PACE Awards 2009
Speech by Evon Emerson, President and CEO
Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
Each year at our PACE Awards Ceremony we gather to celebrate and recognize individuals whose leadership has made a significant impact in our area.
The PACE Awards recognizes leadership through outstanding initiative, impact of work and inspiration to others. With each award, the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce affirms achievements, seeks to encourage further work on the part of the recipients and hopes to motivate others to follow their lead in service and commitment to our quality of place.
A few years ago, we asked you to imagine a greater Pensacola– knowing this vision would mean different things to different people, yet hoping it would inspire. A year later, following Hurricane Ivan, we realized that imagining wasn’t enough. We now had to “build” a greater Pensacola, and the paradigm shifted. Throughout the past two-years, we have noticed that people are emerging and working, and through their efforts, beginning to build a better community. Their ideas are blooming and bearing fruit.
When I first looked at the information on our winners I searched for a commonality and it didn’t take me long to see that this group is all about BLOOMING WHERE THEY ARE PLANTED. They know what it means to be planted, cultivated and nurtured. They know about weeding and pruning, and they know how to do this for others. And they grow and bloom without strangling or “overgrowing” those around them. And I am sure there were times they grew more one year than the next, when they stayed back to give someone else growth opportunity, yet each season, they return like perennials, continuing the growth cycle.
In 1933, American motivational speaker and Author Denis Waitley commented, “As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.”
This kind of success emerges from the vision of its people and through their collaborative efforts, strength emerges, innovation blooms and you find well tended crops that flourish. Their dreams become realities, and success blooms . . .
This could not be truer for the 2009 PACE award recipients.
The first award of the evening is to honor Pensacola’s Emerging Leader.
Like the well tended crops I just referenced, emerging leaders sprout and spread their leaves and reach forth into the community. Truly, Pensacola is blessed and our area is not short of smart, talented young people who are making a difference in this community. This year the nominations were outstanding. However, one stood out among them all... this individual’s resume reads like one of someone you would find at the helm of a Fortune 500 Corporation.
Graduating Juries Doctorate, Cum Laude in the top 4% of the class from Boston’s Suffolk University of Law, this individual began an impressive law career that has taken her from the judge’s chambers as a clerk, to the Florida Department of Labor, to the University of West Florida as General Counsel and special Assistant to the President– a position held for more than five years before moving into her current role . . .
It’s not just the impressive law career that captured our attention, but the impressive leadership qualities. For the last six years, this individual has been instrumental in forming and serving on the statewide Education Law Committee of the Florida Bar serving two terms as Continuing Legal Education Vice Chair and then serving as Chair.
A seemingly quiet, but active member of the community, this individual is beginning her third year serving on the IMPACT 100 Board, and in October began a two year term as its President.
She currently serves as General Counsel and Special Assistant to the Director of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
Our emerging leader is an active member of the Education Solutions Task Force, the Escambia-Santa Rosa Bar Association and is an annual contributor to Legal Services of North Florida . . . a role model and supporter of Pace Center for Girls and the list goes on.
She touts as her most significant accomplishment during the last year, the enormous success and sustainability of IHMC as an independent not-for-profit organization – specifically highlighting the institute’s youth science and educational outreach programs and their research in assistive technologies to offer hope and support to wounded warriors..... that is why it is my pleasure to announce our 2009 Emerging Leader of the Year is Julie Sheppard.
Our 2009 Professional Leader of the Year is just that– the consummate professional in every way.
With a career that spans more than 30 years, our Professional Leader has risen to the top of his field gaining statewide and regional acclaim. President of one of the largest and most respected accounting firms in our area, he continues to grow and develop as one of the leading experts in our area.
Respected among his peers, this individual is eager to give back to Pensacola and continues to make a difference in the community. There is no doubt that he takes his role as mentor and leader seriously. He is an expert at effectively attracting and retaining top talent within his firm.
He recently was quoted as saying, “UWF provided the start of my career. The solid education provided by UWF helped me pass the Certified Public Accountants Exam and was the start of a successful career in public accounting.” Eager to help educate the leaders of tomorrow and offer them the same opportunity he had, this professional supports a scholarship program and mentors to University of West Florida accounting students.
He is the president of the local chapter of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and has been selected to serve on the prestigious PKF North American Network’s Strategic Planning and Board Nomination committee– an organization that promotes excellence within the accounting field.
When not skeet shooting, gardening or watching college football, our 2009 Professional of the Year stays busy through his involvement on many boards and committees like SunTrust Bank, Baptist Hospital/ Baptist Health Care and is active in First Baptist Church of Pensacola where he has served as deacon.
