The “Uncharted” themed meeting celebrated the EDC’s recent wins, awarded Amgen as the ‘Community Transformer’ and announced 2026-2028 Strategic Action Plan, Future Ready: Tampa Bay
The Tampa Bay Economic Development Council (EDC) celebrated the close of its 2025 fiscal year with hundreds of business and community leaders during its Annual Meeting presented by Shumaker on October 30 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
“Since last fall, we’ve dealt with devastation caused by three hurricanes, rising costs, and federal and state policies that have resulted in a great deal of uncertainty,” said Craig J. Richard, President and CEO of the Tampa Bay EDC. “In spite of that rough start, we’ve risen above the challenges and had an extraordinarily successful fiscal year of job creation, gained global recognition of Tampa and Hillsborough County as a top destination for business and talent, and produced an ambitious new strategic plan that will position us to win the future by strengthening and further diversifying our economy.”
During the meeting, the Tampa Bay EDC shared highlights of its fiscal year 2025, which included:
- The closing of 29 projects – 13 newly recruited companies and 16 local business expansions – that will add 2,280 new jobs and generate more than $273,000,000 in capital investment into Hillsborough County.
- The launch of a new Make it Tampa Bay talent attraction web site and campaign with partner Visit Tampa Bay. The new campaign has generated 83 million impressions across all platforms since its launch in April 2025.
- The approval of a $9.7 million grant from the City of Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency for the East Tampa Live Learn Development, which includes 118 units of affordable housing.
- The debut of the fiscal year 2026-2028 Future Ready: Tampa Bay Strategic Action Plan, which aims to strengthen the EDC’s three pillars of Business Development, Talent Development and Place-Based Development while pursuing four new Catalyst Initiatives to enhance the region’s global competitiveness: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Infrastructure and Blue Technology. The fourth, Business Intelligence and Economic Research, will further enhance the EDC’s role as a leading source of objective economic research and analysis for the region.
Since 2009, the Tampa Bay EDC has closed over 400 projects that produced more than 44,000 direct jobs, an additional 52,000+ indirect/induced jobs, and generated $4 Billion in capital investment in Hillsborough County alone. Cumulatively, these projects have generated $23.4 Billion in total economic output and a $114 million increase in Hillsborough County’s tax base.
For the seventh consecutive year, TECO presented the Community Transformer Award to a Tampa Bay EDC project company that has had a significant impact on the region beyond creating jobs and capital investment. This year’s winner, Amgen, was recruited by the EDC in 2017. Tampa beat over 275 other metro areas for this project, which would initially invest $25 million and hire over 450 people. Today, that number has grown to more than 600 people. Amgen has donated more than $2.3 million to over 70 organizations in the Tampa Bay region since 2017.
Other highlights from the program included:
- The Financial Times-Nikkei Investing in America ranking of Tampa as the number one city in the U.S. for foreign businesses to locate.
- The Urban Land Institute’s job growth forecast for Tampa over the next five years as 2.3 times that of the rest of the U.S.
- Lightcast’s 2025 Talent Scorecard ranking Tampa #8 among all U.S. cities for talent attraction.
- Hillsborough County having the highest year-over-year employment gains among all counties in Florida through August (source: FloridaCommerce).
- The 2025 CertUp career awareness campaign yielding a 65% increase in leads and a 150% jump in click-through rates to Hillsborough College programs over the prior year campaign for training in fields such as Line Worker, Sonography, Welding and Auto Collison.
- USF President Emerita Dr. Judy Genshaft, Steve Greenbaum, and family establishing an internship program for the next generation of economic developers thanks to an historic gift from their Genspiration Foundation. The Tampa Bay EDC now has three exceptionally talented USF student interns on their team.
- The Tampa Bay EDC retaining 94 percent of its Investors in 2025 while adding 14 new or upgraded ones as well.
- The Tampa Bay EDC hosting several inbound tours to acquaint site selectors and foreign delegations from Japan and the Netherlands with the life sciences industry cluster and the momentum occurring in the Tampa Medical and Research District and throughout Tampa Bay.
The program closed with remarks from the new chair, Archie Collins of TECO, and the confirmation of the FY2026 slate of executive officers:
- Chair, Archie Collins, TECO
- Vice Chair, Casey Ellison, Ellison Development
- Secretary/Treasurer, Gina Curry, NextPath Career Partners
- General Counsel, Gary Sasso, Carlton Fields
“The Tampa Bay region stands at a pivotal moment in its economic evolution” said Archie Collins, President and CEO of TECO – and FY2026 chair of the Tampa Bay EDC. “Over the past five years, our transformation from a regional economic center to an internationally recognized hub of innovation, talent, and commerce has accelerated. I look forward to working alongside Tampa Bay’s most impactful business leaders as we execute our strategic plan, stretch our capabilities, and strengthen our competitiveness in global markets.”
About Tampa Bay Economic Development Council
The Tampa Bay Economic Development Council is the lead designated economic development agency for Hillsborough County and the cities of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace. Established in 2009 as a partnership between the public sector and private corporate investors, the EDC works to advance a diversified local economy that is beneficial to all by attracting, expanding and retaining quality employers, a talented workforce and investment, focusing within targeted industry sectors, including Corporate Headquarters, Financial and Professional Services, Information Technology, Life Science and Health Care, Defense and Security, Distribution and Logistics, and Manufacturing. The EDC exists because of the generous support of more than 100 corporations, Hillsborough County, and the cities of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace.
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