurine, guarana and carbonation — sometimes called “blackout in a can” — began acting erratically and accidently shot himself

to death. While Four Loco was banned for a time, it is back on store shelves after being reformulated to eliminate the stimulants.

Physicians have a special warning for mixing energy drinks with alcohol.

“Mixing these drinks with alcohol will have a definite increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias — specifically atrial fibrillation,” warned Khairallah. And adults beware: Older people are more susceptible.

Instead of the pharmaceutical pickme-up, Blueprint Health Studio owner and trainer Matt Staver has tips for naturally — and healthfully — waking up.

“Stretching and early morning workouts are good for increased blood flow,” he says. “And exercise increases our endorphin levels giving us sharpened focus and a burst of energy.”

In addition, Staver recommends chia seeds as an energy food and essential fatty acid boost, both of which put more pep in your step. Honey is also known as nature’s natural energy booster because it’s a great source of carbohydrates and is known for increasing endurance.

Glucose in honey is absorbed quickly by the body, which provides an immediate energy boost.

The long-term effects of an overuse of energy drinks are not yet known. It appears that more than one drink per day in a healthy individual may be too much, and the health consequences can be deadly if seizure or arrhythmia results. There is no lower age limit on the risk for these conditions, and young people often add in additional risk factors to their consumption.

Local physicians hope that energy drinks might one day be regulated as the pharmaceuticals that they really are — with interaction warnings, overdose symptoms and age limitations.

Until that day comes, they urge you — with great fervor — to leave them on the shelf.

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YOUR DOWNTOWN DISCOVERY BEGINS AT TALLAHASSEEDOWNTOWN.COM

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Executive Mindset

Business Speak

S HARING INSIGHTS TO SUCCESS

Randi Zuckerberg Rocks on Social Media

BY LINDA KLEINDIENST

PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRST COMMERCE CREDIT UNION

G

rowing up a die-hard New Yorker, Randi Zuckerberg could not imagine a situation that would take her away from her home — much less to California.

But that’s where she spent a decade, helping her brother launch and market Facebook.

Today, Zuckerberg, 33, runs her own social media company, Zuckerberg Media, giving advice to high profile clients such as PayPal, Conde Nast and Cirque du Soleil on how to best market themselves in the digital age. She is an angel investor, especially helping other female entrepreneurs, plays in a band, has written a book about her personal journey through the frontlines of Facebook and even starred in Rock of Ages on Broadway for a 42-show run.

“There have been so many forks in the road in my life. If you had told me I would spend a decade of my life living in the suburbs of California and working at a tech company, I would have laughed in your face,” she said. “But life is very funny. I still believe in luck, but a big element of luck is having your eyes open and not being stuck in your ways.”

On Nov. 4 Zuckerberg will be sharing some of her social media knowhow with Tallahassee as the next speaker in the Power Forward Series co-presented by First Commerce Credit Union and the Florida State University College of Business. 850 Magazine is proud to be among the sponsors of the event, and Editor Linda Kleindienst had a chat with Zuckerberg to get a preview of the message she plans to deliver.

Business and Social Media I host a radio show on SiriusXM (Dot Complicated) trying to help businesses adopt the latest trends. It’s about graduating from Social Media 101 to the next level where you are engaging more customers and bringing in substantial new business.

All companies need to view themselves as media companies, even if you’re a mom and pop, a pizza shop, a nail salon, a wedding planner. You need to think about whether you’re sharing interesting content, thinking a month ahead.

Businesses need to understand by using social media they have now become a global business and anyone can access them. So, are they sharing content that is acceptable to people who speak other languages? I often encourage them to share photos a lot more because photos don’t need a translation.

I also really encourage businesses to go look at their last 10 posts and see how many of them were strictly promotional.

If all of your posts are about 10 percent discounts or “Come to our sale,” no one is going to be engaged with that. You need to find a better balance. Social media is about having valuable content and adding to the discussion.

Social Media Versus Website If you manage your social media well, if you don’t mind being part of the dialogue and make your social media site good and current, you can get by in this day and age without having a website.

Coming Changes in Social Media We’re now at the point where almost all content online is via mobile, so what does that mean for business? Think about how customers are engaging. The new generation of consumers likes to share things more

Randi Zuckerberg is founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media. She created and ran the marketing programs for her brother Mark’s company, Facebook.

than buy. They don’t buy cars, they prefer experiences over material objects. So these are things businesses need to understand if they are going to be successful. It really is a very new world out there.

Facebook I knew that I was part of something that was really going to change the world and change how we communicate. That was very clear in the early days seeing how college students used it. What’s interesting is how Facebook has become a utility, like email. I see stories today about how Facebook is not cool and all the young people are switching to Snapchat. We never set out to be cool. We set out to be a utility that you need in your life. Seeing that 1 billion people in the world, across all age groups and ethnicities, are using Facebook shows me that they really have accomplished that goal.

Best Advice Don’t let the good stuff go to your head, and don’t let the bad stuff go to your heart.

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UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS

&

Change Challenge THE LEADERS OF FSU, FAMU AND UWF LOOK TO THE FUTURE

J

ohn Thrasher and Elmira Mangum are celebrating one year in their new roles — Thrasher as president of Florida State University and Mangum at the helm of Florida A&M University. And Judy Bense, president of the University of West Florida for seven years, is beginning her last year in the job.

For Thrasher and Mangum, it is their first time running a state university. And, for each, it has been a year of acclimating to a new life challenge while beginning to set an agenda for the future of their respective universities.

FSU and FAMU are at the center of some of the hottest new commercial, residential and cultural development in the region and play a big part in setting the vibe for the Tallahassee

community. Both have embarked on major capital campaigns to improve their campuses, their university offerings and the student experience.

Thrasher and Mangum have and are facing different challenges in their new posts, but both are determined to see their schools succeed.

They could take a page from Bense, who stepped into her role as UWF president direct from her faculty post and who has seen major expansions and improvements at her school during her tenure.

Since Northwest Florida’s three state universities are such an important element in the region’s economic future, 850 decided it was a good time to learn a little more about the presidents, the obstacles they have overcome and may still face, and their vision for the future of FSU, FAMU and UWF.

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INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS, LOFTY GOALS FSU PRESIDENT JOHN THRASHER SEEKS TO CREATE A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY SO STUDENTS CAN ‘PURSUE HOPES AND DREAMS’

BY LINDA KLEINDIENST

ON HIS 10TH DAY as president of Florida State University, John Thrasher received a call that would shake him to the core. Just after midnight on Nov. 20, 2014, former student Myron May had walked into Strozier Library and opened fire, shooting at seven and injuring two students and an employee before being gunned down by police.

It was “almost like an out-of-body experience. None of it made sense to me,” remembers Thrasher, who was in New York on a fundraising trip for the university. He was on a flight home six hours later.

Attending a campus vigil the evening of his return, the new president wasn’t sure what to tell the thousands of students who had gathered. But then his military training kicked in.

“When you have a fallen comrade, you pick up the pieces, you care about them, you pray for them and as a family you move on, you keep moving on,” he says.

In the following hours and days, Thrasher would show his mettle, calling for the “Seminole nation” to unite and reaching out to soothe a university community reeling with disbelief and grief. His confident demeanor, his resolution to return the campus to some sense of normalcy as quickly as possible, and his reassurances to students, their parents and staff are credited with quickly bringing a sense of calm back to the campus. Students and faculty who only weeks earlier had criticized his lack of academic credentials for the job were praising the new president for his leadership skills

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honed in the military and in the world of Florida business and politics.

“When he hung up that phone, he picked up his cell phone and called Delta,” remembers Thrasher’s wife, Jean, of that tragic morning. “He asked for an agent, calmly told her who he was and why he needed to urgently get home. She got us the first flight out of New York. By 10 a.m. he was in his office, getting more information and ready for a press conference. I’d describe him as a man of steel. He knows how to handle a crisis and how to carry through.”

PHOTO BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (THRASHER) AND COURTESY OF FSU PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES/BILL LAX (LIBRARY)

THE LURE OF FSU Thrasher, 71, was an ardent supporter of FSU during his days in the Florida Legislature, including his two years as speaker of the House of Representatives. Through the Legislature, he helped funnel millions of dollars to his alma mater, and in 2000, his final year as speaker, he bucked staunch opposition to help FSU establish a medical school that today bears his name.

As chairman of FSU’s Board of Trustees from 2001 through 2005, Thrasher helped raise outside dollars for the school and was part of the decision to expand the Atlantic Coast Conference to include schools like the University of Miami and Boston College.

“As I analyze this job, creating new opportunities for faculty and expanding research, it ultimately comes back to the student experience here.

What are we doing to make sure that every student who comes here has the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams?” — John Thrasher, FSU President

He had thought about applying to be FSU president after the retirement of Sandy D’Alemberte in 2003, but he was focused on his successful lobbying firm, Southern Strategies, and knew another former House Speaker, T.K. Wetherell, a friend and former president of Tallahassee Community College, was interested in the job.

“I hired (T.K.) after he left TCC. I kinda knew he wanted to do it, and I had some people thinking I should go for it then, too,” Thrasher said. “But I realized he was a better fit for it back then than I was. And then once Dr. (Eric) Barron got here (in 2010), I honestly thought he was going to stay for his career.”

But Barron left early, choosing after only four years to return to Pennsylvania State University, where he had worked from 1986 to 2006. That’s when Thrasher, representing St. Augustine in the Florida Senate, decided to go for what he describes as the job of a lifetime.

“FSU has always owned a piece of his heart, so it made perfect sense,” says Jean. “Florida State gave him a life he never dreamed of — an education, two degrees and an opportunity to succeed in great jobs.”

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Thrasher considered going to a small college in North Carolina, but then some friends urged him to consider FSU. “Darned if I didn’t get accepted,” he says.

Pausing, he chuckles and adds, “But I think back then if you had a pulse you could get in as opposed to today, where the kids coming here are really topnotch. It was a great four years.”

Leaving FSU in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in business, Thrasher went into the Army. He was awarded two Bronze Stars in Vietnam, where he served exactly 365 days, and left the service with the rank of captain.

He started law school at FSU four days after leaving Southeast Asia.

“As an undergraduate student, I was pretty average,” he concedes. “But in law school, I was pretty good. The difference?

Married The day after a and having been in the deranged man wounded three military. I had a lot of people in a shooting energy coming back the night of Nov. 20, 2014, Florida (out of Vietnam).”

State University President John Thrasher returned to campus to meet with students and the media to reopen Strozier Library.

MAKING HIS BID “So far, so good,” Thrasher says when asked how his relationship is with those on campus who opposed his appointment, opposition that truly surprised him with its intensity.

At times he found himself embroiled in a

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contentious battle to win the job — not so much with those who would make the ultimate decision (the university’s trustees and state Board of Governors) but with those on campus who questioned his conservative political leanings, his religious beliefs and his thoughts on scientific issues such as climate change. But Thrasher countered that his business ties and political acumen put him ahead of the other contenders when it came to the ability to raise money for the school, especially from donors needed to fuel the university’s $1 billion “Raise the Torch” capital campaign.

“It got a little personal sometimes,” Thrasher says. “I would see something written about me and it would say, ‘John Thrasher, Republican, chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign, 70 years old. I assume all those were intended to be negatives. But I love Florida State, and I think I have abilities that people maybe didn’t think about.”

His wife says that while there were challenges for Thrasher in applying for and getting the presidency, “We both believe people have the right to express their opinions.

I just had to remember they didn’t know John, didn’t know his heart.”

He now attends Faculty Senate meetings and has individual one-on-ones with faculty members. He knows there was concern, “but I think we’ve accomplished a FSU’s First Lady lot in terms of underJean Thrasher and President John standing each other, Thrasher serve what my strengths are the good stuff to a student during the and where I need their university’s annual help. And where I can President’s Ice Cream Social. give them help.”

After the decision to hire him was made by the state’s Board of Governors, the Thrashers spent their first night in the president’s house with a bottle of champagne.

“It had been a long and emotional road,” recalls Jean.

back and paralyzed, in his recovery. Ahmed went to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for treatment and is now back on campus.

“He’s paralyzed from the waist down, but we’ve done our best to make sure he has everything he needs to get started again and hopefully complete his degree,” Thrasher says.

Then came what he calls “the stuff” with athletics and the antics of quarterback Jameis Winston.

“It started as a joke at first and then almost became a reality, that the best day in the life of the president of FSU is when I didn’t hear from the athletic director,” Thrasher says now.

“I’m not going to talk a lot about it. Jameis is gone, and I wish him the very best.

Jameis is Jameis. He’s a charming young man in a lot of ways. Hopefully he’ll have the guidance and support he needs to survive in a very competitive environment, the National Football League. We wish him the very best.”

Through it all, Thrasher didn’t lose sight of his top priorities, which include getting FSU into the Top 25 public universities in the country, raising faculty salaries, building a world-class facility to house the College of Business and Dedman School of

WORK TO DO The first few months on the job weren’t a piece of cake for Thrasher. The Strozier shooting weighed heavily on everyone, and the university did all it could to help Ronny Ahmed, who was shot three times in the

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Hospitality — a project he wants to finish quickly — and making sure the university’s fundraising goal is met.

The campaign is already past two-thirds of the way to the $1 billion mark and Thrasher, conceding it’s a big job to raise that kind of money, is hoping it will finish by 2018.

As for reaching the Top 25, the Legislature helped FSU take a major step toward that goal by designating it and the University of Florida as the state’s two pre-eminent universities. By meeting the criteria set by the state for that designation, the school gets extra resources. This year, FSU met all 12 of the criteria.

“If you’re in the Top 25, it gives you the opportunity to recruit some of the best faculty,” says Thrasher, looking toward the future. “It also gives us an opportunity to recruit some of the best students.”

FSU currently has 42,000 students, and that number will likely not grow by much. This fall’s incoming freshman class had 5,000 students — who have an average 4.0 GPA and SAT score of 1863.

“These kids are bright, they’re smart and they want to be challenged,” Thrasher says.

He would like to see smaller size classes — the school is still trying to play catch-up

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FSU PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES/BILL LAX

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS 

from the recession by hiring more professors — and is looking for opportunities around the edges of the current campus for some expansion.

“For the big universities, we probably have the smallest footprint from The Thrashers the standpoint of available wave to land, but buying property is the crowd at the FSU very expensive. There is still Homecoming an intimacy about our camparade in November pus that I think others don’t 2014. have. I tell students, ‘Don’t be afraid of 42,000, the number. When you come here, you can shrink the campus by getting involved in some kind of service project or organization.’”

Meanwhile, there is the ongoing drive to make FSU an entrepreneurial university, commercializing research projects, attracting more research money, growing and enhancing the medical school.

Last year, FSU attracted the largest amount of research money in its history — $230 million — and Thrasher is reaching out to the National Science Foundation is see how to get more. The school is gearing its research to the STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and math), and a lot of that work is being done at Innovation Park, where the MagLab — the largest and highest-powered magnetic lab in the word — is bringing in scientists from across the country and around the world. During the last academic year, the commercialization of research coming out of the university resulted in seven start-up companies and “that’s a big deal,” Thrasher is quick to point out.

His predecessor dubbed FSU an “entrepreneurial university,” and Thrasher is committed to following through on that, adding that it will encourage more students to come to FSU who are interested in getting into business.

“Clearly it is something we embrace and support, and it’s not only been valuable to our College of Business but to our other schools and colleges because we have these entrepreneurs in residence who teach business concepts. We have them in 13 different schools now, and we’re going to try to add to that. We have kids who aren’t in the business area who still want to get out and create their own opportunities. So having that business knowledge is very important, and

we want to give everyone that opportunity,” Thrasher says. “Hopefully we’ll do more as we get the resources.”

There is also another, more personal goal that Thrasher has set for FSU. He wants his school to be known as the most veteranfriendly university in the country. There is already an effort to encourage veterans to come to Tallahassee.

“We’re letting them know that if they come to FSU, they’ll have a unique opportunity to use their experience, not only for themselves but as mentors of other students,” Thrasher explains. “To me, veterans who come here are uniquely qualified to make a difference in the lives of a lot of our kids. And we want to make sure they have every opportunity to pursue their goals, whether in military service or the private sector.”

The university is already working on improving the veterans’ center. And before every graduation, there is a dinner at the president’s house honoring veterans — and giving them a special cord to wear for their graduation.

ON CAMPUS Thrasher smiles when talking about the job of assuming the mantle as FSU’s 15th president. Perhaps it’s the politician in him who

loves the meet and greet, the handshaking and small talk with the small groups of prospective students touring campus, or current FSU students just walking around campus or attending organization meetings.

“As I analyze this job, creating new opportunities for faculty and expanding research, it ultimately comes back to the student experience here,” he says. “What are we doing to make sure that every student who comes here has the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams?

“So I get out a lot on campus, and I feel like that’s resonating. They want to have someone they can pick up the phone and call or email or text. I’m trying to be that person for them, so if they have something they need I can help them with it. The kids want to see the president, touch him, know what he’s about.”

Thrasher says the biggest reward of his job is knowing that he and the university have done something to get the students to a point in their lives where they are going to go out and change the world in many different ways.

“They’re going to do things for our community, for our state, for our country,” he says. “To me, that’s the ultimate thing that makes this job so incredible.”

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THE CHANGE AGENT ELMIRA MANGUM: FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY’S ‘TRANSFORMATIVE’ PRESIDENT’

BY ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY’S 11th president hadn’t even hung the curtains in her on-campus residence when controversy came a-knockin’. On April 2, 2014, Elmira Mangum’s second day on the job, the Florida Legislature, at the behest of one Sen. John Thrasher, was considering whether to break up the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

The effort was ultimately sidelined by the state Board of Governors after vehement objections from Florida A&M and a study showing that splitting the engineering college would cost $1 billion.

