100 Stories from Around Tampa Bay
One city in the world has received multi-million dollar investments from Jeff Vinik, the Blackstone Group, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation within the last 2 years. One region has the business environment that powers the founding of companies from Outback to Wikipedia to M2Gen. That city is Tampa. The business story here is thousands of success stories joined by the fact that Tampa has the business resources that made them possible. Tampa truly brings to life the idea of Stronger and Brighter Together. Here are some of those stories.
Caspers Company
40 years in business, 1 million transactions every 10-14 days
When Ed Shaw, Caspers Company's current executive VP and Risk Manager, arrived for his first day of work as a management trainee at a Caspers' Company-owned McDonald's franchise, he found the employees huddled around a flip chart. The store, one of…
Celestar
From Heading a U.N. Mission in the Sahara to $23 million in revenue
On the eve of his retirement from the United States Army in 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Greg Celestan weighed his next move carefully. He was 42, ambitious, a West Point graduate, and a leader both by nature and training.
He was ready to rejoin…
Stellar Partners
Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Partnership
When CNN GO named Tampa International Airport (TPA) “One of the World’s 10 Most-Loved Airports” in 2011, Susan Stackhouse, CEO of airport retailer Stellar Partners, Inc., was not surprised. TPA, ranked the best airport in the U.S. by Zagat and #2 in…
Fast Lane Clothing
Success That Fits to a T (T-Shirt, that is)
Juan Davis, CEO of Fast Lane Clothing, considered himself very fortunate. Fast Lane, the company his wife founded 25 years ago, had had its share of ups and downs. His decision to migrate the bulk of Fast Lane's business away from faddish items and…
Bayshore Solutions
Growing Local
Doug Pace, Executive VP and COO of Bayshore Solutions, finds it curious that companies are quick to define themselves by their reach and distance themselves from any identification as a local or regional business. "They all say 'we do business on a…
Majesty Title Services
Small Business of the Year, Big Success
In July 2000, Vince Cassidy was well along his career path as an Executive with one of the largest Financial Organizations in the world. So when the firm asked him to relocate his family to Tampa to build a major Service Center, he assumed…
Tomlin Tested Staffing
Tampa's Top Employment Expert and Business Woman of the Year
When Holly Tomlin's husband was transferred from Cleveland, OH, to Tampa for his work in 1985, Tomlin anticipated that her experience as the head of office support for Standard Oil of Ohio would qualify her to land her a similar position quickly. It…
Carlton Fields
A Century-old Law Firm Sees Revenues Grow Almost 50% During Recession
To say the economy from 2007 onward has battered the legal profession is putting it mildly. Once-venerable firms have folded. Massive layoffs, salary cuts, hiring freezes, cancellations of summer intern programs and delayed start dates have become…
Gerdau Long Steel North America
Turning 10 Million Tons of Scrap Into Billions of Dollars in Steel
Gerdau Long Steel North America does things on a grand scale. This is not surprising from a company that started as a small nail factory in Brazil in 1901 and in 2011 provided the steel to expand the Panama Canal. The company had $6.5 billion in annual…
Port of Tampa
Road and rail projects improve port's reach
The Port of Tampa is on the verge of significant intermodal enhancement, primarily because of two major projects: I-4 Crosstown Connector, linking the port directly with the interstate system; and the unique Tampa Gateway Rail terminal project, which…
