SPECIAL SECTION
SPECIAL SECTION November 2018
49. The “Midnight Shift” at Pensacola Police Department A new brand of coffee from PPD helps support charity and the community.
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45 Cleared for Landing
49 Entrecon Returns
55 Nine Pensacola business leaders make
Hayward inks $35 million expansion deal with Singapore company.
This three-day conference is bringing nationally-famous names to talk business and leadership in Pensacola
Local “top influential” business leaders prove Pensacola is a city of growing economy and potential.
top 500 Florida inf luencers list
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SEAN HANNITY 2PM-5PM
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44 Pensacola Magazine
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Cleared for Landing: Hayward Inks $35 Million Expansion Deal with Singapore Company One of the largest economic development deals to ever come to Pensacola just got bigger. Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward travelled to Singapore in October to sign a memorandum of understanding with Singapore Technologies Engineering, the parent company of VT Mobile Aerospace Engineering whose $46 million aircraft maintenance facility began operations at the Pensacola International Airport in June. The MOU between the city and ST Engineering formalizes an agreement that the company will invest an additional $35 million toward an expansion of the airport facility, creating 1,325 new jobs. The signing took place at ST Engineering headquarters in Singapore and FloridaWest Economic Develop Alliance CEO Scott Luth and
Escambia County Board of County Commissioners chairman Jeff Bergosh were also on hand. “This is an incredible opportunity for Pensacola and Escambia County, and has been a strong collaboration between the city, the county, the state, the federal government and Triumph Gulf Coast Inc.,” Hayward said after the signing. “Working together, we hope to grow ST Engineering in our region and state into one of the world’s best Aerospace MRO campus.” ST Engineering president and CEO Vincent Chong said the agreement deepens the relationship between his company and the City of Pensacola, Escambia County and the State of Florida. “With funding support from the city, county and state, ST Engineering is now able to embark on this project to build the Pensacola Aerospace campus – state of the art facilities that will bring good-paying Business Climate
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jobs to more people in the Pensacola area,” Chong said. “Tapping the lush resource of military aviation veterans as well as the pool of engineering and aviation talent, we will collectively develop a highly-skilled and robust aerospace workforce in the area.”
The efforts to gain a foothold in the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sector in Pensacola extend back to 2013 when Hayward and Luth ¬– then of the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce – first met with executives of VT MAE in Mobile and ST Engineering in Singapore.
The investment by the company is one of the requirements for the project to receive an additional $56 million in Triumph Gulf Coast grant funding resulting from the BP oil spill. The Triumph Gulf Coast board selected the project in July to receive the largest allocation of funding to date, if the city could secure the additional funding.
The deal resulting from those meetings came to fruition with the opening of VT MAE’s 1730,000 square-foot facility in June at the airport and its promise to create 400 jobs at an average salary of $44,500.
In March, Gov. Rick’s Scott’s office announced the awarding of $4 million in Florida Job Growth Grant Funding for the City of Pensacola to develop additional taxiways, ramps and other infrastructure at Pensacola International Airport as part of the project. All told, the project has about $118 million committed from the state, Escambia County and city. The city is seeking an additional $50 million from the Florida Department of Transportation, $20 million from the Governor’s Job Growth Fund and about $17 in federal grants, leaving about $5 million to fully fund the project. When fully developed, the VT MAE campus will include four maintenance repair and overhaul hangars as well as administrative and warehouse buildings. 46 Business Climate
Chong said since opening the VT MAE Hangar, the company has processed 22 jets for UPS and has serviced Frontier Airline planes on an on-call basis. He said the company projects reaching its 400-employee goal by mid 2020, one year ahead of the timeline set in the original agreement. Hayward said the impact of the jobs created by the partnership with VT MAE will be felt in the region for generations. “When someone has job it changes their life,” Hayward said at the signing ceremony. “They have opportunities for their family and this is going to be growth for our community and for our state and for our regions and to train these incredible people to learn a skill that’s going to last for generations and the economic impact to our community and the great State of Florida and the nation is going to be extremely important.”
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The “Midnight Shift” at Pensacola Police Department Do you like to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning? Or maybe in the evening after a nice dinner? Whatever your coffee needs may be, the next time you are searching for another cup of joe, you might want to check out the Pensacola Police Department (PPD). After drinking their weight in coffee, both good and bad, the officers at PPD know coffee pretty well, and they want to share their take on this much beloved drink with the community. In collaboration with DeLuna Coffee and Red Iron Design House, PPD released a new line of coffee called the “Midnight Shift,” a five-bean, medium roast available in stores throughout Pensacola. For every bag sold, $1 will be donated to the Rally Foundation, which supports childhood cancer research.
by Kaitlyn Peacock photos by Steven Gray
The idea for a police-brand coffee came first from a realization that the department was lacking an organized connection to local charities. Operational Support Division Captain Stephen Davis said that the department needed, and wanted, to do more for the community. Specifically, PPD has decided to support the Manna Food Pantry and the Rally Foundation, both organizations Davis said have the department’s complete trust in their skill and devotion to their causes.