Mangum said there are no hard feelings between her and Thrasher — now president of Florida State University — about what she referred to as “the engineering thing.”

“Surprises occur at colleges everywhere, but right now we have a great relationship with Florida State University around the engineering program,” Mangum said. “The joint college that was emphasized as a result of the takeover attempt . . . actually has resulted in a much better relationship for both of the schools around engineering.”

The two presidents, as well as Tallahassee Community College President Jim Murdaugh, communicate with each other cordially and regularly.

“We talk. He’s got my cell, I’ve got his cell,” she said. “John and I have breakfast on occasion. I’ve been to his house for dinner, and he’s coming to mine for dinner.”

TIME FOR A CHANGE While the engineering college brouhaha developed quickly, Mangum knew before she arrived that her tenure as president wasn’t necessarily going to be smooth sailing. The

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PHOTO BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (MANGUM) AND COURTESY OF FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY (INAUGURATION)

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS 

nation’s premier historically black college and university (HBCU) had been weathering numerous storms: a student killed in a hazing scandal, accreditation woes and a 27- percent drop in enrollment over the previous five years. She would be FAMU’s sixth president (including three interim presidents) in 13 years.

Although many of her predecessors were tasked with righting the FAMU ship, their presidencies tended to wreck on the rocky shoals of problems such as dysfunctional operations, an often-contentious Board of Trustees and an entrenched staff that was resistant to change.

But a change agent was exactly what FAMU’s presidential search committee was looking for, and change is what they got in Mangum. She’s the first female president of FAMU in its 128-year history and the first leader in decades to have no connection to the university — alumni, faculty member or administrator — before being appointed to the top position. In her first year as president, Mangum assembled an 11-person leadership team. None of them worked for FAMU when they were named, and only two had a previous connection to the Rattler Nation.

Her 28-year-long professional career has been in higher education administration. According to FAMU’s official site, she was vice president for planning and budget at Cornell University, charged with managing that

“Planning and budgeting has always been a significant part, in fact at its core, to any good university.

One of the things that I immediately realized at Florida A&M was that we needed more emphasis on planning for the longer term.” — Elmira Mangum, FAMU President

university’s resources and annual budgeting process. Before that, she spent nine years in administrative positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as stints at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Wisconsin.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in geography and education from North Carolina Central University, an HBCU. She earned two master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy from SUNY Buffalo.

When asked to describe her leadership style, she answered, “I would say transformative. It’s always been about change. I think it’s indicative of the work I’ve been doing throughout my career.”

In her time at Cornell, “the idea was to change the way they were conducting the business,” she explained. “And I think here at Florida A&M, part of my budgeting and planning background is about transforming the institution into one that will sustain and be sustainable through various economic downturns and changes in enrollment and crises . . . to build on the foundation and to transform it into one that is responsive to changes in institutional needs and changes in societal needs for education.”

Mangum has an answer for those who would suggest we live in a post-racial society, and the need for separate HBCUs is a relic of the past.

“I think anybody that wants to say that is not paying attention to what’s going on in America — or the rest of the world, in fact,” she said. For starters, FAMU’s student body isn’t all African-American; about 15 percent of its students are other races. “We’re probably as equally diverse as Florida State, or the University of Florida; it’s just flipping the percentages.”

The world, Mangum said, is looking for diversity in the workforce.

“We need to have diverse experiences and we need to take into consideration diverse points of view in different cultures,” she said.

Dr. Elmira “Our goal is to add more Mangum receives people to that diversity. congratulations from her three We know when (graduchildren during ates) leave our instituher inauguration as Florida A&M tion, they’re going to University be in a diverse society president. . . . but they have to be trained somewhere.”

After arriving, Mangum’s first task was recruiting a stable leadership team. FAMU had a valid strategic plan, she said, but constant changes at the top and a cavalcade of interim leaders kept the university from making progress.

“Planning and budgeting has always been a significant part, in fact at its core, to any good university,” she said. “One of the

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WHAT’S IN A NAME? 

FAMU’s president’s first name is Elmira, with an “m” in the middle. Not to be confused with Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark, or the one who set the Oak Ridge Boys’ heart “on fira.”

Her last name is Mangum, not to be confused with the gun, Derek Zoolander’s facial expression or Tom Selleck’s television series. The easiest way to remember how to pronounce it is to think of the word “mango,” substituting “gum” for the last syllable.

things that I immediately realized at Florida A&M was that we needed more emphasis on planning for the longer term.”

An early focus was “stabilizing the team and reorganizing the functions of the institution . . . and that meant relocating people in terms of physical location to create the synergy that’s needed to provide the support,” she said.

Already, student advising services have been consolidated in a single location, important on a campus where 35 percent of students are the first generation of their family to attend college.

“Part of our advising, part of our freshman first-year experience in classes, is providing them with the information they need to create a path to graduation,” Mangum said.

In her early days as president, Mangum created the FAMU Sustainability Institute and hired an executive director.

“It is designed to not only provide us with information about how to use less energy or decrease our footprint in terms of a university as a whole with energy savings, but also to commit the faculty across the variety of colleges and schools to sustainability,” she said.

THE STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY Getting students graduated in a reasonable amount of time is critical to the university’s success.

“And reasonable to me is four years if you are in a four-year program,” the president said. Currently, the FAMU’s four-year graduation rate is 13 percent, the lowest in Florida’s university system, and the six-year rate is only 40 percent.

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In the past, Florida universities were funded using a formula based on student population.

“In order for the institution to maintain its level of operation, it had to bring in a lot of students that did not meet what we had as minimum requirements because we needed it to get the funding from the state, and so we packed in the students because the funding was based on FTE (full-time equivalent),” she explained.

Now, funding is based on 10 metrics related to student performance and student success, and FAMU currently ranks dead last in the state university system. Mangum said she is not as concerned about boosting FAMU’s enrollment as she is with attracting quality students “to make sure that we have the quality on the input side so we know they come out on the end in terms of graduation rates.”

Another goal to improve FAMU’s standing is attracting grants to the university, which would allow the faculty to get out of the classroom to do research.

“Our (teaching) course load is four sections per semester . . . and that’s twice as high as most other institutions,” she said.

When asked what she would tell the parents of a National Merit Scholar to encourage their child to attend FAMU, here’s what Mangum had to say: “A student that comes to Florida A&M University comes to first of all the seat of Florida; there are all kinds of opportunities.

The student body is small enough for you to get individual attention, you get to work with faculty who are (on) the cutting edges of research if you want to, but you also have the opportunity to major in anything that you want to. We’ve got science, technology, engineering, math. We’ve got life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences. We’ve got theater, we’ve got arts. We have competitive sports teams (with) five championships this year in our conference. It’s a great place to come and to study, to learn, to make friends for life . . . many people meet the love of their life out here on our set.”

AT HOME WITH DR. MANGUM Mangum is the first president to live in FAMU’s official presidential residence since Frederick Humphries stepped down in 2001.

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It got an update before she arrived, and “it’s a pleasant place to live; it’s not too big that you get overwhelmed and think you’re living in an institution,” she said. It’s also very homelike for her because, “out of necessity,” the house is filled with her personal furniture.

“Everything in there is mine and it’s all modern,” she explained. “I spend more time on what I call ‘my side’ — the smaller spaces — unless I have guests.” Receptions and dinners are held on the “public side” of the house, often utilizing the home’s four patios.

Off campus, Tallahassee has made the newcomer feel welcome.

“Everybody’s nice everywhere I go,” she related. “The wonderful thing about that Southern hospitality . . . it is here. It’s not a big-city kind of place. It’s a community, and you feel community.”

Mangum has three adult children, all settled along the East coast. “They are livin’ life; they’re all launched,” she said.

Her oldest son was an executive with a health care firm and recently graduated with an MBA. Her daughter is in her second year of residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and her youngest son, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina, is going to be working for the city of Chapel Hill in its parks and recreation department.

“They’re good people . . . that’s what I raised them to be . . . and they have decided to be successful too,” Mangum said. “I’m very excited; I’m very proud of all of them.”

Mangum made the ultimate expression of maternal love in 2003 when she donated a kidney to her oldest son, Gregory Frank Daniel Jr. He was diagnosed with a form of kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, when he was a young teen. She had been screened, so when his kidneys failed after his first year of college, “it was something I was going to do; it wasn’t even a question.” She acquired a small scar from the experience, as well as a mission to promote organ donation.

“I encourage people to, on their license, be donors,” she said. “Especially because, in the African-American community, we don’t (often choose) to be a donor. Many times the matches don’t occur for people of color because we aren’t large on the donor list, so people wait a long time for transplants.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS 

The only family member sharing her home is Pearl, her part-pit bull, part-boxer “designer dog.” A favorite activity is visiting Cascades Park.

“I walk there practically every time I have a free moment,” she said. “I like to be in places where you can get the serenity of watching water flow.” But it’s difficult to travel incognito when she’s walking Pearl.

“Every time I went, I put my hat on and my sunglasses and everybody would still know it was me because they knew I had a dog,” she said with a smile.

In addition to walkabouts, Mangum says she also enjoys the Saturday Downtown Market, flea markets and “the small businesses that are scattered about the city.”

She has found a church home at Jacob Chapel Baptist Church on Lake Bradford Road, pastored by the Rev. O. Jermaine Simmons.

“I love that church. I do,” she said.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD Those in the know say Mangum is a highly intelligent and effective administrator but, while affable and pleasant, she isn’t much of a schmoozer — which may have gotten her

off on the wrong foot with FAMU Board of Trustees members, who nearly voted to give her a written reprimand in June for her leadership style and lack of communication.

But Mangum has friends in high places, as evidenced by a letter sent to Florida’s Board of Governors that was signed by five Florida legislators, all FAMU graduates. They said they were “deeply troubled” by the trustees’ actions and asked that the governing body of the state university system determine

whether the group had overstepped its authority by going beyond policy decisions and injecting itself into the daily operations of the university.

Mangum shows The legislators had parher Rattler pride ticular criticism for Chairspeaking at Fenway Park man Rufus Montgomery, (above) in April an Atlanta businessman and consults with a student appointed by Gov. Rick researcher (left).

Scott, saying his “abrupt and ongoing challenges to her leadership are bordering dangerously close to bullying.”

Over the first year of Mangum’s presidency, the amount of money raised and number of alumni donating to their alma mater has increased. Mangum sees a major fundraising effort in FAMU’s future and recently hired a new vice president for advancement and development, who will be tasked with planning a campaign.

“I’m excited about that,” she said. “We are going to be chasing quality, and in order to do that we need our alumni to participate.

They have embraced the changes and understand the need for us to make changes in the institution and our approach.”

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A PRESIDENT AND A SCHOLAR JUDY BENSE SET THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ON A COURSE FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS

BY LINDA KLEINDIENST AND MARY LESLIE

JUDY BENSE, PRESIDENT of the University of West Florida, seamlessly jumps from discussing 2,000-year-old villages and Spanish colonial settlements to conversing about Pensacola’s emerging cybersecurity sector and Northwest Florida’s aim to become a tech industry leader.

Some might say it is more than appropriate that the head of an educational institution like UWF has an insatiable inquisitiveness, a trait she has had as long as she can remember.

“I have always had a natural interest and curiosity about how things have come to be the way they are,” she said. “I was interested in history; I was interested in geology; I was interested in natural science.”

An anthropologist by training, she is known for her contributions to the field of archaeology, a branch of anthropology, having founded the Anthropology/Archaeology program at UWF, established UWF’s Archaeology Institute and founded the Florida Public Archaeology Network.

As president of UWF, she is known for putting a recognizable face on the Pensacolabased school, which struggled for years to establish its own identity in a higher education system dominated by the likes of the University of Florida and Florida State University.

Her goal as president was to make UWF a university that served the needs of Pensacola and surrounding areas in Northwest Florida. And that she has done in spades.

Her one remaining major goal is to ensure that her school wins accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and

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UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA AND JOHN BLACKIE (COMMENCEMENT)

Schools, one of 11 regional accrediting agencies in the country. To do that, she asked for only an 18-month extension of her contract, which now ends in December 2016.

“There are things that need finishing up,” said Bense, 70, who became UWF’s fifth president on July 1, 2008. “We are at the 11th-and-a-half hour. We’re doing fine, but the fat lady didn’t sing yet.”

All that’s keeping UWF from getting accreditation — which will help in its quest for federal research dollars and reaffirm the school’s academic reputation — is a description of credentials for a part-time instructor. And that’s already been taken care of and submitted.

Bense is proud of much that has been done while she has been president.

“We have more focus on making our community better,” she said. “Now we’re beginning to make Northwest Florida better in an economic and academic way.”

RELUCTANT RECRUIT Although she has served as UWF’s president for seven years, Bense has been a part of the university family for more than three decades, having served as the director of the Archaeology Institute for two of them.

With the support of her faculty peers, Bense became acting president (after saying “no” five times) and then was given the permanent appointment. Asked what her vision was, she harkened back to the school’s 1963 mission statement and replied, “To be the University of West Florida, not the Harvard of the South.”

One of her first jobs was to improve the school’s public relations.

“The culture of the university was old school, ivory tower. The atNo stranger titude was, ‘Leave us alone to the lectern, and let us teach,’ ” Bense Judy Bense was a longtime said. “That was fine in the faculty member ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, but in the at UWF before 1990s people started to ask becoming president. what we were doing. We were the best-kept secret in Pensacola. We had to keep our nurturing nature but at the same time become part of the community. In a regional university, you need to have a bunch of programs that help the community.”

She also knew that as one of the state’s smallest public universities it would need community support to counteract any challenge to its very existence.

“Who’s going to save this university? The community. It was important to our survival,” she said.

AN EVOLVING UNIVERSITY In 1980, UWF had 5,300 students. Today it has 12,607. One-third of those students take classes online.

Part of UWF’s success has been in its nurturing of online education, which was made possible in large part by the early

“We have more focus on making our community better. Now we’re beginning to make Northwest Florida better in an economic and academic way.”

— Judy Bense, UWF President

connection of the city and the school to the Lambda Rail, a high-speed broadband service used by government and higher education. Close to 20 percent of students are taking courses in the health care field — because that’s what the community asked for. Bense helped boost athletics and championed the call for a football team — which she calls a “no-brainer” that is 20 years overdue — that will kick off its first season in the fall of 2016. Under her leadership, UWF formed alliances with the University of South Florida, the University of Florida, Stetson and Florida State University to establish innovative degrees, such as doctoral programs for nurse practitioners and physical therapists. (And most of those students return to work in the Northwest Florida community.)

When Bense took over as president, UWF had three colleges. Now it has six, having just added a College of Health in August.

Its marine biologists continue to monitor the effects of the 2010 oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico, and UWF is home to some of the most respected economists in the state. The university is also responsible for the Florida Virtual Campus, a $20 million, K-20 online program given to it by the state because of its long history with online education.

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UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS 

“We’re ahead of everyone in the state on how to do it right,” Bense said.

Looking at UWF’s accomplishments and evolution with Bense at the helm is evidence of some early advice she received.

“Be in a hurry,” she said. “Don’t let grass grow under your feet. Hard work wins out, even in academics.”

EARLY YEARS Bense first went to work when she was 14, stocking shelves and sweeping the floor at the local McCrory’s five and dime store in Panama City. Her parents would make sure she and her brothers (including former state House Speaker Allan Bense) read as much as possible, and she was “always reading books.”

She got a subscription to National Geographic magazine from her aunt early in elementary school and remembers being fascinated by what she read, often on the long bus rides to and from school. Going on vacation to state historical parks with her family helped foster her interest in the differences in how generations of people lived.

Although her ultimate goal was to “go to Egypt and dig up mummies,” Bense said she realized it would take an Ivy League education and cost thousands of dollars to become a low-paid Egyptologist, so she relinquished the pursuit.

“I haven’t been to Egypt yet,” she said, “but yes, it’s on my bucket list.”

In the 1960s, there weren’t many archaeology programs that accepted women, but Bense found one at Florida State University in Tallahassee. After attending FSU, she

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learned that potential archaeological sites in Pensacola were both untouched and well preserved — a rarity, considering that there aren’t many places in the United States that are relatively undisturbed.

“There is more preserved here,” she said, pointing out that such places as Miami, Tampa and Orlando have lost a lot of archaeological artifacts to bulldozers and development.

“So instead of being at another university and traveling here in the summer to do research, I decided to come here, start a program and do research in my own backyard.”

After more than three decades spent in her field of study, Bense has seen many changes and advancements, but none more dramatic than the way technology has affected archaeology, specifically the computerization of data. Everything, she said, is counted and classified.

“The way we are like detectives, the way we draw conclusions, is by seeing patterns in the data,” she said. “You can make deductions as to who was living where.”

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THE NEXT STAGE While it is apparent that Bense loves her role and the opportunities it provides, her eyes still light up when she talks about archaeological projects and how she is continually surprised by what is uncovered and what it feels like to be the one who makes the find.

“When no one else has seen (an artifact) for hundreds or thousands of years, no one seeing it or knowing it was there, it is a magical feeling,” she said. “It’s the thrill of discovery, and what we really do in the academic world is discover.”

After her term as president ends in 2016, Bense sees herself returning to her first love.

“I never really wavered from archaeology.

I was good at it,” she said with a smile.

She has an unfinished book to work on, pulling together her research on Florida’s early Spanish period (1500s to late 1700s).

“I have the academic responsibility to pull it all together and connect the dots,” she said. She adds that work on the book will begin “once I get rested.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA AND MATT-MARRIOTT (TENNIS)

Archaeology has taken Bense all over the world, from Russia to Spain. And she learned how to read hieroglyphics.

