Six years ago, the EDC engaged nationally renowned consultancy TIP Strategies to help us shape
Leaders of Tampa Bay EDC
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Tampa Bay EDC Leadership
The Tampa Bay EDC has attracted some of the brightest business leaders in the Tampa and Hillsborough County community. Each year, new executive officers are elected to help lead the organization on yet another successful year.
Ronald Christaldi
Chair
Managing Partner, Shumaker
Known for connecting and building relationships within the community, Ron Christaldi is a hard-working and intensely prepared lawyer with a broad practice, comprised of both transactions and complex litigation. He has also been recognized as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in Florida and one of the Best Lawyers in America by a variety of associations and magazines. As a Board Certified Health Lawyer, Ron is committed to his clients and attributes his success to the fact he identifies his clients’ goals at the outset of the engagement and works collaboratively with them on the best, most efficient strategy to achieve their goals. Ron is also a State of Florida Licensed Realtor.
Ron is proud and honored to give back to the community he loves and he has served a variety of organizations in a leadership capacity, including serving as the past chair of the Tampa Bay Chamber, past chair for the Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and Arts, and past chair of the 2018 Leukemia Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk. He has been front and center in the effort to keep Major League Baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa. Ron also has been involved in connecting Tampa Bay with the world with his work in international relations, including the process of normalizing the relations in Cuba and maintaining sister city relationships in Ireland and Italy. In the rare times he is not working or serving the community, Ron enjoys spending time with his three children, who are his world.
Archie Collins
Vice Chair
President and CEO, TECO
Archie Collins is president and chief executive officer of Tampa Electric.
Collins has more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry. He began his career at Nova Scotia Power in 1990, and he has held increasingly senior roles since then. Prior to joining Tampa Electric, Collins served in leadership roles at Nova Scotia Power and Emera Energy, as president and chief executive officer of Grand Bahama Power Co., and as president and chief operating officer of Emera Caribbean. Most recently, he served as chief operating officer of Tampa Electric.
Collins is a professional chemical engineer, and he holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from St. Francis Xavier University and a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Dalhousie University.
He sits on the boards of the Florida Council of 100 and of Enterprise Florida. He also serves on the boards of Southeastern Electric Exchange, The Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, Florida Reliability Coordinating Council and Tampa Theatre.
Thomas Benford
Secretary/Treasurer
President and COO, CoKE FLORIDA
Mr. Thomas N. Benford is the President and Chief Operating Officer at Coke Florida. Mr. Benford oversees our integrated commercial organization,which includes Customer Relationship Management, Franchise Field Operations, Marketing, Enterprise Planning, Corporate Development, Franchise Relations, Risk Management, Sustainability, and Security
functions. Mr. Benford began working at Coke Florida in 2015 as the company’s Vice President of Strategy and Planning.
Previously, he was with Halliburton Company, where he served as Marketing and Development Manager of Baroid Fluid Services and Corporate Finance Manager. Prior to Halliburton, Mr. Benford was an Investment Banker in the leveraged finance group at J.P. Morgan, where he began his professional career as an Investment Banking Analyst. Mr. Benford holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University.
Gary Sasso
General Counsel
President and ceo, carlton fields
Gary Sasso represents business clients in securities fraud and consumer fraud class actions and other complex litigation at the trial and appellate level, in the financial services industry, energy sector, products manufacturing industry, and services sector. Gary has tried cases in the areas of securities fraud, business contracts, product liability, professional malpractice, employment discrimination and termination, eminent domain, bankruptcy, construction, administrative law, and land use in Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Gary has argued appeals on diverse issues including business fraud, federal and state constitutional claims, product liability, personal injury, insurance coverage, national bank regulation, employment discrimination, federal occupational safety and health regulation, eminent domain, county taxation, and public utilities law.
Before joining the firm in 1987, Gary worked as a law clerk for Justice Byron R. White of the U.S. Supreme Court, and as a law clerk for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Joe Lopano
Immediate Past Chair
CEO, Tampa International Airport
Joe Lopano arrived in Tampa on January 1, 2011, as Tampa International Airport’s new CEO. He has worked 37 years in the aviation industry. Prior to accepting the CEO position in Tampa, he worked at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport for 14 years as its Executive Vice President for Marketing and Terminal Management. His experience also encompasses 19 years in the airline industry, including serving in leadership positions at Continental Airlines.
Joe serves on the boards of the Tampa Bay Chamber, Visit Tampa Bay, the Westshore Alliance, the Tampa Bay Partnership, the Tampa Bay Defense Alliance, the U.S. Travel Association’s Gateway Airports Council and the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization. He is a member of the executive committees for the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, the Airports Council International–North America U.S. Policy Board and the Tony Jannus Society. He is an Honorary Commander at MacDill Air Force Base, and was selected to participate in Leadership Florida.
Joe was named Visit Tampa Bay’s 2015 Ambassador of the Year and received the 2015 Aviation Professional of the Year Award from the Florida Department of Transportation.
Joe received a bachelor’s in finance and accounting from Pace University in New York. He and his wife, Janet, live in South Tampa and have three grown children.
Craig J. Richard, CEcD, FM
President and CEO
Tampa Bay Economic Development Council
Craig J. Richard is a certified economic developer with over two decades of economic development leadership experience in major markets such as Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. Career highlights include more than 308 successful projects representing more than 126,246 jobs and $9.3 billion in capital investment
Craig has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and currently serves on the boards of the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, Film Tampa Bay, Visit Tampa Bay and the Downtown Tampa Partnership. He was recognized as one of Florida’s 500 Most Influential Business Leaders by Florida Trend and one of North America’s Top 50 Economic Developers by Consultant Connect. Craig was also designated a “Fellow Member” by IEDC for his contributions to the economic development profession.
Craig earned his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree, with a concentration in economic development, from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. He is also a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.
Craig and his wife Verna have two boys. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, fishing and hunting.
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