Davis also revealed that the department’s connection to the Rally Foundation has been critical, as members of the department have been impacted by cancer in the last few years. The Rally Foundation has been a leading force in fundraising, with 92 cents for every dollar donated given directly to childhood cancer research, and it was a natural selection for PPD in their efforts to connect with the community.
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“A while back, we decided as a department that our effort with charities was – well we could do better,” he said. “We spread our resources way too thin trying to do too much and we weren’t having too much success with anything.” After struggling with the problem for a little while, the idea of coffee was brought up while Davis was in conversation with Lisa Long from Red Iron Design House. He said he was surprised when she liked the idea, and even more so when someone else told him they liked the idea as well. What had originally been a half-baked idea soon took hold of everyone involved and the creation of Midnight Shift was in the works.
“It is a great companion idea. We did realize that a lot of our meetings and the things we did revolved around coffee – coffee with a cop, our town hall meetings. So we tow our bags of Pensacola police coffee with us down to the Doghouse or Urban Swinery or Global Grill and it’s a perfect fit.” Jolly, owner of Red Iron Design House, and connects to the hard work officers often face and the time they spend working all hours of the day.
“It’s taken on a life of its own,” Davis said. “It’s like a spare tire that’s gotten away from us rolling down a hill. It’s picking up speed and needs very little work now.”
“I worked midnights for 14 years of my career,” Davis said. “That’s quite a bit of coffee, quite a bit of bad coffee. Associating the police with coffee or donuts is a natural fit.”
The name “Midnight Shift” was first suggested by Doug
PPD was already known for
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events that included coffee, including their Coffee with a Cop days where officers would go and have coffee at local shops. This gave people in the community a chance to interact with the officers in a unique environment. Coffee was also involved in more official meetings, such a town hall meetings. It may not have been the shining star, but coffee brought the police and the community together. “It (Midnight Shift coffee) is a great companion idea,” Davis said. “We did realize that a lot of our meetings and the things we did revolved around coffee – coffee with a cop, our town hall meetings. So we tow our bags of Pensacola police coffee with us down to the Doghouse or Urban Swinery or Global Grill and it’s a perfect fit.” Modern policing over the past few years has been highly criticized, with police violence from Chicago, Baltimore and Ferguson affecting public perception of all police departments, including PPD. Davis said
PPD wants to continue to serve Pensacola with the integrity and courage it has always had in a community that trusts them, and that giving back to charity and being active in the community is their way of building that bridge. “This is Pensacola,” Davis said. “We can sit down, we can work stuff out. We may not come to an agreement, but at least we will come to an understanding. That’s all we want.” Midnight Shift can be found served at Global Grill, Doghouse Deli and the Urban Swinery and can be bought by the bag at the Apple Market, Walmart, Publix and many other local shops. You can request your local store carry the Midnight Shift to help support PPD and their efforts to give back to charity. We at the Ballinger office can say that the Midnight Shift coffee is great for that last little push to make deadline, and as a good sigh of relief once your day is done.
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ENTRECON RETURNS
Northwest Florida’s premier business and leadership conference Entrecon is set to return to downtown Pensacola for its fourth year on Nov. 14,15 and 16. by Will Isern
Organizers say the conference has become a must-attend event for community-minded business leaders and has evolved over the years to include topics important to all members of the workforce. “It started off being a conference for entrepreneurs and businesses owners and we quickly realized it was important to catch a wider audience and that’s what we we’re hearing is that people wanted a leadership conference so we developed and grew the original Entrecon in the premier business and leadership conference in the area,” said Studer Community Institute Director of Training and Development Rachael Gillette. The three-day event is organized by the Studer Community Institute and features a series of keynote speakers, breakout sessions and networking events and draws around 450 attendees annually, Gillette said. The event also include the EntreCon Awards ceremony on Nov. 14 to recognize the impact of entrepreneurs and businesses have on the community. The theme of this year’s event is The Power of Positive Leadership, a concept championed by bestselling author and featured Entrecon speaker Jon Gordon.