The so-called “wine cooler” was one of her (Above) The University of West more remarkable finds Florida defeated in Pensacola. Bense and Hawaii Pacific University during her UWF team discovthe 2014 NCAA ered a circular hole Division II Men’s Tennis Championship, that had been excavatwinning 5-3 to ed deep into the water take the individual national title. (Below) table in downtown President Bense Pensacola; it contained congratulating a a frame of small logs graduating senior. that held a nearly intact wine bottle. Nothing of its kind had ever been found before, and archaeologists believe that the hole was not a water well but rather a sort of cooler, similar to a root cellar. Based on her research, she believes that this storage compartment belonged to, and may have been constructed by, Spaniard Luis de Ullate in the 1750s and is very likely the oldest “wine cooler” in all of Spanish Florida.

The archaeology profession is still today very male-dominated, as is the role of university president. In fact, said Bense, the issue of the stagnant percentage of female university presidents is one that has come up at presidential conferences she has attended.

BAY COUNTY 2 015

B U S I N E S S

JO U R NA L

AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT

JOB S OVE R VIE W • EDUCATION • ENT R EP R ENEU R S H I P • SI T E D E V E LO PM E N T • P O R T • SP O R TS • TO U R I S M • D E M O GR A P HIC S

EVEN THREE WISHES WON’T GET YOU WHAT YOU WANT.

That is, if what you desire is an office that runs efficiently and technology that gives you the power to work wonders. Because when it comes to a smooth running operation, magic just doesn’t cut it.

For technology that powers your business, call your local RJ Young representative at 800.347.1955 or visit us online at RJYoung.com.

Your productivity is our mission.

2 / 2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

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4 Jobs Overview In seeking

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER BRIAN E. ROWLAND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Steve Bornhoft EDITOR Linda Kleindienst SENIOR STAFF WRITER Jason Dehart STAFF WRITER Chay D. Baxley

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PANAMA CITY BEACH CVB/STEVE BEAUDET (PADDLEBOARDING) AND CITY OF PANAMA CITY/DOUG DOBOS (MARINA)

PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lawrence Davidson PRODUCTION MANAGER/NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR Daniel Vitter ART DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Jillian Fry, Amanda Hartsfield SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING McKenzie Burleigh Lohbeck DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS Daniel Parisi AD SERVICES COORDINATOR Lisa Sostre ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Bess Grasswick, Darla Harrison, Lori Magee, Rhonda Murray, Will Patrick, Dan Parker, Linda Powell, Paula Sconiers, Alice Watts, Brianna Webb SALES AND MARKETING ASSISTANT Christie Green

a competitive economic development advantage, Bay County officials asked themselves what separates Bay from its competitors. Their answer: an outstanding capacity for aviation and logistics businesses.

7 Education Hoping to replicate the success of a community betterment initiative in Nashville, CareerSource Gulf Coast Executive Director Kim Bodine has spearheaded the formation of a coalition of prominent Bay Countians focused on student achievement.

8 Entrepreneurship

Gulf Coast State College is home to the Millaway Institute for Entrepreneurship. FSU-Panama City hosts the Business Innovation Center. The presence of two business incubators in Bay County attests to the importance of small business to the local economy.

12 Site Development The

City of Panama City has traded complacency for a commitment to growth. Not even City Hall will stand in the way of progress. Officials plan to move City Hall and maximize its current location for commercial development.

15 P ort Warehouses are full at

Port Panama City, which has seen yearly growth averaging 8 percent for the past 15 years.

Leading the way, Cargill Steel & Wire and Berg Steel Pipe Corp., have combined to move more than 400,000 tons of product this year.

18 S ports Panama City Beach,

building upon its reputation as a regional draw for baseball and softball tournaments, is excited about a public-private partnership that aims to bring about an added world-class sports village in the Breakfast Point neighborhood.

20 T ourism The tourism industry is enjoying a banner year on Panama City Beach just months after Spring Break headlines threatened to tarnish the destination’s reputation. The weather, the economy and events all have helped.

23 D emographics COVER PHOTOS: Scott Holstein (Port) and Courtesy of Panama City Beach CVB/Stephen Ramsey (Captain Anderson’s) and Bay Economic Development Alliance (reception) and Panama City Chamber of Commerece (Airport)

rowlandpublishing.com | facebook.com/RPIcreative

2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 3

JOBS OVERVIEW

FOCUSING ON AVIATION Airport is a major selling point for Bay Economic Development Alliance

By Linda Kleindienst

B

ecca Hardin would love to score home runs, but right now she is completely happy with getting singles and doubles in her efforts to help Bay County’s future economic development.

“We had to reevaluate what makes sense for our county,” she explained. “The big projects are few and far between. So for the past year we’ve focused our marketing efforts on what makes us different. Our key focus now is on aviation and logistics.”

Hardin, who took over as president of the Bay Economic Development Alliance in January 2015, has spent a lot of time on the road going to trade fairs and international air shows and meeting with aviation company leaders. The EDA has even hired an aviation consultant to help set up one-onone meetings, especially with those companies that focus on aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul.

“We’ve got great project activity targeting the airport that could range from 100 to 500 employees,” Hardin said. “People are starting to know us. We have an airport with a 10,000-foot runway and a port with access to Cuba. We tell people all the time that economic development is a marathon, not a sprint. And the increase in activity tells us we are gaining traction.”

Opened on May 23, 2010, Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport has a runway long enough to accommodate the world’s largest cargo and passenger planes and has long been considered one of the county’s biggest economic development assets. The airport is surrounded by a 1,000acre commerce park, VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre, which is owned by The St. Joe Company and offers direct runway access to tenants.

“We have sites and facilities to accommodate a variety of projects,” said Jorge

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Bay County economic development officials remain optimistic that the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, opened in 2010, will be a significant jobs generator.

Gonzalez, St. Joe’s senior vice president for development. “We support Becca’s strategy.

A sequence of well-placed singles can score runs as well as one homer.”

The recession and the Gulf oil spill hindered the commerce park’s early development, but ITT Exelis is leasing a 105,000-square-foot commercial facility that includes office and manufacturing operations.

“They were looking to expand and possibly leave the state,” Gonzalez said. “We ended up making a case for them to stay and expand in Bay County.”

This fall, Edge Aerodynamix, a pioneer in the aviation industry, is expected to get the go-ahead from the FAA to test and manufacture at the airport a new product designed to improve fuel efficiency, creating about 120 new jobs.

While there were expectations that the airport would immediately attract a host of

new companies to the area, Gonzalez says St. Joe takes a more long-term view of the commerce park’s development.

“We’re still optimistic about what the airport might bring to the area, but it takes time,” he said. “Several hundred acres have been master-planned, and the infrastructure is in place. There has been a lot of interest but, like always, it’s a matter of finding the right match at the right time.”

This summer, the EDA moved its offices onto the campus of Gulf Coast State College and into a building it shares with CareerSource Gulf Coast, forming a new economic development center of excellence that Hardin said will foster stronger partnerships to promote Bay County’s economic future.

“We’re creating synergies to show our community is focused on growth,” she said.

“This is the first time there is a concerted effort showing that everyone in this community wants to do great things.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF BAY COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERECE AND ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE ST. JOE COMPANY

The Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in West Bay is surrounded by a commerce park owned by The St. Joe Company. Securing tenants, says St. Joe’s senior vice president for development, Jorge Gonzalez, involves finding the “right match at the right time.”

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LET’S THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, BUT NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL ...

FORMED TO MEET THE LOCAL CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING NEEDS OF THE SOUTHEAST, OUR EXPERIENCED STAFF OF MULTIPLE ENGINEERS, DESIGNERS, TECHNICIANS AND SUPPORTING PERSONNEL PROVIDE PROMPT, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. OUR EXTENSIVE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE HAVE MADE US UNIQUELY CAPABLE OF UNDERTAKING AND COMPLETING SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS FOR OUR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CLIENTS. © 2012 The St. Joe Company. Neither The St. Joe Company nor its affiliates developed the Wild Heron community but simply purchased homesites for resale. No guarantee is made that proposed recreational areas, amenities, homesites and other features will be provided or that, if provided, the number, type, size and location will be as depicted on this plan. Access to and rights to use recreational areas and amenities may be restricted. Shark’s Tooth Golf Club and its facilities including the tennis center are a private club owned by The St. Joe Company and subject to membership documents which may change without notice. This is not intended to be an offer to sell real estate. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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E D U C AT I O N

ALIGNMENT BAY COUNTY

Initiative seeks to secure the future

B

ay County Superintendent of Schools Bill Husfelt grew up in a singleparent household with his mother and two brothers in a public housing project.

“But every one of my friends came from intact, traditional middle-class families,” Husfelt recalls, “and that made for a supportive environment. I was part of a good village.”

Times have changed.

“You go to Jinks Middle School or Bay High School today and you’ll find that a two-parent household that is secure financially is the exception, not the rule.”

Children need more support than they are getting at home and schools, alone, cannot make up the shortfall. The community, Husfelt says, needs to get involved.

So it is that Husfelt is encouraged by the emergence of a new initiative, Alignment Bay County, a coalition of schools, businesses and agencies that seeks to improve achievement by all Bay County students and to increase community and family involvement in schools. Inspired by the success of a similar project in Nashville, the Bay County version has been spearheaded by Kim Bodine, the executive director of CareerSource Gulf Coast.

In Bodine’s estimation, the very sustainability of the community is at stake.

“At the rate the county is going,” she It takes a village. says, “we may not A coalition of produce and retain educators, businesses and public enough human agencies is working capital to survive.” to stimulate more Alignment Nashcommunity and family involvement ville comprises teams in schools in Bay that relate to goals.

County.

A Pre-Kindergarten Team, for example, is dedicated to ensuring that all students are readied for their first day of school. It aggressively encourages parents and pre-K

By Steve Bornhoft

educators to employ a Web-based curriculum that builds vocabulary and familiarizes children with colors, shapes and letters.

All of that resonates with Husfelt and Lynne Eldridge, executive director of the Northwest Florida Early Learning Coalition.

“I had a conversation with a kindergarten teacher on the second day of school who told me about students who could not identify a purple pencil and had no idea what a glue stick is,” Husfelt says.

Eldridge is convinced that the students who are failing in third grade are children who were behind when they arrived at kindergarten.

“But we don’t have the access to the information we need,” Eldridge fumes.

“We are doing our best to prepare children for school, but we can’t find out how they perform in the first 30 days of kindergarten or where they stand as third-graders.”

Husfelt, Bodine, Eldridge and others believe that while Bay County has been

through visioning and goal-setting exercises before, Alignment Bay County has more horsepower, enough to knock down bureaucratic barriers and move consideration past ideology to results.

Governing and operating boards have been established along with three teams: Early Learning, Elementary School and Middle/ High School. Funding will come from local contributions and corporate grants.

“We’ve got the right people at the right table with the right sense of urgency,” Eldridge enthuses. “I’m talking about scientists and researchers and captains of industry who ask specific questions from practical perspectives.”

“This time around,” Husfelt points out, “educators are not driving the train.”

But among all involved, there is agreement on one point, Eldridge says: “None of us believes that solutions to the problems we face are coming from Tallahassee or the District of Columbia.”

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

GROWING BUSINESSES FROM THE GROUND UP The Millaway Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Business Innovation Center assist budding entrepreneurs in moving from ideas to action

By Tisha Crews Keller

B

ay County knows about innovation.

The existence of not just one, but two established entrepreneur programs in this relatively small economic area is testament to the fact that entrepreneurship is something that runs deep in this coastal community.

Economic development follows many paths, but the commitment to growing prosperity specifically by investing in a grass-roots business-planting program is generally the realm of entrepreneurship programs. The basic premise is that investing in people who are already members of the community and helping them grow their ideas into profitable organizations leads to a deeply rooted and valuable member of the local business sector. Homegrown is most likely to result in corporate responsibility, local sourcing and investment.

The Millaway Institute for Entrepreneurship (MIE) describes itself as a commercial and social accelerator that supports the community of innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs. This includes engaging students, faculty, staff and outside stakeholders as they find ways to innovate and transform ideas into commercially viable products, services and companies.

Gulf Coast State College is the parent organization for the institute. The MIE grew out of Gulf Coast’s Advanced Technology Center, which is designed to bring together the best minds in government, academia, business, the nonprofit world and education to create synergy in innovation.

Embedded in the Advanced Technology Center philosophy was always the spirit

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of entrepreneurialism, according to Steve Dunnivant, the executive director of the Millaway Institute and associate dean of program development for Gulf Coast State College.

Founded by a gift to the college, the MIE was established to create and nurture the “entrepreneurial ecosystem” that includes chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, educational institutions, veterans groups, laboratories and more.

The MIE works with various groups in the area on growing entrepreneurship locally.

The Business Innovation Center at Florida State University — Panama City and the Small Business Development Council in Bay County are two of its most prominent partnerships. Through these strategic alliances,

notes, because upwards of 50 percent of people in the Florida Panhandle are employed by small businesses or entrepreneurs. These are either service industries (such as medical) or manufacturers of commercially available products.

The fact that the small-business and entrepreneur economy hits so close to home in Bay County is why Gulf Coast State College invested in the philosophy instead of avenues more traditional for academia.

Dunnivant points out that economic development for colleges is not an obvious area of concern. Most colleges are looking for transfer students — that’s their currency in the academic world — and the more students they can push up to the degree level, the better for their CV.

“Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. Some have college degrees while others don’t have anything after high school. You just need guts and a whole lot of mentoring to navigate the pitfalls.”

— Steve Dunnivant, executive director of the Millaway Institute and associate dean of program development for Gulf Coast State College

the institute helps students and entrepreneurs in the area find the tools and information they need to launch an idea from napkin to fabrication.

In all, the MIE has supported 48 entrepreneurs in all stages of prototyping and business development.

This is especially important, Dunnivant

Alternatively, many colleges have turned to workforce development, such as two-year degree and certificate programs. But Dunnivant sees the third rail of economic development for colleges in entrepreneur programs, where benefits go straight to the economy. Once a product is past testing and on the market, money is immediately pumped back into home base.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GULF COAST STATE COLLEGE

Crook Stewart III, a tour manager who has worked for bands including Crosby, Stills & Nash and the Rolling Stones, conducts a workshop on entrepreneurial skills for musicians. Stewart got his start as a fabricator of large speakers.

“Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. Some have college degrees while others don’t have anything after high school,” he says. “You just need guts and a whole lot of mentoring to navigate the pitfalls.”

The MIE seeks to connect those dots — being the hub for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Bay County area. Gulf Coast State College gathers municipal government, colleges, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce and the like to help entrepreneurs get the tools they need immediately.

From a Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) chapter for one-on-one mentoring to the Business Innovation Center for business incubation, to the Tech Farm and Fab Labs for development, the MIE has something for an entrepreneur at any stage in his or her journey.

Gulf Coast State College also offers a certificate and an associate degree in entrepreneurship, which can help launch an idea for someone in high school or college.

“Boots to Business,” meanwhile, is a model for veterans at the college that is nationally recognized by the Veterans Business Outreach Center and funded through the

U.S. Small Business Administration.

The MIE is funded through the college and therefore the Florida College System and the Florida Legislature. It benefits from a variety of grants, but the most innovative funding source is the PLEDGE model, which is still in its pilot phase. This five-year agreement with each entrepreneur in the MIE program promises a percentage gift back to the school for scholarships to other fledgling innovators.

In just a year and a half, the MIE has helped create 13 businesses under the model, ranging from one to five employees. Currently, there are 26 products from individual entrepreneurs who are in the PLEDGE model — from plumbing to IT and robotics, and mining safety.

Dunnivant believes that these entrepreneurs will give back to the ecosystem that grew them.

“It doesn’t work without a commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” he explains.

“We are trying to create the ideal citizen who is informed, educated and has all the skills needed to perform in a moving economic landscape.”

Included in this ecosystem — but differentiated in important ways — is the Business Innovation Center.

The connection to FSU is little more than free office space, but the name recognition certainly doesn’t hurt.

The Business Innovation Center is a true small-business incubator that began in Lynn Haven in 1992 and moved to the FSU Panama City campus in fall 2013.

Today, the Business Innovation Center works with stakeholders in every part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Florida — from the Small Business Administration to the Small Business Development Center, FSU, Gulf Coast State College, the MIE and more.

The main mission for the Business Innovation Center is to take businesspeople at any stage — from simple idea to existing business — and connect them to the next link they need for success. During an initial “discovery meeting,” Executive Director Pamela Kidwell and her staff talk through the needs and strategy of the client.

“We make a concerted effort to leave folks with a next step forward,” Kidwell says. “We don’t want to just give them a number to call.”

Perhaps the next step is a business plan or a patent … or maybe they need office space or a prototype. The Business Innovation Center

2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 9

Pictured left to right: The Ameris Bank—Tallahassee Community Board of Directors, Jeff Hartley, Brent Sparkman, Rudy Rowe, Dr. Hector Mejia, Ameris Bank Market President Robert Vice and State Representative Halsey Beshears.

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10 / 2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

amerisbank.com

THE VIEW FOR YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD ALWAYS BE CLEAR AND BRIGHT.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GULF COAST STATE COLLEGE

Kurt Morris, an engineering technologist, leads students in Franklin County in electronics experiments as part of a K-12 student outreach program undertaken by Gulf Coast State College.

seeks to connect the dots for a business owner and link him or her to the available resources in the Bay County area.

The center works with startup companies forming around a new idea; foothold companies looking to expand into Bay County; and expansion organizations that want to grow into the area. The only stipulations are that they must meet federal guidelines for a “small business” (250 employees or fewer), and have a willingness to learn, accept coaching and grow.

