Andy Corty, Publisher

For the past year, Bruce Faulmann has brought energy and intelligence to the publisher’s position at Florida Trend with the same friendly, approachable, “I love life in Florida” attitude as his predecessor, Lynda Keever.

Just as Bruce was really settling in to this corner office, the bell rang, and as you would expect, he has answered that bell. In early November, Bruce was promoted to the top sales and marketing position at the St. Petersburg Times, a sister company to Trend. Readers of this magazine know that newspapers face numerous challenges and need the talents of people like Bruce.

We all wish him every success in his new corner office — and we are extremely pleased to report that Bruce will remain involved with Florida Trend as a member of our board of directors.

After many years of working with the magazine behind the scenes, I am thrilled now to move into the publisher’s position. For those who don’t know me yet, I came to Florida in 1978 after earning an M.B.A. from Stanford business school. I learned the ropes at Florida Trend from founding publisher Harris Mullen and then for 20 years took on a series of corporate responsibilities at Times Publishing in Florida and Washington, D.C.

I told the staff here that I now have the best publishing job in Florida, and I mean it. My goals are simple — keep Trend and its family of publications at the top of the game, travel around the state to collaborate with the state’s business/civic leadership and actively participate in making our fascinating state an even better place to work, live and raise a family. Please let me hear from you on ideas to accomplish these goals.

One of my first goals here at the magazine is to build on the success of a feature we introduced in our August 2009 issue, where we identified the “Best Companies To Work For In Florida,” recognizing the top-performing large, midsized and small companies from around the state. The theory that we find compelling is that business success and a great work environment go hand in hand.

We now solicit your entry for the 2010 awards. The program is open to all firms that do business in the state and have at least 15 employees, even if your company is not headquartered in Florida. CEOs, owners or human resource execs can get the process started by registering at BestCompaniesFL.com. Once your company is registered, your employees will be surveyed and your company assessed by our independent partner.

This program is endorsed by the HR Florida State Council and offers many advantages, such as valuable feedback, pride among your staff and statewide recognition.

So please take a moment to look at the program and register before Jan. 29. To see the list of 2009 winners and find out how companies attract and retain good employees, check out our inaugural report online at FloridaTrend.com/BestCompanies.

Florida Trend owes its sterling reputation to top professionals like Barbara Miracle, who retired last month after 31 years at our company. Barbara is a fluid writer who specialized in small-business topics and edited our annual Florida Small Business magazine. We wish our friend Barbara the best. She promises she’ll be back from time to time on a freelance basis. We look forward to that.

— Andy Corty
Publisher
[acorty@floridatrend.com]