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Other speakers include Jim Blasingame, president of the Small Business Network, Craig Meynard, vice-president and chief accounting officer of Delta Air Lines, and Pensacola’s own Emily Ley, founder and CEO of Simplified by Emily Ley, among many others. Talks will focus on the importance of purpose and improving quality of life in the community. “What we say is to be successful in the compassionate business environment is they’ve got to be purpose-driven, peoplefocused and community-minded,” Gillette said. “It’s not thing that’s a feel-good trend, this is tied to real outcomes. We want them to come learn how to make purpose and profit work together to drive business.” Tickets to Entrecon cost $349 and are all-inclusive to the keynote speeches, breakout sessions and networking events. Professional photographers will be on hand to take headshots of attendees at no extra cost. The keynote speeches take place at the Pensacola Little Theatre and breakout sessions will be hosted at 5eleven Palafox
“It’s not thing that’s a feel-good trend, this is tied to real outcomes. We want them to come learn how to make purpose and profit work together to drive business.”
and the Pensacola Museum of Commerce. Gillette said attendees are frequently surprised to learn that a leadership conference of this level available in Pensacola. “We always hear that they are surprised that this is going on in our community – that we’ve got something of this quality going on in this town because the thought behind it is they have to travel and go to a big city to go to a conference of this quality,” Gillette said. “They love the fact
that they not only get to learn, but that they also get things they can do differently and take back right away, so they’re growing and improving by attending the conference.” EntreCon is sponsored by the Pensacola International Airport, Delta, Cox Business, Digital Boardwalk, Centennial Bank, Complete DKI and the Center for Entrepreneurship. For more information or to register for EntreCon, visit EntreConPensacola.com.
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2018-2019 CONCERT SEASON Opening Night!
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Nine Pensacola business leaders make top 500 Florida influencers list Florida Trend recently recognized nine Pensacola leaders as top Florida influencers in their inaugural Florida 500 Influencers Index. The Pensacola influencers included Deborah Calder, executive vice president of Navy Federal Credit Union; Michael Myhre, CEO of Florida Small Business Development Center Network; Ken Ford, founder and CEO of IHMC; Mark Faulkner, president and CEO of Baptist Health Care; Fred Levin, chairman and attorney of the Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchel, Rafferty, and Proctor Firm; Eugene Franklin, president and CEO of Florida Black Chamber of Commerce; Quint Studer, founder of the Studer Family of Companies; Lewis Bear Jr., president and CEO of Lewis Bear Co. and Michael Murdoch, president and CEO of AppRiver. The leaders represented the fields of finance and insurance; information, technology and media; retail and wholesale; law; professional services; real estate and life sciences.
By Kaitlyn Peacock
The list is the first ever compiled by Florida Trend in an effort to spotlight some of the most influential business leaders in Florida. These did not necessarily mean the most visible people or the people with the most state-wide influence, according to Florida Trend, but people who had influence on the small and large scale and those who have had a long record of work and effort put into their field. While highlight the influencers’ work and success, the list also gave those selected a chance to answer some personal questions about themselves. “In the course of developing our list of influential Floridians, we invited those under consideration to answer questions about themselves via an online form,” Executive Editor of Florida Trend Mark Howard said in an editor’s letter. “We chose the questions carefully, hoping the responses would enable us to present more personal snapshots of the people we believe are charting Florida’s course. Among other questions, we asked what they considered the biggest issue for Florida; we asked them about personal challenges; about how they perceived the future of their industries; whether they ready for pleasure and to relate something they thought most people don’t know about them.”
Many of the Pensacola influencers shared personal challenges and stories about working in their field or simply how they live their daily life. Murdoch shared his Dominican heritage, Studer opened up about being a 35-plus year recovering alcoholic and Myhre talked about not having any college ambition until the birth of his daughter. They also mentioned current projects and goals for their companies, including Studer’s ongoing work to improve the lives of children and Faulkner’s struggles to rebuild Baptist Health Care facilities after they were damaged during Hurricane Ivan.
The list provides a window into the lives of those who help to run Pensacola, but it also shows the larger context of their influence throughout the state.
Florida Trend selected the influencers after a year-long project that included interviews, research into business contacts and input from community sources. The nine Pensacola business leaders were selected from a much larger pool of people, one that include a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and major business executives, such as the Mayo Clinic, Synovus, Royal Caribbean Cruises and more. “The reality is that in a fast-growing state of 21 plus million, with a $1 trillion GDP (gross domestic product), we probably could have included one thousand names and still generated disagreement about who made the list and who didn’t,” Florida Trend Publisher Andy Corty said.
The list provides a window into the lives of those who help to run Pensacola, but it also shows the larger context of their influence throughout the state. Some, like Ford and Levin, are local business enterprises, while Calder and Faulkner belong to businesses that are known throughout the state. Either way, their influence was strong enough to catch the attention of Florida Trend and proven enough to make the list. The presence of so many Pensacolians on the list speaks to the continued growth in the community. With Florida Trend set to release another influencers index next year, Pensacola’s place as a rising business city means there may be more locals spotlighted for success in their industry.