In its first few months after reopening, the Business Innovation Center was already full. Over the past year, it has turned down 10 companies that wanted space only (rent is quite reasonable). And a few business sectors simply don’t fit well with the services that the center offers. Retail, restaurants and nonprofits are on that list.

The Business Innovation Center offers plenty of resources for its participants, including office space and equipment, administrative capabilities, mentoring and consulting. Businesses sign on for 12- to 18-month contracts and must be “graduated” from the program within 36 months.

The center utilizes a fee-based structure for its incubator services, ranging from $50 to $250 per month. Three fulltime staff members and seven interns (graduate and undergraduate) work at the center. Companies also hire students as interns, both paid and unpaid. This synergy between academia and business is what sets the Business Innovation Center apart. Access to the latest thinking and research on what makes business successful, as well as on-demand resources for administrative tasks, allow companies to focus on their business itself — and that’s the beauty of the smallbusiness incubator.

Perhaps the best example of the center’s success is recent graduate Jellyfish Health. In just nine months, the company hired 16 private engineers in high paying jobs to work on its product.

“Being part of the economic engine is phenomenal,” Kidwell says. “There’s something new every day. You never know what idea will come through the door, and how far you can take them.”

For these entrepreneur mentors in Bay County, there’s nothing more exciting than that.

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S I T E D E V E LO PM E N T

DEVELOPING THE FUTURE How Panama City is courting growth

T

he Hathaway Bridge connects Panama City and Panama City Beach, stretching over the water where the North Bay meets Saint Andrew Bay. On the west side of the bridge, Panama City Beach sparkles, all sun and beach and new business.

On the east side, Panama City is just waking up from spending a decade as, in the words of one government official, “a sleeping giant.”

Mike Lane, director of Panama City’s newly christened Planning and Economic Development Department, said that in the past, Panama City was notorious for being anti-growth. Now, it’s a different story.

“People used to say, ‘We’re OK with being who we are, just being Panama City,’ but you have to have a well-rounded community to keep functioning,” Lane said. “Fortunately, our current city commission is very pro-growth.”

Lane said the area has seen many retailers and businesses leave, and strategies to halt that exodus are being implemented. The area has more than double the population of its neighbor across Hathaway Bridge, but new development is key to getting businesses to stay in or relocate to the city.

One of those strategies is a partnership with the Bay County Economic Development Alliance (EDA), an organization that focuses on job creation to sustain a vibrant local economy. Working together, the city and the EDA are identifying city-owned parcels of land that may be attractive to developers, hoping to spur new growth and bring new jobs to the area.

Becca Hardin, EDA president, said siteselection companies may prefer to work with government-owned properties because if there is a good prospect, the project can bring in jobs and the city may be willing to negotiate the price per acre more freely.

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By Sandi Poreda

“Once we’ve identified the right parcels of land, we’ll market those opportunities to site-selection companies all over the world,” Hardin said. “Our ideal project would be a multistory office building that houses multiple companies and can promote innovation and creativity.”

“We’d like to move City Hall to a new location so we can maximize the current location for commercial development,” Lane said. “We need to maximize the public’s investment.”

In July, the commission approved a purchase contract with a developer for

“Once we’ve identified the right parcels of land, we’ll market those opportunities to site-selection companies all over the world. Our ideal project would be a multistory office building that houses multiple companies and can promote innovation and creativity.” — Becca Hardin, EDA president Hardin said sites that are centrally located and support a good work/life environment are beneficial so that people can walk to work and retail establishments. Sites that overlook the water would add value from an office-community perspective, and sites that require minimal prep for development also offer good potential.

The City Commission in Panama City is on board with the initiative and is upping the ante by offering one of the best parcels the city owns: the current location of City Hall. The city is in the process of negotiating with a developer that has proposed a multifunction development for the 5 acres on the marina. Presentations to the city commission in July included a hotel and conference center with restaurants, retail spaces, rental and residential properties, a grocery store, structured parking, waterfront parks, walking paths and water access.

another piece of city-owned property, located at Sixth Street (U.S. Business 98) and Mulberry Avenue. Wilwat Properties Inc., a developer specializing in Publix shopping centers, is working with the popular supermarket company to bring a store to the 3.5-acre site.

Hank Burney, a real estate consultant working with the city and Wilwat, said the developer had looked at another parcel in town but was hoping to find something close to City Hall.

“We found this parcel and thought we’d give it a shot,” he said.

For Burney, it makes no difference if a parcel is owned by a municipality or a private entity.

“Some owners are hard to deal with and some are easy to deal with,” he said. “Panama City has been just fine.”

PHOTO BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (HARDIN) AND COURTESY OF CITY OF PANAMA CITY/DOUG DOBOS

Panama City officials are negotiating with a developer that has drawn up plans for an overhaul of the 5-acre downtown marina property. Proposed is a mixed-use future for the marina including restaurants, rental and residential properties and parks.

Paul Borden, president and CEO of HomeFed Corporation, the developer negotiating with the city on the marina project, had a similar opinion of working with municipalities on development projects.

“Every jurisdiction is different, and it depends on the opportunity,” he said.

Attitudes seem to be a critical component

for success in this process. Lane said making a conscious decision to turn the Planning Department into the Planning and Economic Development Department indicates the city is ready and willing to make things happen.

And people are starting to catch on. There’s a developer from West Palm Beach who visits about once a month to look around, said

Lane. Nothing has caught his eye yet, but he keeps coming back.

So what’s the magic ingredient for turning Panama City into a developer’s paradise and center of economic growth? Lane and Hardin agreed — it’s time.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Hardin. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Sandi Poreda, APR is a Florida native and a small-business owner. Her communications firm, Bulldog Strategy Group, specializes in storytelling.

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POR T

BREAKING RECORDS Business is good at Port Panama City

PHOTO BY SCOTT HOLSTEIN

T

he shipping news is all good at Port Panama City these days. Tonnage is up, and two very important on-site companies are driving continual growth.

“We’ve never been busier than we are now,” said port director Wayne Stubbs. “Our tonnage is up 30 percent in the amount of cargo being handled. We think we’ll break 2 million tons of cargo this year, and we’ve never done that. We’ve been at 1.7 million before, but never close to 2 million tons before.”

Overall, if you look back historically and especially in the context of the last 15 years, there’s been a yearly growth rate of 8 percent on average, Stubbs said. The port’s

By Jason Dehart

warehouses are full of imported aluminum ingots, copper plates and wire, steel and pipe. Meanwhile, tons of wood pellets milled in Cottondale await export every week to European ports.

“That’s the headline for us. Generally, we’ve had an increase across the board in commodities, and copper imports have increased, forest-products exports have increased and the export of wood pellets has increased,” Stubbs said.

However, the largest contributor is imported steel by Cargill Steel & Wire and Berg Steel Pipe Corporation. Combined, the two companies have moved 400,000

tons this year, Stubbs said. As far as new business goes, there’s been “organic growth” driven by Oceaneering International and Berg Steel.

Oceaneering is a global provider of engineered services and products, mostly for the offshore oil and gas industry and deepwater applications. The company has more than 200 employees in Panama City and is a major contributor to the port’s $1 billion annual economic impact.

Berg Steel specializes in pipe production for the oil and gas sector. Its mill in Panama City has a capacity of 240,000 tons per year and has more than 280 employees.

“Both have made significant investments in plants, and both this year have had historically large orders,” he said. “My understanding is they both have production committed out for the next couple of years at this point. Our biggest growth, or strongest economic impact, is based on their business.”

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“Given the overall condition of the oil and gas industry globally, driven by the current price per barrel of oil, securing a contract award of this magnitude provides the Panama City facility with a level of stability over the next two years that will help us weather the uncertainties we face in the global oil and gas markets.” — Nuno Sousa, Oceaneering International, general manager of the Panama City facility

In other news, a new carrier, additional containerized cargo capacity and an expanded distribution center are in the works.

Seaboard Marine, a leading cargo transportation company that operates a fleet of more than 30 vessels between the United States and South America, will start coming here in January, Stubbs said.

“They carry copper, but they also have capacity to handle containers, and we’re hoping to add some container traffic to the copper,” he said.

The port, meanwhile, is getting ready to handle more container cargo by building new infrastructure in the yard to accommodate racks for the stacking of refrigerated containers. Inland, the Port Panama City Intermodal Distribution Center located

on U.S. Highway 231 is looking to grow its warehouse by 100,000 square feet, and a bulk rail transfer facility will be added to the facility to transfer cargo between rail cars and shipping containers. Stubbs said they’ve also finished improvements on a 50-acre certified industrial site in partnership with the city.

The site recently became the fourth in the region to receive certification through Gulf Power’s Florida First Sites program, which seeks to bring new industry to the area. All told, the Port Authority owns 250 acres at the Intermodal Distribution Center.

Finally, the port is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on a project to deepen the east channel, which provides access to terminal facilities on the east side of Panama City.

“That’s an effort to keep those facilities

active as vessels get bigger. The channels need to be deeper. It requires very little dredging,” he said. “We’re talking about going to 36 feet.

Historically it’s been operational at 32 feet, but a couple of high spots have developed that restrain it to 31 feet right now. So we need to take out a few high spots to ensure continued service for the next few decades.”

The port authority has invested $75 million in facilities over the past decade, and that’s paid off in terms of helping attract and retain key customers.

NEWSFLASH Oceaneering International, as part of a consortium with GE Oil & Gas, recently secured a contract that added more than $100 million to its Subsea Products backlog. All of this product manufacturing is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2017.

“Given the overall condition of the oil and gas industry globally, driven by the current price per barrel of oil, securing a contract award of this magnitude provides the Panama City facility with a level of stability over the next two years that will help us weather the uncertainties we face in the global oil and gas markets,” said Nuno Sousa, general manager of the Panama City facility.

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SPOR TS

DIAMONDS ARE … FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT New project aims to expand and extend PCB’s sports season

By Linda Kleindienst

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PHOTO COURTESY OF PANAMA CITY BEACH CVB

S

ports is big business in Bay County — and it’s about to get even bigger.

Visit Panama City Beach, The St. Joe Company and the Bay County School Board are joining forces in a unique publicprivate partnership to improve life in and the economy of Panama City Beach by developing a world-class sports village and a new K-8 school on the east side of town.

Agreed to in concept and waiting on a final agreement, the project will be built on about

210 acres of land St. Joe has agreed to donate on the east end of Breakfast Point. The first phase of the $15 million sports project will focus on rectangle fields for competitions such as lacrosse, soccer and flag football. Several fields will have multipurpose capabilities to host full-size baseball and softball tournaments. The lead designer on the project is The Sports Force, which will begin working on a master plan once a land survey is completed this fall.

“Events such as major softball and baseball tournaments bring in hundreds of teams to the region, and this facility with rectangle fields will attract even more large competitions,” said Richard Sanders, vice president of sports marketing for Visit Panama City Beach. “The new sports village is a cornerstone to increasing year-round business for hotels, restaurants and attractions — a home run for the entire community.”

Events such as USFA softball and Grand Slam baseball bring more than 1,000 teams to the region already. Current sports facilities generate $75 million and draw 250,000 visitors to Panama City Beach annually, resulting in at least 100,000 room nights.

It is anticipated that while visiting, an adult spends $150 per day and each child, $75.

“Sports have become a major part of the Panama City Beach experience, and our scenic coastal setting is a natural draw for athletes and fans alike from across the country,” said Visit Panama City Beach President and CEO Dan Rowe. “Having a coalition of the tourism community, the private sector and local schools helps all the residents of Panama City Beach.”

The new location, targeted for completion in spring 2017, is located away from current facilities, so sports-related traffic will be spread more evenly through town and “help mitigate some of the traffic congestion,” Rowe said. The complex will be accessed through a 10-acre tract of land on Panama City Beach parkway that was purchased by the Convention and Visitors Bureau with funds received from BP damages and tourist development taxes.

Until now, the 200-acre, 40-year-old Frank Brown Park — built on land also donated by St. Joe — has been the sole local host for the annual games, but hundreds of teams are being turned away each year because there isn’t room to accommodate them.

“We’ve always been big on making community investments,” said Jorge Gonzalez, senior vice president of development for St. Joe, who said the company was at first approached separately by school and tourism officials. “Every asset in the community is good for everybody, including ourselves. This one in particular. We do have a Breakfast Point residential project about 1.5 miles away and Breakfast Point Academy, which is at capacity. So there is need for additional room on the school side, and the sports complex makes sense.”

It is likely the school could take up to five years and $30 million to complete, but it will relieve the school district’s growing pains and crowded beach schools when it does open.

“This is an exemplary partnership, which is of great benefit to our students, parents and community,” said Bay County Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt. “We welcome this multifaceted plan that offers solutions to address concerns brought on by tremendous growth on Panama City Beach.”

As plans are underway for the new park, Frank Brown Park will also be getting about $4 million in updates to ensure its continued attractiveness to competitive sports teams.

Groups such as the World Softball League and U.S. Fast Pitch Association have games scheduled throughout the year, with some having already scheduled tournaments at the park into 2016.

“We want to enhance the spectator experience and provide some refreshing for the entire facility,” Rowe said. “It has been a wonderful asset for us for years and we want to make sure it stays as one of the best venues for people to come and play on.”

The new sports complex will be able to handle overflow from those tournaments while hosting its own, giving the city more opportunities to stretch the tournament season year-round. The new complex will have rectangular fields that can be used for a variety of sports that are played in the shoulder seasons.

“It allows us to drive business in the fall and the spring,” Rowe explained, adding that the city is also hoping to attract a pro team for spring training. “The rectangular fields will ensure everyone who is out there playing feels like it’s a facility built for them, whether they are playing lacrosse, soccer, baseball or fast pitch softball.”

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TO U R I S M Panama City Beach tourism officials are flying high. Bed tax numbers are soaring.

RIDING A WAVE Panama City Beach puts Spring Break in rear view By Steve Bornhoft

I

n March of this year, tourist-development tax collections in Panama City Beach were up by 5.21 percent versus March 2014.

News stories with Panama City Beach datelines were up even more dramatically.

Oscar Wilde once said that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Of that, you would have had a hard time convincing Bay County tourism officials.

Stories picked up by news wires detailed a gang rape on the sandy beach and the actions of a shooter at a house party who wounded seven. Sean Hannity of Fox News had a field day. (How better to boost ratings than with bikini-clad crime scenes?) A prominent plaintiff’s attorney, Wes Pittman, convened an anti-Spring Break rally at a venue usually reserved for weddings and barbecues and kicked off a petition drive aimed at recalling Panama City Beach’s mayor and City Council members. Spring breakers, Pittman said, were so clogging emergency rooms that local residents couldn’t gain access to acute health care.

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen got involved. He intimated that Panama City Beach was just an incident away from becoming the next Ferguson, Missouri.

McKeithen petitioned for emergency ordinances to combat the Spring Break menace and got part of what he wanted. Booze was banned from the sand. Closing time was moved up.

There existed widespread agreement that Spring Break marketing efforts were attracting the wrong element. A divisive dynamic developed. Individuals seen to be in

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favor of Spring Break were deemed also to be anti-law enforcement and, frankly, anti-God. Could the Panama City Beach tourist economy hope even to survive?

Well, take a look here. In April of this year, bed tax collections rose by 17.43 percent. In May, they were up 15.11 percent, year to year.

And the trend has continued. As of July 1, bed tax collections fiscal year to date were up 11.4 percent.

What’s gone right?

“Our public relations are much better, and we react much more quickly than we used to,” said Mike Bennett, chairman of the executive committee of the Bay County Tourist Development Council. “Whenever you can take a curveball like we got this spring and turn it around into a single or a double, that’s a good thing. We have learned to react to bad news by talking about all the good things we have to offer.”

Too, Bennett said, an improved economy, the advent of the airport at West Bay and the arrival of Southwest and United airlines have been developments that have begun to pay off in spades. Business had been building in response to trends and initiatives that were more than the most raucous and violent of Spring Breaks could disrupt.

“The new airport is bringing in twice as many passengers as the old one did,” said Andy Phillips of Counts Oakes Resort Properties. “We’re seeing people from new markets — Texas, in particular — like we never have before.”

Phillips finds that Panama City Beach has more to offer the affluent visitor than it did even six or eight years ago.

“The mom-and-pop motels are going away,”

PHOTO COURTESY OF PANAMA CITY BEACH CVB/STEVE BEAUDET

TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX REVENUE — PANAMA CITY BEACH

he said, “and first-class accommodations and condos are taking their place. Not long ago, we didn’t have a Main Street and now we’ve got Pier Park. But we remain a melting pot.

We still have value lodging available. Our white sand appeals to everybody; it’ll always be our No. 1 asset. We’re not pretentious; we greet people with Southern hospitality, and all kinds of folks successfully come here to have a good time.”

In some ways, said Bennett, having a good time — and he doesn’t mean the beer bong kind of good time — is easier in Panama City Beach than in Destin.

“To their credit, Destin is sold out,” Bennett said, “but there is just one road down the middle of it. We flow better, drive easier.”

Jayna Leach of Sterling Resorts is the incoming chair at the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce. Sterling, she said, has enjoyed a record summer and is looking forward to its best fall season ever.

2015

2014

Increase

MARCH

$2,012,995

$1,913,353

5.21%

APRIL

$1,532,803

$1,305,294

17.43%

MAY

$1,842,628

$1,600,701

15.11%

JUNE

$3,379,852

$3,171,472

6.57%

“We were at capacity and turned a lot of people away in July, and I think that was true throughout much of the destination,” Leach said. “The weather was great this summer and that helped, but all of the activity that takes place at Frank Brown Park and our special events are important, too. They lead me to believe that the gains we have enjoyed are sustainable.”

