Chemicals - W.R. Grace & Co. promoted Robert J. Bettacchi, 53, to senior vice president and member of the company's five-member Executive Committee. Bettacchi will continue as president of the Grace Construction Products unit.
Conglomerates - Republic Industries in Fort Lauderdale named Gale M. Butler to vice president of corporate affairs. Butler, who previously worked for Republic Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga at Blockbuster Entertainment, will establish and direct community affairs and charitable contributions programs. The programs will focus on issues concerning women, children and the environment.
Media - The Golf Channel, based in Orlando, tapped Paul A. FitzPatrick, 50, as COO, a new position at the company. In the post, he will oversee all day-to-day operations for programming, production, consumer marketing and affiliate sales. The Golf Channel is available to 9 million cable and satellite subscribers. FitzPatrick, a golfer himself, has spent 13 years in the cable industry, including stints as president and COO of both the Weather Channel and Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-Span).
Knight-Ridder President John C. Fontaine, 65, will retire next month after a decade with the company. He will continue as a consultant and member of the board of directors until the 1998 annual meeting. Prior to joining the Miami publishing company, Fontaine, an attorney, played a key role in the merger between Knight Newspapers and Ridder Publications in 1974. Knight-Ridder, publisher of 31 daily newspapers including the Miami Herald, does not plan to fill the post of president immediately.
Public Relations - Debra A. Miller, an expert on cultural diversity in the communications industry, is the 1997 president of the 18,000-member Public Relations Society of America. She is an associate professor and former assistant dean at Florida International University in Miami, where she received her doctorate in 1994. Miller, 43, also is the founder of D. Miller and Associates, a 13-year-old public relations, marketing and advertising firm in Fort Lauderdale.
Real Estate - Prominent Pinellas County real estate developer Peter Monroe has opened The Monroe Company, a retail development business in St. Petersburg. He plans to focus on joint ventures to develop Tampa Bay retail properties and also will offer real estate brokerage services to institutional buyers. In addition to a twenty-year career with the Sembler Company and Rutenberg Commercial Development, Monroe, 53, spent three years as president of the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC) Oversight Board in Washington, D.C.
Lennar Corp. named Stuart Miller, 39, as president and CEO, replacing his father, Leonard Miller, 64, who remains as chairman. The younger Miller has been a Lennar executive for more than 15 years, and will continue as president of the company's homebuilding and asset management divisions.
Last month, Jacksonville developer and general contractor Jack Charles Demetree Sr. was inducted into Washington, D.C.'s National Housing Hall of Fame, one of only four real estate professionals nationwide picked for the honor. Demetree, 69, began his real estate career 43 years ago and now runs Demetree Brothers Inc.
Space - Roy D. Bridges, 53, the new director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, says the Brevard County space center will encounter stiff competition in the burgeoning commercial space market in the coming decade. The former astronaut and retired Air Force general told community leaders this spring, "We've either got to stay on top of the latest developments in the space business, or we can easily fall too far behind to take part in its future." Bridges replaces Jay F. Honeycutt, 60, who retired in June.
Technology - Tech Data Corp., the world's second largest personal computer products distributor, promoted Anthony A. Ibarguen to president and chief operating officer. Ibarguen, 38, joined the Clearwater company in August 1996 as president of North American and Latin American operations. He replaces Tim Godwin, who resigned in January.
Transportation - Titusville-based Smart Choice Automotive Group, owner of a dozen new and used car dealerships in Florida, selected Fred Whaley as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Previously, Whaley, 52, was a managing director of Raymond James & Associates. He continues as president of RJ Health Properties Inc.