It is my pleasure to congratulate Ron Jackson with the 2009 Professional Leader of the Year award.
Our 2009 Business Leader of the Year is no stranger to hard work. Our Business Leader entered the insurance business in 1977 after graduating from Florida State University.
In 1990 he formed his own company and as they say, “the rest is history”
Our 2009 Business leader was the first person from Northwest Florida to serve as president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Florida, holding the office for two years. He has continued to be actively involved in the Professional Insurance Agents Association, serving as chair. He also received the prestigious Professional Insurance Agents Leadership Award for his exceptional work. In 2005, he was named the Agent of the Year– one of the highest honors to be received in his industry. This award is based on an agent's professional competence, ethical standards and overall contribution to the industry. He served as their Legislative Chair from 2005 to 2008.
His community service is as impressive as his business accomplishments and his infectious smile. He has served in organizations such as Children's Home Society, Five Flags Rotary and the Board of Governors for Florida Automobile Joint Underwriting. He has also served the Pensacola Junior College Foundation, Pensacola Museum of Art and as Vice Chair of Membership for the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce for the past two years. A tough assignment in these trying times. His colleagues credit him with strong ethics and commitment to his profession, which is why we are pleased to announce our 2009 Business Leader of the Year, is Donald McMahon.
When you take a look at the 2009 Community Leader of the Year, it is easy to see why the selection was made.
Since moving to Pensacola in the late 70’, this incredibly unassuming individual has become one of our strongest community advocates.
A quiet, gentle man, our Community Leader of the Year owns one of the largest, most respected construction firms in all of Northwest Florida. He began his career working as a carpenter's assistant during his summer vacations...grouting doorframes and working on the concrete crew. This hand’s on experience gave him a unique perspective– one that few executives ever truly experience.
We discovered this individual’s community commitment comes from the principles he applies every day to his business– this individual saw the future of construction not as a hard bid, cut throat business, but as a service industry. And it is that belief in service that makes him such a strong servant leader. Through his numerous charitable and community commitments, he has made a profound impact on Pensacola.
He is currently the Chairman of the Saenger Theater Restoration Committee, a member of the Finance, Executive, Nominating, Long Range Planning and Audit Committees for Sacred Heart Health System. He’s a member of the Ascension Health Finance Committee, a fellow for the University of West Florida Foundation and President of Westgate/Snoezelen Charitable Foundation. He is a past Board member and Chairman of The Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.
His commitment to preserving Pensacola’s history and heritage through his work on the Saenger restoration project, combined with his dedication to children and other charitable organizations make it easy to name Bill Greenhut as our 2009 Community Leader of the Year.
The last award of the evening is announced with a heavy heart. Tonight I am privileged to present our 2009 Spirit of Pensacola award to a great man whom I was honored to call friend.
When reviewing his nomination form- all 14 pages- in preparation for tonight we were astounded with the passion, emotion and impact this individual had on the people with whom he worked. Things like “he was the essence of all the wonderful things that symbolize Pensacola. Like America’s First Place City, he was a leader and never hesitated to be the one to take the first step.”
“He was a community leader who led by action and integrity. He loved this community with a passion, so he empowered and encouraged his staff to make it the best place to live.” He committed his time, his resources and voice to those that might otherwise never be heard.
“He rarely said no to anyone or any organization that asked for assistance. He believed in sponsoring events that helped support economic development, tourism, children, literacy, the elderly, education, the arts and the disabled.”
One wrote, “He led by example, he encouraged and enabled the entire staff to be active in the community. He loved family and he loved children, and I was lucky to be a part of his family” - where he embodied the “spirit of Pensacola” and infused it throughout our organization.
In his 20 years as General Manager of WEAR, he championed innovative television that highlighted issues facing the community. He forged collaborations with entities that would normally be considered competition, and when a local businessman decided to launch the first African American owned television station in the market he volunteered to be a mentor to the owner.
He was a proud sponsor of the PACE awards for many years and a great friend to the Chamber.
Sadly in November, our community lost this great man, but his spirit still lives on in the hearts of all those that knew him . . .
It is my great honor to recognize posthumously Carl Leahy with the 2009 Spirit of Pensacola Award.
We began tonight by talking about this group of people who know and knew how to bloom where they are planted. And they found plenty of room for others to join them in their garden of life.
I could ask you to think about your associations and ask the question are they blooming or suffocating the blooming of others? But the more difficult question, I believe, is for us to honestly ask that question of ourselves. I suspect we have been a bit of both from time to time. My challenge as we leave tonight is for us to strive to bloom where we are planted, and not at the expense of others.
Once again, congratulations to our winners.
Good night.