Leach points to Fall Break as a growing factor in Panama City Beach’s shoulder season success.

“We lost the Labor Day weekend to earlier school starting dates,” she said. “Fall Break is our new Labor Day.” Bennett credits the Tourist Development Council and Convention and Visitor’s Bureau with sticking to a strategic plan adopted in 2012. That plan called for preserving and enhancing the sandy beach itself; enhancing the visitor experience by, among other things, developing gateways

and encouraging the redevelopment of abandoned property; enhancing and developing public venues, including sports facilities and parks; and developing and marketing Panama City Beach as a year-round destination.

For Bennett, the latter initiative is a big deal.

“Fall sports, the Gulf Coast Jam country music festival, they are big parts of the yearround picture,” Bennett said. “Who would have thought that Panama City Beach, with our Beach Ball Drop, would become home to one of the Top 10 New Year’s Eve events in the country?”

Events, tournaments and festivals lend themselves to niche marketing, and Bennett is satisfied that marketing efforts on behalf of Panama City Beach are not just generally better, but more precise.

“We have better demographics, more surveys, more studies,” he said. “We know our customer and our potential customer.

And we know who we are. We’re not just on the water. We’re in the water. Fishing, WaveRunners, parasailing, diving. Our visitors have a relationship with the Gulf of Mexico that involves more than just looking out over the water from the balcony.”

Bennett endorses the “Real. Fun. Beach.” line adopted by the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. It has made his job as an owner of Seahaven Beach Resorts “Real. Fun. Business.”

Said Bennett: “It’s nice to be riding a wave.”

2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 21

Raise the Torch for Florida State University Panama City Florida State University has a history of greatness. Recently designated as a preeminent university, FSU continues to achieve impressive standings in national rankings and is on a path to reach the top 25 of public universities.

Raise the Torch: The Campaign for Florida State

will help us reach even greater heights. This $1 billion campaign will allow the University to improve the student experience, serve as an economic engine for the state through research and job creation, and improve the quality of life for society as a whole.

In Panama City, this campaign will encourage our students and faculty to raise their sights even higher and help them excel both in and out of the classroom. Whether your gift supports academic programs or student scholarships—a priority of our Panama City campus—you can help us Raise the Torch for our campus and, ultimately, our community.

Join us today at raisethetorch.fsu.edu 22 / 2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

DEMOGRAPHICS

POPULATION POPULATION (2014 estimate) — 178,985 UNDER 18 YEARS — 21.5% 18-64 — 62.6% 65 AND OVER — 15.9% MEDIAN AGE — 39.3 years CHANGE SINCE 2011 — 8.21 % PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2010) — 222.6

Panama City metropolitan area was the 19th fastest growing region in the U.S. in 2014.

EDUCATION HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE OR HIGHER (population aged 25 years or older) — 87% BACHELOR’S DEGREE OR HIGHER (population aged 25 years or older) — 21.1% HIGHER EDUCATION IN BAY COUNTY » Florida State University– Panama City » Gulf Coast State College » Troy University » Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University » Haney Technical Center

HOUSING

PHOTO COURTESY OF BAY COUNTY CHAMBER

AVERAGE SALES PRICE (June 2015) SINGLE FAMILY HOME — $201,156 HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE — 62.5% MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK — 21.2 minutes

Naval Support Activity Panama City

MILITARY

WORKFORCE

VETERANS (2009-2013) — 22,243

LABOR FORCE (percent of population) — 52%

Bay County is home to/ located near seven military installations in Northwest Florida, with an estimated 6,000 troops separating each year, including 400 in Bay County alone.

UNEMPLOYMENT (July 2015) — 5.2%

BASES/ANNUAL ECONOMIC IMPACT/JOBS (military and civilian)

» Tyndall Air Force Base $614.2 million/6,471 » Naval Support Activity Panama City $498 million/2,872

AVERAGE ANNUAL WAGE — $33,783 (Florida, $42,904) MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME (2009-2013) — $47,461 Nearly 60 percent of Bay County’s 9,713 businesses have between one and four employees.

TOP 10 NON-GOVERNMENT EMPLOYERS » Bay Medical Center — 2,000

» Eastern Shipbuilding Group — 1,450 » Gulf Coast Medical Center — 631 » Trane (air conditioning) — 575 » RockTenn (manufacturing) — 480 » Bookit.Com (travel) — 440 » GAC Contractors (construction) — 400 » Royal American Management (construction) — 375 Top Five Industries by Jobs: Construction; Retail; Health Care and Social Services; Accommodation and Food Services; Public Administration

» Walmart and Sam’s Club — 1,500

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (2015 update); Bay County Economic Development Alliance; Bay County Online; Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse; Bay County Association of Realtors

2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 23

AT T O R N E YS AT L AW

INSIGHT INTEGRITY INNOVATION

2010 路 2

012 路 2 1路2 0

DESTIN 4475 Legendary Drive | Destin, FL 32541 | 850.837.3662 phone | 850.654.1634 fa x NICEVILLE 323 E. John Sims Parkway | Niceville, FL 32578 | 850.729.7440 phone | 850.729.7871 fa x CRESTVIEW 596 N. Ferdon Road | Crestview, FL 32536 | 850.682.6211 phone | 850.398.6434 fa x 24 / 2015 B AY C O U N T Y B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

路 2015

destinlaw.com

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REMEMBERING THE PAST, SEEING THE FUTURE

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS These 10 women have earned their stripes in business and life

BY LINDA KLEINDIENST

850 MAGAZINE IS PROUD TO PRESENT the 2015 winners of the Pinnacle Award, an honor designed to shine the spotlight on women in our region who have set high standards for themselves and exceeded them, who are a moving force in private business and nonprofit organizations that help the needy in our society, and who promote their communities.

From a leader of one of the largest credit unions in Florida to a CEO who helps build houses for those in need, they’re moving forces in business and the community, A-listers with A-plus personalities who face challenges head on and are determined to make their world a better place.

As a group, our honorees are optimistic, energetic and goal-oriented, filled with a can-do attitude. Their professions cover a wide range of fields, from banking to health care to economic development. They well represent the urban, suburban and rural areas found within 850’s 18-county footprint. We asked our readers to nominate women they felt deserved the honor. From the names submitted, please meet the Pinnacle Award winners for 2015.

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Emerald Coast Corridor

Being passionate about helping others, Carol Carlan knew it would be a natural fit for her when she was offered the job as president of the Sacred Heart Foundation, which is responsible for fundraising for different health-systems entities from Pensacola to Port St. Joe. But that isn’t what she has spent most of her life doing.

Before joining the foundation in 2012, she spent 36 years in the banking industry, starting with Citizens & Peoples National Bank and ending with Wachovia/ Wells Fargo as the first regional female bank president of a large regional bank.

Abandoned by her mother and growing up in foster homes, Carlan, 60, had little money in her youth but was fascinated by it.

“I loved to read how the bank worked. I loved the professional environment,” she says. “I thought I would dress up, talk to people and sit at a desk. But my first job was going out talking to people, and I found out I was a good salesman.”

A founding member of the Escambia/Santa Rosa PACE Center for Girls, she is no stranger to nonprofit work, having served on 35 boards over the years. She says the Sacred Heart Foundation gives her “the opportunity to use my business acumen to raise money for the children’s hospital, the elderly, and I’m having a great time doing it.”

Her mission is to always seek out the positive, “even if it seems to be a horrific situation.” The best advice she ever got came from her dad, with whom she was reunited. “‘Love everyone for who they are, and be your own unique person.’ I don’t judge others.”

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DAVE BARFIELD

CAROL CARLAN

850businessmagazine.com

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Emerald Coast Corridor

CHASE YAKABOSKI

SIMONA FARONI Growing up in Mantova, Italy, Simona Faroni liked the designer clothes she saw other girls wearing at school.

She went to work at a local restaurant to earn money to buy her own clothes, but had to keep it a secret from her father.

“Instead of going out to movies with friends on weekends, I was going to work. But he found out eventually after some family friends came to the restaurant,” she remembers. Her father grounded her from work, but then her mother became her accomplice and covered for her.

Faroni, 35, is no stranger to taking on a challenge. Today she lives in Destin and is the co-founder (along with her husband) of Fort Walton Beach-based G.S. Gelato, which employs more than 90 local workers and annually distributes 1.3 million gallons of gelato across the United States.

But the beginnings of the business were shaky. When they arrived, neither spoke English. They went to night school and communicated with a pocket dictionary.

“We couldn’t order a glass of water at a restaurant,” she recalls.

“But little by little we learned.”

After importing the gelato machines, they began making their product in the back of their home and opened a small storefront in downtown Fort Walton Beach. On one of their best days, their profit was $13.50. But Keith Howard of The Howard Group became a fan and suggested moving the store to Silver Sands Premium Outlets in Destin.

The rest is history. They have opened four stores (now sold to a client) and went from a 1,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to 26,000 square feet.

“I’ve always wanted to grow in life,” says Faroni. “I never imagined this happening, especially on this side of the world.”

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

I-10 Corridor

To whom much is given, much is required. Oft repeated to her by her father, that’s the mantra that Carmen Danielle Smith lives by in her work as the executive director of Jackson County Habitat for Humanity.

“I see the work I do being meaningful to someone else. If I can offer someone the Band-Aid they need, I’m all about that,” says Smith, 27, who was born in Tallahassee but now lives in Marianna. “I don’t know if I have the heart to be good in the corporate world.”

As a child, Smith wanted to be a general surgeon. She also wanted to focus on nonprofit work, so she began working for nonprofit organizations when she was an undergraduate at the University of Florida.

But for the past year, she has found herself immersed in construction details, retail management, banking and mortgages.

Jackson County’s Habitat for Humanity doubled its gross revenue in two years, reaching $297,000 in the last budget year. So far, the organization has served more than 50 families, building homes from the ground up that are 1,440 square feet in size, energy-efficient and have three bedrooms and two baths.

“What we do is move people from survivability to stability,” she says.

But Smith has seen the need to help larger families that need more space, so Habitat began looking for donated or foreclosed properties where it could do some rehab work.

Her major goal over the next couple of years is to meet a “greater need” and expand service to families that already have a home but need help with repairs.

She’s so immersed in her work that Smith says her friends and family remind her she needs to have more fun.

“I told them I’m going to start planning fun, and maybe I’ll do it,” she says.

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LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

CARMEN DANIELLE SMITH

850businessmagazine.com

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

I-10 Corridor

JENNIFER G. PHOTOGRAPHY

ROBBIE ROPELLA Working three jobs to put herself through college, Robbie Ropella had no idea she would never practice nursing. But when she went into surgery and saw a hammer brought out to break a bone, she passed out.

“I expected a technological tool, but it was an old-fashioned mallet,” she recalls. “Still, the education served me well. I have great knowledge that I’ve used in emergencies.”

The lesson she learned from the experience is one she urges others to follow: When you choose an occupation, choose your passion and don’t look at the money.

“That was my mistake,” she says now. “My passion is people, money and sales. I love sales.”

Today Ropella, 51, is president of The Ropella Group in Milton, which is an executive search firm that finds the perfect candidates for jobs that are so specialized, only a handful of people in the world could do them well. She takes care of marketing and sales for the business she runs with her husband.

Describing herself as very competitive (“Put me in a sport and I will win”), Ropella said she learned early on from her father that “Can’t never did anything.”

“He gave me the ability to attack my problems and come up with creative solutions by providing old-fashioned motivation,” she says, adding that her dad was never afraid to take a stand for something that was right, even if it wasn’t popular.

“In my youth, I found this slightly embarrassing, but it impacted me greatly. As I grew, I developed a boldness to do the same.”

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Bay Corridor

The call to attend law school came to Lisa Walters when she served as a staffer to a joint legislative committee tackling the issue of how the state should compensate residents and growers who were losing their citrus canker-infected trees to the ax.

“The staff was me and a handful of attorneys,” remembers Walters, who had served as a Cabinet aide to the state comptroller and to the insurance commissioner. “When we made our presentation to the speaker of the House, he said, ‘You’re not an attorney, are you? I need one of the attorneys to explain this to me.’ Within a few weeks, I registered to take the LSAT.” That was 20 years ago.

Now a shareholder with Burke & Blue in Panama City, the 53-year-old Walters specializes in real estate and business transactions. Her favorite part of the job is “working with my clients and visioning what a project will look like and finding creative ways to bring their vision to fruition.”

Looking back, she can’t remember a time when she didn’t have a job.

“I’ve always had jobs, always worked,” she says. Babysitting and mowing lawns were during the early years; working in a children’s specialty shop at the Panama City Mall and then Gayfers department store, in the display department, were jobs she held in high school.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to have the jobs and work with the people I worked with. The lesson I learned, which I already knew from my parents but was able to better appreciate, was the importance of doing a good job the first time.”

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HOLLY GARDNER

LISA WALTERS

850businessmagazine.com

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Bay Corridor

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

REBECCA PIERSON As community development director of the Bay Medical Foundation, Rebecca Pierson’s focus is on the vision of serving the health care needs of Bay County.

Fundraising for a good cause is nothing new for Pierson, who held a dog show in her backyard when she was in the sixth grade to help out the local Humane Society.

When she moved to Panama City, she was a flight attendant for America West Airlines but gradually became more involved in fundraising, explaining, “I’ve always been driven by the idea of helping the little guy. If I believed in it, I raised money for it.”

Pierson, 52, was asked to join the Bay Medical Foundation, became president and then joined the staff when the foundation was attached to a then not-for-profit Bay Medical Center. She helped raise more than $5 million for the hospital’s capital campaign, which was used to open the medical tower. When the hospital became for-profit, the foundation became independent and she stayed with it.

In the last three years, it has given out $1.4 million in grants to local organizations with a health care connection, such as the St. Andrews Medical Clinic.

“There are 55,000 Bay County residents who are uninsured. It’s tough,” says Pierson, who also oversees a program that awards scholarships to 17 Gulf Coast State College students each year.

Some of the best advice she ever received came from her father, who retired from the Air Force at the rank of two-star general.

“Good or bad, your actions will be followed by consequences — probably not a bad idea to keep your actions good,” says Pierson.

“My parents instilled in me the importance of making a difference.”

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Forgotten Coast Corridor

Although she was never interested in numbers, Amy Geiger loves building relationships and business development — a key part of her job as Capital City Bank’s community president for Gulf and Wakulla counties.

“Banking is all about sales, learning how to work with people and providing products and services for them. That’s the part of the banking world I enjoy,” says the 24-year Capital City Bank veteran.

Ten years ago, after she had successfully started and run the bank’s first call center in Tallahassee, Geiger was asked to relocate to Crawfordville and open the bank’s first new brick and mortar branch that didn’t involve the acquisition of another institution.

Describing it as the biggest professional hurdle she had ever faced, she also says it was “a major test of my ability to adapt and grow professionally. My charge was to grow the franchise by identifying new growth and development opportunities.” In that, she’s been very successful. Out of 63 bank offices, hers is the third busiest.

Geiger, 45, credits much of her success to the lessons taught by her father, a sales manager in the papermaking industry.

“He was a role model on how to build relationships and business,” she says. “Being fair, being honest. Integrity was a trait of his. His example set me on the right path.”

Her advice to a young woman just starting out in her career?

“Don’t be afraid to start at the bottom. There is something to be said for growing up in the company. Put in the work and show a desire to grow by giving your all, even if it is not the position you see yourself in long term.”

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BRUCE PALMER

AMY GEIGER

850businessmagazine.com

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Forgotten Coast Corridor

BRIAN ROWLAND

AUGUSTA WEST A frequent visitor to Northwest Florida’s coast since her youth, Augusta West always hoped that some day she would end up living and working here. Today, she does. And in her role as executive director of Historic Apalachicola Main Street, her job is to make this an even better area for local businesses, residents and visitors.

“It’s a beautiful small town with a lot to offer. There’s natural beauty, the nearby beaches, the history, the culture. I’m fortunate enough to make it my home,” says West, 40, who grew up in Thomasville, Georgia.

It isn’t quite where you’d expect a Zoology major to end up, but she says there are many aspects of science that transfer well to the world of non-profits, including the ability to do research, analyze data and work collaboratively.

This is her third non-profit job, having previously worked as the coordinator of annual giving for the Florida State University Foundation and at the Apalachicola Maritime Museum.

“I’m like a lot of people who end up doing something completely different with their life than what they had planned on or went to school for,” she says.

A focus of Main Street is to promote Apalachicola as a year-round destination, preserve the area’s history, enhance the attractiveness of the town and promote the offerings of local businesses. The organization, only four years old, has been a sponsor of the popular Independence Eve celebration (on July 3) and an antique car show in the fall designed to attract visitors that might opt to spend the weekend in town. And it recently received funding from Visit Florida to help jumpstart an historic plaque program that West hopes may someday turn into a walking tour of the town.

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS Capital Corridor

DOROTHY “DOT” TROTMAN-EALY

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LOGAN STANFORD

When you work as a waitress, you learn to communicate — as well as handle the good, bad and ugly that customers will hand you each day.

“If you can handle any of those situations, you will make a great salesperson, because you are selling yourself,” says Dot TrotmanEaly, 55. And today, she puts those communications skills learned in her first paid job to work in her role as vice president and market manager for Cumulus in Tallahassee, where she oversees five radio stations and 50 employees.

Trotman-Ealy’s career has been focused on the media, working in print, TV and at an advertising agency. But she always came back to her favorite — radio.

“It’s the theater of the mind,” she says. “You can be as creative as you want to be.”

