October 4, 2023

Movers & Influencers

Personal promotions, transfers, board appointments, civic accomplishments and philanthropic activities for the week of October 4, 2023.

Best Companies to Work For in Florida 2024

Do you work with top talent at a great company? The 100 Best Companies To Work For In Florida will be recognized in the August 2024 issue of Florida Trend. Be one of the best! Register at www.BestCompaniesFLA.com. The deadline to register is 2/16/2024.

Helping Black-Owned Business Thrive

Entrepreneurial leadership coach Valecia Dunbar helped identify the need for a chamber to serve Black-owned business owners in Duval and the greater Jacksonville area.

Florida Icon: Rita Lowman

"I choose to be happy. I choose to be upbeat," says banker and former chair of the Florida Bankers Association, Rita Lowman.

Candy King

South Florida business leader Jarett Levan has found a sweet spot in the candy business.

NextGen: All Together Now

A St. Pete startup is helping companies track and measure the impact of their community engagement efforts.

Enabling Orion

Honeywell Aerospace in Clearwater is creating the cockpit controls and other spacecraft components that will allow astronauts to fly around the moon.

Sowing Solar

Finding sites for millions of solar energy panels sparks a land rush in rural Florida as new installations consume larger swaths of acreage.

Green Machine

Full Circle Dairy will host a $22-million renewable gas energy facility.

The Butterfly Effect

The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity maintains its 10 million butterfly and moth specimens in 77,000 drawers.

Lighting the Way

OUC, Orlando's public utility, recently unveiled its electric vehicle charging hub in downtown Orlando. The $2.9-million site has 21 fast-charging stations and supports OUC's goal of increasing electric vehicle usage to help reach Orlando's goals of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Legal Elite: Notable Managing Partners

Florida Trend is introducing Legal Elite NOTABLE, which is a nomination-based and editorially reviewed program that highlights “notable” attorneys in specific cross sections of the legal community, beginning with Managing Partners.

Office Optional: The Evolving Workspace

The heads of Florida's Best Companies have mixed feelings about hybrid work arrangements, but mostwould agree the trend is here to stay.

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Florida Business News

Florida hit by Canadian smoke from historic wildfire season

A cloud of Canadian wildfire smoke smothered most of the Sunshine State in haze Tuesday, adding Florida to a list of U.S. states affected by a historic season of flames up north.

Driving climate conversations

Miami is considered especially vulnerable to sea level rise fueled by climate change. It’s also becoming an epicenter for resiliency initiatives to mitigate impact on the city and its residents.

Florida Supreme Court to hear arguments on recreational marijuana initiative

An initiative that aims to put recreational marijuana on the 2024 ballot still has a massive hurdle to clear in the Florida Supreme Court.

A new era for Cuban migrants: Some can’t get green cards despite decades-old law

For nearly six decades, Cuban migrants have enjoyed a fast track to permanent residence in the United States through the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Florida announces more locations, dates for hurricane victims to receive federal benefits

More than a month after Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, many victims of the storm are still dealing with material and economic insecurity.