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Around the Region UWF receives $3 million grant to enhance STEM courses The University of West Florida received a five-year, $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance and expand its science, technology, engineering and math courses. The grant, which was awarded to the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering, will provide funding for the University to purchase new technology and equipment, and hire additional staff who will help ensure student success in STEM courses. “Under this grant, we have the ability to transform our STEM general education program using best pedagogical practices,” said Dr. Jaromy Kuhl, interim dean of the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering. “We will redesign key STEM entry-level courses, build STEM success studios, and by doing so, improve STEM retention and produce more STEM graduates.” The grant also provides funds to renovate and build additional laboratory space, including about $250,000 to build new physics labs. “We’re building in and building out our chemistry and biology labs to improve their technology so they have equipment to enhance the teaching of some of the concepts the students are learning,” said Dr. Matthew Schwartz, who coordinated the grant application while serving as associate dean of the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering and now serves as the interim assistant vice president for research
administration at the University. Among the new staff that will be hired through the grant, will be an academic coach dedicated to helping students succeed in STEM courses by helping them learn effective study skills and time management. A data analyst will also be hired to assess the effectiveness of the enhancements made to STEM courses, Schwartz said. “All of these pieces added together are part of a comprehensive plan to enhance the way that we teach the lower-division STEM courses to our students,” Schwartz said. The planned enhancements to STEM courses outlined in the grant application, which will include the redesign of some curriculum, were done in consultation with faculty in the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering, Schwartz said. Combined with other recent funding awards from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, UWF’s Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering has earned competitive awards totaling more than $5 million to address STEM education in the past five years. “The administrators and faculty in that college, with the support of UWF, were really what helped push this forward,” Schwartz said. For more information about the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering, visit uwf.edu/ hmcse.
United Airlines to launch daily seasonal service to Newark United Airlines will launch daily seasonal service between Pensacola International Airport (PNS) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) on June 6, 2019. Passengers can now book flights online at United.com. “This is another big win for our airport and a sign of the growth of our city and the region,” said Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward. “Establishing routes to airports serving the New York Metropolitan Area is something that my team and I have been working on and we are excited to bring this service to our residents and business travelers.” Flights are scheduled to depart Pensacola daily at 3:25 pm and arrive in Newark, NJ at 7:00 pm EST. Passengers will enjoy a 2-class configuration aircraft. Newark Liberty International Airport becomes Pensacola International Airport’s nineteenth destination, the third daily nonstop served by United Airlines. The Pensacola route is one of 22 new routes United Airlines announced it will add in 2019. “With more than 40 new domestic routes added this year, we remain committed to
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expanding our network to offer customers even more choices in their travel destinations,” said Ankit Gupta, United’s vice president of Domestic Network Planning. “The expansion to Hilton Head Island from three of our hub cities and the introduction of New York’s only nonstop service to Anchorage and Pensacola, are just some of the ways we are responding to customer interest and demand.”
Ninth Annual Bras Across the Bridge Raises More Than $36,000 The ninth annual Bras Across the Bridge raised more than $36,000 for Baptist Health Care Foundation’s Mammogram Fund, a $10,000 increase from last year’s event. The Mammogram Fund provides mammograms to women in our community who are not financially able to afford one on their own, as well as raises awareness and support for early detection. For every $100 raised through the Foundation, one mammogram can be provided to a woman in need. Since the beginning of this program, mammogram screenings have been provided to 2,006 women. As a result of these screenings, 391 women required additional testing, 47 required biopsies and 18 were diagnosed with breast cancer. More than 400 new bras were donated by Bras Across the Bridge participants. The Foundation will donate these bras to several local organizations that help women and girls in need. Baptist Health Care Foundation would like to thank the following sponsors: Pensacola Honda; The Grand Marlin Restaurant & Oyster Bar; Soft Rock 94.1; Magic 106.1; Nash 102.7; WEAR ABC3 - WFGX 35; Pensacola News Journal & Bella Magazine; Acumen Medical Imaging & Interventional; Andrews Institute Rehabilitation Crestview; ASI Endurance; Cox; Fisher Cabinet; GoodWin Asset Management; Gulf Power; PPX Imaging, Inc.; Tickled Pink Club; Wind Creek Casino & Hotel Atmore, Alabama; Ben Brown, M.D. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery; Liberty Sertoma; Life Care Center of Pensacola; Medco; MoxieFood. com; and ResortQuest by Wyndham Vacation Rentals. For more information or to make a donation to this cause, contact foundation@ bhcpns.org or 850.469.7906 or visit BaptistHealthCareFoundation.org.
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