Six years ago, she used that creativity to come up with the idea for Cumulus to sponsor an annual “What Women Want” event, which promotes local businesses and now attracts up to 5,000 women. If the radio station doesn’t give back to the community it serves, she avers, it has no purpose.

Asked the most important part of her job, she quickly replies, “Listening. I wasn’t always a good listener growing up (in Jasper, Florida). You tend to think you know it all until that one customer tells you, ‘That’s not what I said.’ I learned the hard way to shut up and listen. It’s why we have two ears and one mouth.”

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850businessmagazine.com

2015

PINNACLE AWARD WINNERS

Capital Corridor

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

CECILIA HOMISON Moving to Tallahassee wasn’t in the plans for Cecilia Homison and her husband until her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and the couple found themselves making frequent treks to Florida from their home in Charleston. One day they decided they weren’t in the right place, and during a 30-minute discussion agreed to relocate to Northwest Florida. In 90 days they sold their home and changed their lives, “showing that sometimes doors open when you take a step on faith.”

Homison, 52, who started her career as a CPA in Atlanta, is now CEO of First Commerce Credit Union, where she has been for 15 years (nine of them as chief financial officer and six as CEO). She loves the uniqueness of the credit union industry and the close connection it has with the community First Commerce serves.

“We have a unique footprint,” she says. “We are chartered to reach out to our community at a different level, and we feel good about it.”

Her role models for success are her parents, who grew up poor but are successful today.

“They taught me that life will be what you make it. I admire their tenacity. They went after it and made it happen,” she says. “It made me what I am.”

A strong believer in mentoring (she and her husband have been doing marriage mentoring at their church for 10 years), she established a yearlong small group program for nonmanagerial employees five years ago. “We teach them that everyone can lead … and it’s been a phenomenal success.”

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2015

PINNACLE AWARD LUNCHEON

Mckenzie Burleigh Lohbeck, Cecilia Homison and Linda Kleindenst

Publisher and CEO, Brian Rowland

PINNACLE AWARDS 2015 The 10 Northwest Florida women chosen to receive a 2015 Pinnacle Award have distinguished themselves professionally and as unselfish community volunteers. The honorees are equal parts business acumen and genuine compassion and represent pursuits ranging from financial services and health care to entrepreneurship and fundraising.

All gathered for the second annual Pinnacle Awards luncheon held at the Lakehouse Venue at the WaterColor Inn and Resort. The event’s success was due in large part to the generous support of presenting sponsor Gulf Power Co. and sponsors St. Joe Company/St. Joe Club and Resorts and the Destin law firm of Matthew & Jones, LLP. Pure 7 Studios supplied photography services, isncluding the cover photo.

Linda Kleindienst, the editor of 850 — The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida, and the magazine’s publisher, Brian Rowland, presented custom crystal awards to the recipients and detailed their achievements. Each is impressive in her own right, and one is left to wonder what the honorees might accomplish if they were assembled as a team.

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850businessmagazine.com

Thank you to the sponsors who made this event possible

PRESENTING SPONSOR

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Keynote Speaker, Bentina Terry of Gulf Power

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For more information, contact Rick Byars, Community and Economic Development Manager for Gulf Power Company, at 850.444.6849 or crbyars@southernco.com.

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FORGOTTEN COAST CORRIDOR

Gulf, Franklin + Wakulla Counties

Saving History

Camp Gordon Johnston World War II Museum working to become lure for tourists

By Rochelle Koff

D

uring the predawn hours of June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers invaded a handful of French beaches along the coast of Normandy, one of the largest amphibious assaults in history. Seventy-one years later, the sacrifices and achievements of many of those troops, and other soldiers who fought in World War II, are still kept alive in tiny coastal Carrabelle, Florida.

Uniforms, medals, pictures, letters and thousands of other keepsakes are displayed throughout eight rooms of the city’s notfor-profit Camp Gordon Johnston World War II Museum, housed in an out-of-the way, aging municipal complex with a leaky roof and limited air conditioning.

The museum’s humble location belies the importance of the historic collection within. Camp Gordon Johnston was a World War II Army post in Carrabelle and the surrounding region. From 1942 to ’46, more than 250,0000 soldiers were trained at the camp for amphibious landings in Europe and the Pacific. The military installation, known for its rugged, commandostyle training, occupied nearly 20 miles of coastline on the Gulf and 165,000 acres of Franklin County. The 4th, 28th and 38th Infantry Divisions trained there, as well as the 6th Amphibious Brigades and other specialized forces.

The artifacts and mementos go beyond the Carrabelle camp. This is the only museum dedicated to World War II in Florida and most of the Southeast. Items from Korea and Vietnam are also on display.

Yet the museum, a tribute to the past, faces an uncertain future.

Supporters stress it’s urgent that the museum move to a new site to survive and preserve all of its items, most donated by veterans and their families. The 225-member

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Camp Gordon Johnston Museum Association has already purchased a 1.3-acre site at 1873 U.S. Highway 98 West for a new 6,000-squarefoot building across from Carrabelle’s public beach. The site has a view of the Gulf, where soldiers once practiced their skills on amphibious landing craft.

Problem is, there aren’t enough funds to build a new facility.

“I firmly believe we could be an economic boon to this county,” said museum curator/director Linda Minichiello. She and her husband, Tony, both volunteers, have kept the nonprofit museum going since it first opened nearly 20 years ago in makeshift headquarters in a former fish shack. The museum is now in its fourth location.

“We average a little over 4,000 people a year and we could double that, at the least, with a new facility on the beach,” said Tony Minichiello, also the association president.

“Right now we can’t even put a sign on 98 to let people know we’re here.”

In a major victory, the Florida Legislature voted during the 2015 session to give the military museum $500,000 to build a new structure and appropriately display its historic gems. But hopes were dashed by a June veto by Gov. Rick Scott.

“I was surprised and disappointed,” said state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who sponsored the budget request for the museum along with Monticello Republican Rep. Halsey Beshears. “It has great historic value, and if not for volunteers, we would have lost a treasure.”

Both legislators vowed they will be pushing for funding again in 2016 and intend to make a more high-profile appeal.

“There are items of true historical value that no one else in the world has,” Beshears said. “But it’s off the beaten path. No doubt more people would come in if they could

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drive by and see it. It’s a really cool place.”

In a beach location, the museum would serve as a “destination spot for this area,” Montford said.

Lisa Munson, executive director of the Carrabelle Area Chamber of Commerce, agrees.

“Location, location, location,” she said.

“Highway 98 is where all the tourists pass through. It’s across from the beach area with parking and picnic tables and right next to the RV park. There’s a path to the Crooked River Lighthouse. The beach, the lighthouse and the museum would be three major attractions all within a quarter-mile walking distance from each other on a major highway.”

Three flagpoles displaying the American flag, a POW flag and the World War II “Grateful Nation Remembers” flag mark the museum’s proposed new site, now a manicured grassy lot. The Camp Gordon Johnston Museum Association owns the beach property and has raised $150,000 toward a new structure, expected to cost about $500,000. The museum has already spent $30,000 for architectural renderings.

Supporters estimate the project would create about 30 new jobs.

The association will also be building a memorial and a separate unit for vehicles now in storage: a World War II German leiferwagen (truck), Willys Jeep (manufactured during World War II) and a DUKW amphibious truck. The museum is adding a half-scale model of a Higgins boat, a World War II amphibious landing craft being built by Carrabelle resident Martin Benbaruch, son of a Holocaust survivor and a native Israeli boat builder.

The museum’s budget is about $50,000 a year, $20,000 of which comes from the Franklin County Tourist Development

STATE ARCHIVES OF FLORIDA, FLORIDA MEMORY

Council. The other $30,000 comes from donations from dedicated supporters.

There’s no cost to visit the museum, but visitors generally leave a few dollars in the donation box.

The museum pays rent and insurance costs at its current home, a former school that includes municipal offices. The complex needs a new roof, but the city can’t afford one, Tony Minichiello said. In addition, utility costs are expensive, so the museum can only use air conditioning 23 hours a week during its operating hours.

“It’s operating on a shoestring, and it’s not acceptable,” Montford said. “We owe it to the community, the state and the country to preserve the museum.”

In addition to seeking money from the state, Camp Gordon Johnston association members have requested $250,000 from the

county Tourist Development Council to begin construction of the museum but as of this summer didn’t know whether any additional funds would be granted.

“We need to move some of these items into an air-conditioned environment as soon as possible,” Linda Minichiello said.

“We can start small and add onto it.”

The humidity is already causing concerns about mold and disintegration of uniforms and documents.

“In that environment, these items won’t last,” Beshears said.

In another effort to bolster support, the museum association is launching a Tallahassee-based advisory board to start a capital fund.

“We want to get the word out to the business community, especially those who value history,” Tony Minichiello said.

D-DAY TRAINING Soldiers jumping obstacles during training at Camp Gordon Johnston (circa 1943).

“I think a lot of people would be interested in visiting the museum and supporting the museum if they just knew about it,” said Tallahassee lawyer Matt Mathews, general counsel to the museum. “It’s a great asset for everyone.”

Longtime history buffs, the Minichiellos have been involved with the museum from the outset.

When the Tallahassee residents decided to buy a second home in Carrabelle, they were intrigued by the area’s military history. They organized the Camp Gordon Johnston Museum Association in 1995. In 1996, veterans came to Carrabelle to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the closing of the training camp. The reunion was so successful, it evolved into the annual Camp

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STATE ARCHIVES OF FLORIDA, FLORIDA MEMORY

SAVING HISTORY African-American soldiers in front of barracks at Camp Gordon Johnston (circa 1943).

Gordon Johnston Days, a three-day event with a parade, dance and other activities.

But the reunions weren’t enough, veterans decided. A museum was needed. In 1998, the first collections were displayed in a 96-square-foot fishing shack. Linda Minichiello was the first volunteer.

“It was so small, only two people could be there at a time,” said Tony.

The museum would then move three more times, to a former school, the downtown Carrabelle theater, and in 2008, to its current location at the municipal complex. The museum’s eight-year lease expires in 2017.

“We don’t even have all of our artifacts displayed,” said Linda. “Every year, veterans and their families bring us more items.”

In her soft Southern voice, she passionately spins a story behind each button, badge and banner on display at the museum.

Some of those captivating tales are written

in the museum’s Amphibian newspaper, on tapes or online, but many are only kept in Linda’s memory.

She not only provides tours to visitors, including busloads of schoolchildren, she also shows modern war movies and documentaries in the museum’s two small theaters and makes the popcorn. It’s all a labor of love.

“For me, it’s doing something for my father,” Linda said. “He was an amphibious soldier who fought in the Aleutian Islands during World War II.” He later suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was hospitalized for many years.

Linda is retired from a 25-year career teaching English and journalism in a Cairo, Georgia, high school. Tony was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, then went into printing and sales. Married 52 years, both went to college on the G.I. Bill.

Linda is also a volunteer with Homeland Security and handles calls about live ammunition still found in the area.

“I call the base commander at the bomb

squad out of Tyndall and they’re out here,” she said.

The museum shares a great deal of littleknown information, including the contributions of nurses who trained at Camp Gordon Johnston and accompanied troops when they landed in Normandy and other invasions.

“These were experienced nurses who were given another year of training to do what a doctor normally does,” because of the lack of physicians to treat the wounded, said Linda.

One of the nurses who trained at Carrabelle “talked about how scared they were” during a museum visit. “The medical corps doesn’t carry weapons and they treat our soldiers, the enemy and citizens,” said Linda. “As soon as they got off the boats, they set up field hospitals.”

The museum’s exhibits include recreations of a field hospital, a mailroom, a barracks and a 1940’s living room. Among many unusual items are two rare Japanese propaganda fans, information about German prisoners of war who were put to work in Carrabelle, and a rare camouflage Army jacket and trousers recovered from a garbage bag.

“Camo was only used temporarily during the summer of ’44,” Linda said. Because of its similarity to German uniforms, the camouflage caused “so many deaths from friendly fire, they pulled it.” An astute yard man found the garbage bag filled with military keepsakes and brought it to the museum.

“Some people don’t know what they have,” Linda said. “It’s so important that all this history be saved.”

CAMP GORDON JOHNSTON WORLD WAR II MUSEUM: 1001 Gray Ave., Carrabelle; 1–4 p.m. Monday–Thursday, Noon–4 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Saturday; (850) 697-8575; campgordonjohnston.com/museum The museum’s email address is campgordonjohnston@fairpoint.net.

ABOUT GORDON JOHNSTON Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Gordon Johnston fought with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War then went on to serve in the Philippine-American War and then World War I. He earned the Medal of Honor for action in the Philippines and the Distinguished Service Cross (the nation’s second highest military honor) in World War I, along with three Silver Stars, a Purple Heart and Officer of the Legion of Honor (from the French). He retired from the U.S. Army as a full colonel. He died from a polo accident in 1934.

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UPCOMING PERFORMANCES FALL 2015 OCTOBER 1

OCTOBER 13

The Barefoot Movement OCTOBER 15

Movement and Location

World Premiere: Urban Bush Women - Walking With ‘Trane OCTOBER 24

OCTOBER 27

NOVEMBER 5

Edgar Meyer & Christian McBride

Anaïs Mitchell

Orion: The Man Who Would Be King

NOVEMBER 10

NOVEMBER 21

NOVEMBER 24

Kate Davis

Gil Shaham

Bill Frisell Trio

Upcoming 2016 shows – Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Maya Beiser, Shen Wei Dance Arts, and more!

DECEMBER 1

Tallahassee Broadway Series

850.644.6500 openingnights.fsu.edu

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I-10 CORRIDOR

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Northern Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties and Holmes, Washington, Calhoun, Jackson +

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Liberty Counties and Madison + Taylor Counties

Moving Up and Out

Headquartered in Grand Ridge, Ducky Johnson House Movers lifts or moves about 1,000 structures annually By Lazaro Aleman

S

DREW GREEN PHOTOGRAPHY

ON THE MOVE A third-generation business, Ducky Johnson House Movers moves about 1,000 structures each year. Although located in Northwest Florida’s rural Jackson County, its clients span the U.S.

“It’s been crazy this week,” President/CEO Charlie Johnson offers as he walks from the repair shop, where he was helping service a vehicle, to his nearby office. “Five trucks just left for New Jersey. We’re all spread out and I coordinate it all.

I’m a one-man band.”

Casually attired in jeans and polo shirt, the 41-year-old Johnson is solidly built and muscular, with short-cropped hair and a neatly-trimmed beard.

“Right now, we’ve got crews in Galveston, New Orleans and Toms River (New Jersey),” he continues.

“We keep branching out; I don’t know where it’s going to stop.”

Indeed, since Charlie — as he prefers to be called — took over in 2007 upon the death of his father and

JOEBAY AERIALS / JOEBAY.COM / DAVID WENTZEL / PORT ST. JOE FLORIDA

uppose your house foundation needs leveling, shoring or replacing; you want your house moved to a new site; or a historic building requires relocation to save it from demolition: Who would you call?

A house mover, of course; and if you’re in North Florida, the East or Gulf coasts — or anywhere in the country for that matter — you’ll likely call Ducky Johnson House Movers in Jackson County.

Headquartered in Grand Ridge off U.S. 90, the third-generation familyowned-and-operated business goes back 50-plus years — more if you count the grandfather’s experience — and it lifts and/or moves about 1,000 structures annually.

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DREW GREEN PHOTOGRAPHY

company founder, Charles “Ducky” Johnson, the operation has expanded from three to 10 states. More emphasis also is being put on elevation and foundation work as opposed to moving structures. Accounting for the growth and shift in emphasis is the rash of storms that have caused major flooding and damage in populated regions of the country in recent years, necessitating the shoring and elevation of houses.

With rapid expansion, of course, come not only opportunities but also challenges.

“The biggest challenge we face is organization and structure to get the men lined up to do their jobs efficiently,” Charlie says. “We’re bidding jobs from 1,000 miles away, so there has to be a lot of coordination and organization. In my father’s day, everyone met at the shop mornings and we talked face to face; now the person doing the job may not see the persons helping him. We were used to doing everything old school; now we’re having to change quickly.”

As he talks, Charlie scrolls his smartphone, displaying photos of projects his company is bidding or working on, along with copies of lengthy contractual documents — all contained within the framework of the small electronic device. Although largely computer illiterate by his own admission, he couldn’t function without his smartphone, given the extent of business conducted electronically nowadays.

It’s a far cry from 1963, when his dad started the company with little more than a dilapidated pickup truck, a set of steel beams and a whole lot of grit and gumption.

“My grandfather, Noah, moved houses to survive,” Charlie says. “My father took it to a business level. Did my dad have it harder than I’ve had it? A hundred times more. If it wasn’t for my parents paving the road for me, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

For him, there was never any question what he would do post high school graduation.

“This is the only thing I’ve ever known,” Charlie says. “When I was 2, my father put me in the car with him, and I was in the car with him my whole life. I graduated on June 1, 1992, and went to work full time June 2.”

By 1995, his father had started releasing the company reins, allowing Charlie to exert a growing degree of control.

“He went from coming to the shop every morning, to coming three mornings, to coming two mornings, to coming one

morning,” Charlie says. “He let me call the little shots, then the little bigger shots, then the bigger shots. Still, at the end of the day, he was always in the background. He was watching a lot more than I knew he was watching.”

His father’s passing away changed the nature of the business for him.

“It took a lot of the enjoyment from the work,” Charlie says. “As long as my father was involved, it was enjoyable. Now I have to make the decisions, it isn’t quite as enjoyable.

Because the wrong decision comes back on me; it used to be it came back on him.”

Helping him administer the operation is his wife, Nicole. Once a week at least, he’s on a plane to check on the progress of some

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out-of-state project. A tightly knit family organization, the company employs from 100 to 150 men during the peak summer season, counting subcontractors.

