CENTRAL: Joining Forces

LEADERS

» As 2008 chairman of the new Central Florida Partnership, Des Cummings Jr. will steer efforts to bring together seven counties — Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia — to address the region’s most pressing issues, including economic diversification, transportation and job creation. Cummings is president of the Florida Hospital Foundation and executive vice president of business development for Florida Hospital and the Florida Division of Adventist Health System. He leads a team that includes chairman-elect Pat Engfer, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, and Jacob Stuart, who has given up his longtime position as head of the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce to become CEO of Central Florida Partnership.

» Appointed last year as dean of the new University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Dr. Deborah German is closing in on her goal to raise enough community money to provide full scholarships for the first class of 40 students, who will begin classes in 2009. The college received its preliminary accreditation earlier this year.

» Named the first female president of Walt Disney World in 2006, Meg Crofton has moved full-bore into civic life. She’s joined a number of community boards and has promised Disney’s participation in a new downtown arts center. Crofton also announced Disney will build a new indoor sports facility.

ORLANDO

This year marks the start of a $1.1-billion downtown project to build a performing arts center, a replacement for the Amway Arena, where the Orlando Magic play, and a renovated Citrus Bowl. The city is making an effort to employ local minority contractors where possible for the design and construction, unbundling larger contracts to get smaller companies involved. The initiative essentially amounts to a public works project.

GROWING PREFERENCE (Winter Park) Harold Mills » Harold Mills, CEO of ZeroChaos, which provides professional-level contract labor to Fortune 500 companies, will oversee the firm’s expansion this year into larger headquarters at the CNL II building downtown. [Photo: Gregg Matthews]

“We can withstand a slump in the housing industry better than we could in the past,” says Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “I’m very optimistic. What we have is a community that’s come together, and everybody’s pulling in the same direction. This place is going to be the envy of the world in the next decade.”

LEADER

» Founder and president of the architectural and planning firm C.T. Hsu + Associates, C.T. Hsu is expected to work closely this year with regional economic development efforts between the Economic Development Commission, the Central Florida Partnership and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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