“But there’s always family on the ground at every site to oversee the operation and make sure things are done right,” Charlie says.

“That’s an advantage we’ve got.”

Typically, when house foundations are repaired or replaced, his company does the lifting, a two-to-three-day process, and subcontractors do the actual foundation work.

Altogether, the process takes about 30 days.

Moving structures is more complicated; it entails satisfying bonding, licensing and permitting requirements, as well as

COURTESY OF DUCKY JOHNSON HOME ELEVATIONS

BY LAND AND SEA No matter what you want moved, or where it has to go, Charlie Johnson’s workers find a way to do it.

disconnecting utilities, digging under the foundations and employing unified systems of hydraulic jacks and dollies to lift and move the structures, among sundry other activities. It also requires coordinating the efforts with various public and private entities, as the transports may require the temporary closure of roads and removal of mailboxes, phone and power lines. Every structure and situation is unique, and improvisation always plays handmaiden to expertise.

“There’s no rulebook saying what you can or can’t do,” Charlie says. “A lot of creativity goes into it.”

Almost any structure can be moved, no matter its height, size, weight or material makeup. Money is the only limitation.

“If the checkbook is open, it can happen,” Charlie says. “But as a general rule, everything has to make dollars and sense.”

His advice to homeowners is to do their diligent homework when choosing a company: Ask for credentials, insurance, experience, workman’s compensation and references.

“We welcome competition,” Charlie says. “We just want to make sure it’s good competition. If someone doesn’t understand what they’re doing, it harms the industry.”

Charlie sits on the board of directors of the International Association of Structure Movers (IASM), the industry’s trade association, with about 400 members worldwide. In Florida, possibly 10 house-moving companies meet IASM standards, Charlie says.

“If you haven’t been raised in the business or been around it a long time, it’s hard to do,” he says. “We always say the school of hard knocks is where you learn it.”

A drag-race enthusiast and father of two young daughters, Charlie is anchored in family and community.

“At the end of the day, family is what makes us go,” he says. “Even if they’re not family, we’ve got guys who’ve been with us 25 years — they’re family.”

As a rule, he solicits employees’ input when it comes to the big decisions, figuring they have skin in the game.

“That’s the reason we’re in New Jersey,” Charlie says. “They voted to go. The ones that gotta go decide; if it’s no, we don’t go. At the end of the day, if family can’t come first, we’ll shut it down and do something else.”

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EMERALD COAST CORRIDOR

Coastal Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties

TRAINING FOR SUCCESS A student in Northwest Florida State College’s welding technology program works in the welding facility on the Niceville campus.

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Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow Business, education and government collaborate to train a new generation in Okaloosa By Linda Kleindienst

PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE

W

hen companies are looking to relocate, one of the first questions they want answered is whether a trained workforce is available to staff their operations.

Okaloosa County is tackling that question head-on, putting in place programs designed to put area youths on career paths starting in the early grades.

“The employers we are fortunate to have in our community are all essentially telling us the same thing. The No. 1 challenge in growing their business is finding the right workforce,” says Nathan Sparks, executive director of the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County.

“Our unemployment rate has been one of the lowest of the 67 counties,” Sparks says.

“That’s a good thing, because most people who want jobs are working. But it’s a challenge when you look through the lens of an employer looking to grow or expand. The question is: Where am I going to find the talent?”

The answer is a growing emphasis on collaboration by a variety of organizations within the county, from the EDC to the schools to the business community, to ensure development of a workforce that allows Okaloosa — a community with more than 300 defense contractors — to compete today and in the future.

“We think outside the box,” says Caralee Gibson, president and CEO of GSC Systems, an electronics security company. She regularly meets with a unique combination of interested parties from the community in her position as chairman of the TeCMEN (Technology Coast Manufacturing and Engineering Network), established by the EDC in 1989 to be the premier business advocate for industries that focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

“Only through selfless cooperation do you get the best result,” she explains. “We have an incubator spirit, and we want to make sure the rest of the country knows that is what you will find here.

“People go out of their way to resolve a challenge, even for someone else. Our focus is to sow seeds of collaboration and cooperation to provide a conduit for the success of the technical companies in our area.”

Much of the focus has been on what can be offered by the schools — and coordinated from elementary grades up through the college level.

In September 2014, Northwest Florida State College and the Okaloosa County School District joined forces to develop

a joint-use facility and programs designed to give local students the opportunity to grow into the hightech, highly skilled workforce needed by local businesses.

“We can’t continue to put students in a box,” says Dennis Sherwood, dean of career and technical education at Northwest Florida State College. “This type of training will make them successful in the long run.”

The college already has a manufacturing lab, which includes the welding program and expanded electronics offerings. And the machining lab continues to grow in popularity.

The major problem educators still face, Sherwood says, is “convincing folks they want to go into those jobs. People have the image that manufacturing is bad, and a lot of jobs went overseas. But many of those jobs are coming back, and local employers are screaming for employees. With overtime, some employees can be earning six figures.”

The old-world vision of manufacturing is tough to crack, but students are learning that it is a clean industry, and much of it is computerized. Also, getting into the field requires education.

“WE CAN’T CONTINUE TO PUT STUDENTS IN A BOX. THIS TYPE OF TRAINING WILL MAKE THEM SUCCESSFUL IN THE LONG RUN.” DENNIS SHERWOOD, DEAN OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION AT NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE Sherwood, a transplant from Wisconsin, says he is amazed at the cooperation between the various interest groups in Okaloosa, calling it “unsurpassed from anything I’ve seen.

Everyone here is very open, including all the

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eighth-graders in hopes the students will continue their interest in a high-tech field.

A new addition to the mix is the Doolittle Institute in Fort Walton Beach, which encourages a curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade that helps equip them to be the next generation of scientists, engineers and problem-solvers.

Beth Hanning, Doolittle’s STEM outreach director, has been collaborating with the middle school for about three years, including providing summer programs on subjects such as aviation and 3-D modeling and printing, which introduces math theory.

“This year, the eighth-grade students bowled me over, creating rubber band cars and chess sets. Some took hours to make

850businessmagazine.com

elaborate chess pieces,” Hanning says. “In five years, some of these students will be going into the workforce. They won’t be asking where the copier is. They’ll be asking where the 3-D printer is.”

Spark says that when new businesses consider moving to Okaloosa, the No. 1 question used to be: How much money can you give me? Now, he says, the top question is whether the county can provide the needed workforce.

Today, says Caralee Gibson, employers are being invited into classrooms and students are being offered jobs before they graduate.

“You don’t need to conduct an interview if you can see these students work,” she says.

“Some make $20 to $30 an hour when they graduate.” n

PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE (3-D PRINTER) AND STEMM ACADAMY (AIRMETHODS)

educational institutions. Where I came from, we had two colleges within 5 miles of each other and there was very little cooperative effort between them.”

The Integrated Career and Technical Education Initiative will enhance what is already available and establish partnerships with the local industry and business community to focus on meeting their current and future staff needs.

At the county’s STEMM Center — established by the Florida Legislature as the state’s first middle school GROWING concentrating on the TOMORROW’S Sciences, Technology, WORKFORCE The pilot and crew Engineering, Math from AirMethods (top) and Medicine — stutaught the students how the electronics dents begin preparof the helicopter work ing in sixth grade and are utilized in life-saving efforts when to learn about highthey are called to the tech fields where scene of an accident; (Bottom) Students they could find jobs work in Northwest later in life. Last Florida State College’s 3-D printing lab, which school year, there currently includes were 177 students. three 3-D printers.

An invitation to attend the school comes based on the outcome of fourthgrade testing.

In sixth grade, there is an elective for aerospace and another that allows for a yearlong research project, explains Principal Wanda Avery. A class on critical thinking skills is offered in seventh grade, and the research option is available in all grades.

“We prepare students to enter a workforce that is very technical and science-oriented,” she says. “Regular schools have core classes and electives, but what’s unique about us is that we try to showcase electives in technical areas like robotics, aerospace and 3-D design.

All of our core classes are advanced courses.”

A flight simulator gives students an opportunity to “fly” helicopters. In some classes, students deal with unmanned aerial vehicles.

The biomedical program is looking to expand into forensics training. And there is talk of adding information and communications technology.

Four of the county’s major high schools continue the focus on STEMM education. For instance, Choctaw offers an aerospace academy through Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, while Fort Walton Beach focuses on biomedical education. All present their STEMM-track programs to the graduating

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works for us “I feel it really captures the pulse of the regional, national and international marketplace.”

Dustin Frost, Auxiliary Service Coordinator, TCC Conference and Events Department 850 Magazine advertiser since 2010

TCC Conference and Events Department made the decision to advertise with 850 because they felt the community was mostly unaware that TCC offered conference and events services. They could not think of a more effective way to get the word out than by advertising with a publication that is so respected, has ideal distribution numbers and whose readers are the exact people they are trying to reach. The partnership between 850 Magazine and TCC Conference and Events Department has been ideal for promotion.

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DEAL ESTATE Just Sold

SOUTHLAND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

A Parcel with Great Potential

By Rebecca Padgett

For some, an undeveloped parcel of land may seem barren. To others, it speaks of possibilities. Early this year, an investment group out of Georgia was overtaken by the potential of a 2,718-acre tract in Pace, Florida, and acquired the land for $3.9 million in a sale coordinated by Sperry Van Ness/Southland Commercial Real Estate. The deal went to closing on March 31.

The property was formerly known as Jubilee and later, upon becoming Contrada Hills in 2005, it was said to be the future site of a 588-home community with an 18-hole golf course — in phase one. Subsequent development was to include additional residences, a school, parks and commercial and retail office space.

The planned development, however, never came out of the ground. The relationship between partners in the project went south in 2008 and so, too, had the real estate market. “Jubilee” went into receivership and was listed for sale.

Sonny Granger, principal and senior advisor at Sperry Van Ness/Southland Commercial Real Estate,

and Chris Palmer, advisor, represented the seller throughout the transaction. The pair overcame challenges including asset management, bankruptcy court and receivership.

The acreage features more than 6,000 feet of frontage on Willard Norris Road/Chumuckla Highway along its north side and 2,000 feet of frontage on Berryhill Road at its southern boundary.

Of the total acreage, 2,100 acres are developable and the remainder are wetlands. The majority of the property is timber land. Palmer states that it has excellent long-term potential for development with numerous subdivisions being developed in the area.

“The property sold for multiple reasons, but the main reason is that the property is strategically located directly in the path of growth of one of Florida’s fastest-growing communities, which gives the property tremendous development potential,” said Palmer. n

Quick Look Address: 4300 block of Berryhill Road, Pace Acres: 2,718 Sold Price: $3.9 million Contact: Sonny Granger and Chris Palmer, Sperry Van Ness/SouthLand Commercial Real Estate, (850) 434-7500, cpalmer@svn.com

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DEAL ESTATE Just Listed

Beautiful Brownstone Ready for Occupancy DUSTIN PARKMAN/NBI PROPERTIES

By Rebecca Padgett

Quick Look Address: 425 NW Hollywood Blvd., Fort Walton Beach Square Feet: 2,000 List Price: $2,200 per month Contact: Dustin Parkman, (850) 218-8408, dustin@nbiproperties.com

Charm and elegance are qualities that enhance a sense of grandeur and stateliness about a building. Stanford Hall Executive Suites exemplifies those traits, evoking both importance and comfort. These luxurious suites are turn-key ready for a professional services firm.

Stanford Hall, brick with white accents, has a Victorian feel about it and is surrounded by meticulously maintained landscaping and beautiful shade trees. Enter the building and you will feel as if you have entered not an office building, but a friend’s home.

The ground floor features a sizable reception area, two offices, a restroom and a conference room furnished with a whiteboard.

The second floor is home to three additional offices, a kitchenette, a second bathroom and a large executive area. All rooms are generous in size with cream and white color

schemes and added features such as built-in bookshelves and cabinetry.

Abundant windows admit lots of natural light and provide pleasant views of the surrounding area. The two floors provide all the necessary amenities but hold potential for additions and customization. A variety of companies would fit well in this location.

There is ample parking for employees and clients. The location is within minutes of downtown Fort Walton Beach, the Santa Rosa Mall and restaurants that range from quick service to sit down dining.

“This is the ideal space for a small- to medium-sized professional services company.

With direct access to Mary Esther Boulevard and Highway 98, this centrally located building is ready for immediate occupancy,” said Realtor Dustin Parkman. n

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ver the years we've seen a lot of banks come and go. Since 1969 we've built a solid foundation of trust with all communities we serve.

We've been here for over 40 years – and we're not going anywhere.

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BUSINESS NEWS

SOUNDBYTES

CAPITAL NEW BEGINNINGS

» Tallahassee

Community College has hired two new vice presidents and a director. Barbara Wills, MOOREa former assistant DAVIS superintendent of Leon County Schools, is now vice president of administrative services. Feleccia Moore-Davis accepted the position as the new provost. She was previously the vice president for instruction at Lone Star College-CyFair in Houston. Audrey Mathews, previously the employee relations manager at the Florida Department of Revenue’s Office of Workforce Management, is the new director of human resources.

» Brady J. Benford has joined

Ballard Partners as a partner in the Tallahassee office. He has advocated before the legislative and executive branches on a variety of high-profile issues such as casino gaming, pari-mutuel wagering, tobacco, alcohol, retail convenience stores, telecommunications and health care.

» Scott Shalley has taken over as executive director of the Florida Association of Counties. Prior to joining the association in 2012, he served as executive director of the Florida Architects Association for six years, leaving to join Figg Engineering Group as vice president/director of business management for seven years.

» Ameris Bank recently named

William “Bill” Watson, MBA, as vice president of Commercial and Industrial Banking for the Tallahassee market. In this role, he will work directly with business owners in the market to grow

business deposits and loans, and further develop commercial relationships.

Five local leaders have been selected to join Ameris Bank’s newly created Community Board of Directors. In addition to Tallahassee Market President Robert Vice and Regional President Eddie Creamer, the board will include Rep. Halsey Beshears, Rudy Rowe, Jeff Hartley, Brent Sparkman and Dr. Hector Mejia.

» Wilson & As-

sociates LLC, a Tallahassee-based lobbying and association management firm specializing in the TORRESfields of energy, conFILLYAW struction, infrastructure and defense, has named Tami Torres-Fillyaw as vice president of Marketing and Communications.

Fillyaw had previously worked as a consultant to the firm, assisting clients with marketing, message development, media relations, digital and social media, event planning and member recruitment.

» Corizon Health, a national leader in correctional health care solutions, has named Martha Harbin as its director of External Affairs. Harbin joined Corizon Health in early 2014 as director of Business Development for the Southeast Region after handling Florida media relations for the company as an independent consultant for the previous 10 years. » Rick Feldman, CPA, has

joined the Tallahassee office of James Moore, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, where he is a senior consultant in the Accounting and Controllership Services department.

Prior to joining the firm, Feldman served as an accounting services manager for the City of Tallahas-

AMERIS BANK DIRECTORS: (L TO R) JEFF HARTLEY, BRENT SPARKMAN, RUDY ROWE, HECTOR MEJIA, ROBERT VICE AND REP. HALSEY BESHEARS

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see. Three other employees in the Tallahassee office have been promoted: Wayne Durrett and Angela Roberts to associate accountant; Beckey Skipper to senior administrative assistant.

» Charlie Johnson has been promoted to senior project manager at Wood+Partners Inc., a landscape architecture and land-planning firm with offices in Tallahassee and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Johnson, who works in Tallahassee, provides landscape architecture and land planning services for parks and recreation, urban communities and mixeduse commercial projects. He is also actively involved with the Florida Main Streets Program. » Howard Glassman has joined Gannett Fleming as director of planning services.

Based in the Tallahassee office, he GLASSMAN is responsible for expanding the firm’s participation in short- and long-range transportation planning opportunities across Florida and around the nation. » Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A., a professional accounting, assurance and tax services firm headquartered in Tallahassee, has welcomed Gabe Crook to the Assurance Services Department.

LOCAL HONORS

» Leon County Administrator Vincent S. Long was elected president of the Florida Association of County Managers at the Florida Association of Counties annual conference. FACM was established in 2014 by county managers from throughout the state as a professional association to address common challenges and opportunities that impact county government in Florida.

At the same conference, Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge was honored with the Presidential Advocacy Award for his assistance to the association on public policy matters and protection of county revenues during the spring legislative session.

In July, Desloge was elected vice president of the National Association of Counties. » Leon County Tax Collector Doris Maloy has been honored by the National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers and Finance Officers with the Victor E. Martinelli Outstanding Treasurer’s

CHARLIE JOHNSON, WOOD+PARTNERS INC.

Award in recognition of her leadership and professionalism in the operation of her office.

» Cascades Park was selected as a recipient of the 2015 Engineering Excellence Grand Award from the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers in the Water and Stormwater category. Genesis President Mark Llewellyn, P.E., accepted the award — the seventh the engineering firm has received for Cascades Park. » Two Tallahassee attorneys were honored at The Florida Bar’s 65th annual convention. Clark Jennings received the Claude Pepper Outstanding Government Lawyer Award, which recognizes an “outstanding Florida lawyer who has made exemplary contributions” as a practicing government lawyer.

An assistant attorney general in Florida’s Department of Legal Affairs, Jennings has been a public servant for 30 years, also working for the Department of Insurance and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and serving as general counsel of the Department of Citrus.

Stephen William Metz received the G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award for meritorious service to the legal profession. Metz is a Guardian ad Litem volunteer advocate and also helps manage a mobile food-service kitchen for low-income families. In his honor, a scholarship will go to a secondyear student at the Florida State University College of Law who demonstrates an exceptionally high degree of integrity, ethics, professionalism and a concern for others. » Richard A. Greenberg, a partner with Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, was sworn in as treasurer of the GREENBERG

Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at the group’s annual meeting. In addition to criminal defense, he represents clients in attorney discipline, bar admission and professional licensing matters.

» The Florida Society of Asso-

ciation Executives has honored two Tallahassee leaders with prestigious awards: Executive of the Year — Paul D. Ledford CAE, DPL, president and CEO of the Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association; and Executive Rising Star — Christy Gandy, director of Administration at the Florida Ports Council.

» Jeffrey W. Askins, CFP®, an LPL Financialaffiliated advisor at Six Pillars Financial Advisors, has been ASKINS recognized as a top financial advisor and named to LPL’s Director’s Club. This distinction is based on where the advisor’s annual production ranks among LPL’s approximately 14,000 registered nationwide advisors. Six Pillars is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Commerce Credit Union. » Alexis Phil-

lips of Rogers, Gunter, Vaughn Insurance has accepted the position of board chair for the Young Philanthropist PHILLIPS Council Board of the United Way, which also includes a seat on the United Way Board of Directors.

And Christi Billington, commercial BILLINGTON account manager at Rogers, Gunter, Vaughn, was recently named the 2015 Florida Outstanding CSR of the Year by the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research.

PHOTOS BY ROVIDED BY PROFILED INDIVIDUALS

» The Florida Federation of Business and Professional Women has elected Christy Crump of Tallahassee, director of operations with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Regulatory Compliance Services, to serve her second term as president.

LOCAL MERGERS/ ACQUISITIONS

» In June, Target Copy, the famil-

iar copy shop on Tennessee Street, acquired and merged with Lithohaus Printers and Mailhaus to form Target Print & Mail.

Target Copy was originally established by Mayda Williams in 1982.

Her daughter, Tracey Cohen, bought the business in 2009.

» Awards4U, a recognition

company based in Tallahassee, recently acquired National Award Services to form National Awards4U — a new subsidiary of Awards4U specializing in supplying Rotary Club products nationwide. The acquisition makes National Awards4U the second-largest officially licensed vendor of Rotary merchandise in the world. A Rotarian since 1991, CEO Sam Varn has owned and operated Awards4U since 1987.

APPOINTED

BY GOV. SCOTT

» Peter Butler, 51, of Tallahas-

see, director of the technology sector for National Strategies LLC, to the Technology Advisory Council.

» Anthony Miller, 45, of Tallahassee, deputy general counsel of the Florida Department of Lottery, to the Florida State Retirement Commission.

» Lynne Roberts, 53, of Tallahassee, a manager with Wolters Kluwer, to the Board of Athletic Training.

» David Stewart, 56, of Tal-

lahassee, as the chief medical examiner of District Two. (Reappointment)

EMERALD COAST NEW BEGINNINGS

» Fisher Brown Bottrell, one of the nation’s largest comprehensive insurance agencies, has opened a new office in Grand Boulevard at Sandestin’s Town Center.

More than 20 employees work in the 5,000-square-foot office to provide a variety of risk management solutions including business insurance, personal insurance, employee benefits and bonding. The new office is located at 500 Grand Boulevard, Suite 220, above Mitchell’s Fish Market. » The University of West Florida has named Steven Cunningham as vice president for administrative services and chief financial

officer. He will also serve as chief executive officer of Business Enterprises Inc. Most recently Cunningham served as the vice president CUNNINGHAM of administration at Northern Illinois University.

» Furniture South in Santa Rosa Beach has welcomed Lauren Callahan, a lifelong resident CALLAHAN of the Emerald Coast, as director of sales. She will specialize in Emerald Coast homes and rental properties. » Real Estate Sales Agent Sherry Slotter has joined the rapidly growing team at the Newman-Dailey Resort Properties Real Estate Division SLOTTER in Miramar Beach. She is an accredited short sale and foreclosure specialist. » Dr. Steve Jordan, who for the

past 24 years was the team physician for Florida State University’s football and baseball teams and was a staff physician at the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic, has joined the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. Jordan is a fellowshiptrained board-certified physician specializing in orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine, particularly in athletic injuries of the shoulder, elbow and knee.

» White-Wilson of Fort Walton

Beach has welcomed Dr. Frederick Weiss to its Pain Medicine Clinic. He holds doctorates in Pain Medicine and Physical Therapy.

» First Florida Bank in Destin has named Jared O’Neal as the senior vice president of First Florida Wealth Group. He O’NEAL has held various roles with Raymond James in St. Petersburg since 2006. » Jennifer Mostert, CPA, has been promoted to manager in the Audit and Assurance department at Pensacola-based Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund.

She received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of West Florida. Her primary areas of concentration 850 Business Magazine

include providing audit and related assurance services for a number of the firm’s corporate, not-for-profit, government and hospitality industry clients.

» Warren Averett, LLC, a national CPA and advisory firm, recently announced promotions for Stacy Asarisi, Joseph McNair, Tara Godbey and Kristen McAllister. Arisi, who has been with the firm for 10 years, serves as the manager of Administrative Services. McNair serves as a client consultant manager within Warren Averett Asset Management. Godbey is a manager and McAllister is a senior manager in the Audit Division. » First Partners Bank has opened a new Loan Production Office in Northwest Florida, the first Florida location for the Birmingham, Alabama, based bank.

The new office will focus primarily on providing business lending and consumer mortgages for those in the 30A community. » Shannon Reeves has been named wedding coordinator for Great Southern Restaurants.

She will be responsible for booking and directing weddings, catering and related events at the Fish House, Atlas Oyster House and Jackson’s Steakhouse, as well as the company’s 2,500-square-foot historical event venue, Palafox House, and Lee House, a boutique hotel and events space in historic downtown Pensacola. » The Nathan Abbott Team at ResortQuest Real Estate recently opened its new office at 9657 Highway 98 West in Miramar Beach.

LOCAL HONORS

» Gail Morgan, the Okaloosa

County Tourist Development Council’s film commissioner, has been elected to Film Florida’s 2015–2016 board of directors. She has led the Emerald Coast Film Commission for the past five years.

» Florida’s tourism marketing corporation, VISIT FLORIDA, has selected several Northwest Florida tourism officials to serve on its committees and leadership team.

From Escambia County: • Visit Pensacola President Steve Hayes will serve as chair of the Advertising and Internet Committee and will also serve on the Marketing |

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BUSINESS NEWS

SOUNDBYTES

Council Steering Committee.

•W endi Davis from the UWF Historic Trust will serve on the Cultural, Heritage, Rural and Nature Committee.

• J ennifer Jackson from Margaritaville Beach Hotel will serve on the Meetings and Travel Trade Committee along with Kelly Eddins of the Hampton Inn on Pensacola Beach.

• J enifer Surface-Ivey from the Flora-Bama Lounge will serve on the Visitor Services Committee alongside Pensacola Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Nicole Stacey.

From Fort Walton Beach: •L ino Maldonado, Martin Owen and Jennifer Frost from ResortQuest have also joined VISIT FLORIDA’s 2015–2016 Tourism Industry Leadership team. Maldonado will serve as the secretary of the board of directors’ executive committee, Owen will serve as a member of the International Committee and Frost will serve as a member of the Industry Relations Committee.

» IMS ExpertServices of Pen-

sacola has received Corporate America magazine’s Legal Elite Award as 2015’s Best Expert Witness Search Firm. Legal Elite awards recognize individuals and firms that use their skills and experience to help companies across the nation navigate the complex legal landscape.

» Jonathan Tallman, financial advisor and CEO of The Tallman Group LLC of Niceville, was named Best Rising Star for the 2015 Industry Elite Awards by National Underwriter Life and Health Magazine. Tallman was featured on the front cover of the July issue of the publication.

» USA TODAY has ranked

Florida’s Gulf Islands National Seashore as No. 2 in its “10 Best Naturally Preserved Shorelines” in the nation. The site praised the Seashore’s barrier islands and undeveloped beaches, known for being among “the whitest and softest in the United States.”

» Visit South Walton has been

awarded with the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program seal by Destination Marketing Association International, in recognition of its commitment to industry excellence and meeting

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the industry standard for performance and accountability of DMOs around the world.

» The Better Business Bureau

Foundation serving Northwest Florida recently awarded Newman-Dailey Resort Properties in Miramar Beach the prestigious “Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics” in the category for business with 50-plus employees in District II — Okaloosa and Walton counties. The ninth annual Torch Award program recognizes businesses and charities that insist on exceptionally high standards of behavior.

NEWMAN-DAILEY RESORT PROPERTIES, TORCH AWARD FOR MARKETPLACE ETHICS

» Twin Cities Hospital in

Niceville received the Fit Friendly Workplace designation from the American Heart Association for the second consecutive year.

The Fit-Friendly Companies Program is helping improve the health of Americans by focusing on activities that are convenient, easy and free.

» Legal Services of North Flor-

ida Inc. Senior Attorney Leslie Powell was recognized for her leadership and community service to the Pensacola community with the Escambia-Santa Rosa Bar Association’s 2015 Community Service Award. As co-chair of the Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee she coordinated disaster relief efforts in Pensacola and served as chairperson on the Statewide Disaster Umbrella Group. In September, Powell was slated to become Legal Services’ deputy director, working in the Tallahassee office.

West Florida College of Business.

The Studers have committed $1 million to fund the center, which is dedicated to seeding economic growth.

» Aviation giant Boeing has moved into 83,000 square feet that was formerly the Edwin Watts Golf facility in Fort Walton Beach.

The space will be partly used for aircraft modernization and will contain labs and a repair center. » Hover Check Aerial Productions of Pensacola recently received a Federal Aviation Administration exemption to fly drones commercially and conduct aerial photography for real estate, land surveys, weddings, roofing inspections and other personal and commercial applications. » Fort Walton Machining is adding 30 new jobs with salaries averaging $41,000 or more and planning to purchase more than $1.5 million in new manufacturing equipment. It was the first company to apply for the City of Fort Walton Beach’s Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption, an incentive for new and expanding businesses passed by the electorate of the City of Fort Walton Beach in August 2014.

APPOINTED

BY GOV. SCOTT

» Peter Bos and James “Jim” Anders to the Northwest Florida Transportation Corridor Authority.

Bos, 68, of Destin, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Legendary LLC. He currently serves on

the Gulf Consortium. Anders, 64, of Seacrest, is the owner of Anders Real Estate and Timber Co Inc.

» Kenneth Fountain, 46, of Pensacola, an attorney and senior partner of Fountain Schultz & Associates, to the Technology Advisory Council.

» Andrea Minyard, 49, of Gulf Breeze, as chief medical examiner of District One. (Reappointment)

BAY LOCAL HONORS

» Nova Technologies of Panama City in June was recognized with the Governor’s Business Ambassador Award in recognition of efforts to create jobs and opportunities for Florida families.

Nova is a service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business that focuses on software and systems engineering as well as national security services. The company was founded in 1997 and is an industry leader in providing training for Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps service members worldwide. It currently has 17 facilities throughout the United States and over 140 employees. » Parker McClellan, executive director of Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, was appointed MCCLELLAN by the American Association of Airport Executives’ board of directors to serve on the U.S. Contract Tower Association 2015–2016 Policy Board to provide oversight of USTCA.

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

» The University of West Florida and Quint and Rishy Studer announced a partnership to develop the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of

850businessmagazine.com

COMMUNITY LEADERS IN MID-AUGUST CUT THE RIBBON FOR THE BAY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE’S (EDA) NEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTER OF EXCELLENCE. THE EDA HAS JOINED CAREERSOURCE GULF COAST’S BOARD OFFICES AT GULF COAST STATE COLLEGE.

NEW BEGINNINGS

I-10

Gina Mann as the new mortgage loan originator at the Edgewater branch. A lifelong resident of Bay County, she has more than 15 years experience in Panama City’s financial industry.

LOCAL HONORS

» Hancock Bank has named

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

» Florida Cancer Affiliates, a

practice in The U.S. Oncology Network, has acquired a radiation oncology facility in Panama City that now allows the medical oncologists of FCA to offer a full range of medical and radiation oncology treatment to patients in North Florida.

APPOINTED

BY GOV. SCOTT

» James “Carey” Scott,

56, of Panama City, a local restaurateur, to the Northwest Florida Transportation Corridor Authority

FORGOTTEN COAST NEW BEGINNINGS

» Mary Jim Montgomery is the new vice president of Patient Care Services at Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf in Port St. Joe. Among her previous jobs she was COO for Bay Medical Center in Panama City.

» Prime Meridian Bank took

the next step towards its expansion into Crawfordville with a ground breaking on the bank’s Crawfordville Highway site. The building should be complete in the fall of 2016.

LOCAL HONORS

PHOTOS BY ROVIDED BY PROFILED INDIVIDUALS

» Sacred Heart Hospital on

the Gulf in Port St. Joe has received an Overall Top Performer Award for its Emergency Department services from Professional Research Consultants Inc., an independent research-marketing firm. This award is given to health care facilities, providers, outpatient service lines and inpatient units that scored at the 100th percentile based on data collected from patients who rate the hospital as “excellent” when asked about the overall quality of care in the post-discharge patient satisfaction survey.

» Allen Cherry, county coordi-

nator for Madison County, has been honored with the Eunice Sullivan Economic Development Professional of the Year award, given annually by the Florida Economic Development Council in recognition of the achievements of an outstanding economic developer within the state of Florida.

Cherry has been involved in economic development in varying capacities for the past 43 years. He has been county coordinator for the past nine years, is past chair of the North Florida Economic Development Partnership and has been executive director of the Madison County Development Council for eight years.

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

consulting services

managed services telecom wireless

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Help Desk Support Server/Workstation Maintenance Disaster Recovery On-Site Consulting Cloud Services Vendor Management

» Swedish-owned Green

Circle BioEnergy has sold its Cottondale plant to the American-owned Enviva, one of the largest manufacturers of processed biomass fuel in the form of 100 percent wood pellets in the U.S. The plant has a production capacity of 650,000 metric tons per year and employs more than 100 people, including technicians, engineers and operators. Pellets produced at this facility are exported from Port Panama City for international customers.

Corporate Office: 850.402.3700 Help Desk Support: 850.386.TECH (8324) www.inspired-tech.net

GREAT SOUTHERN

APPOINTED

BY GOV. SCOTT

» Ted Everett to the Northwest

Florida Water Management District. Everett, 54, of Chipley, is executive director of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the owner and operator of Hard Labor Creek Hunting Plantation and Hard Labor Creek Off Road Park.

» Tommie Hudson to the

Holmes County Hospital Corporation. Hudson, 68, of Westville, is a retired school administrator.

Horizon Yachts in stock now!

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» Joseph Jernigan to the

Find out about listing your boat with us

Early Learning Coalition of Northwest Florida. Jernigan, 75, of Graceville, is the owner of Jernigan Forest Products and Arnold Lumber Company.

Compiled by Linda Kleindienst

GreatSouthernYachts.com (850) 424-5344 850 Business Magazine

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91

The Last Word

What I love most about this job — and journalism in general — is the opportunity I get to continually meet new and amazing people, learn new things and then pass the information on to others.

LINDA KLEINDIENST, EDITOR lkleindienst@rowlandpublishing.com PHOTO BY KAY MEYER

October/November is becoming my favorite issue because it is the time of the year when we unveil the winners of the Pinnacle Award, women who have made outstanding contributions to our 850 region but have sometimes gone unheralded. These women are part of the heart and soul of our various communities, leaders who have worked to make Northwest Florida a better place for all of us who are lucky enough to call this region our home.

I never met most of these women, so my first introduction was via a phone call. Each was gracious enough to share her thoughts, history and hopes with me. Not all of what each one told me could be included in the pages of this magazine, but I hope we have given you enough information to show you their mettle and their drive to succeed in business and their personal lives.

Among the interesting facts I learned along the way is that two of our honorees are military brats. Cecilia Homison’s dad was a career Marine (“Semper Fi!”) and Rebecca Pierson’s dad retired as a two-star general in the Air Force. “I was an Air Force brat to a T,” Pierson says with a laugh. Both learned lessons that would serve them well later in life. Homison, for instance, remembers moving frequently as a child but also recalls the advantages, including the ability to be adaptable and resilient — and, perhaps most importantly, to accept people from many walks of life.

Augusta West is a single mother who struggles to balance her career and her family responsibilities. She faces the same challenges most working mothers confront on a daily basis, trying to create the work-life balance that is right for them.

“Sometimes it means delving into a work project at midnight while he’s asleep, so that he can have my full attention as much as

possible,” she says. “At the end of the day, my goal is to be proud of the job I’ve done as a mother and as an executive director.”

Carol Carlan grew up in foster homes after her parents divorced and remembers having to repeatedly explain who her parents were and why she was in a temporary home. Yet she learned early about how to relate to others and value different behavioral styles.

Like many immigrants who preceded her, Simona Faroni came to America not knowing how to speak English and using a pocket dictionary to communicate. But she and her husband learned the language, put their entrepreneurial talents to work and today are living the American dream.

Now she looks back on those early days and admits, “Thank God, ignorance is bliss.” Most importantly, “We didn’t want to go back to Italy as losers.”

I’ll harken back to a quote from Sojourner Truth, the AfricanAmerican abolitionist and women’s-rights advocate born into slavery who escaped with her child to freedom: “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again.”

I hope you have read more about all of our talented Pinnacle Award winners in our feature story. They have varied careers and interests, but they all have the same drive to succeed and the desire to make their community a better place. By reading about them, I hope you will begin thinking about others in our region who are deserving of this honor — women who you will consider nominating for the 2016 Pinnacle Award. It’s never too early to start preparing your nomination.

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