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STEVE HUETTELDaniel Mahurin: Chief executive, SunTrust Bank, Tampa Bay; chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership
Q. As you take over as the new chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership, what are your top priorities for the partnership in the coming year?
Ten years ago, we needed to brand and market the Tampa Bay area as a great place to move a business or move jobs to. In the second phase, we pushed regional public policy issues, like transportation and water.
In the next five years, we want to define what's important to the region to make it more attractive. One issue is the importance of redevelopment. Pinellas is built out, and there's an opportunity to redevelop downtowns and make them look new, more attractive to businesses.
Another issue is the development of regional leadership, to get individuals thinking about leading the region's economic development.
Q. We've never had an abundance of business leaders to promote the region, in part because of our lack of corporate headquarters and the revolving door of local executives for big out-of-town companies. How do you solve that?
We have an opportunity to get more people involved, people on boards like the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. We're not going to have one person who's dominant. That's not feasible in an area this size. I think we'll see a collective regional leadership.
Q. How does the area attract companies that pay better than the call-center jobs that have dominated relocations?
With Scripps (Research Institute), Gov. Bush did a great job bringing good jobs to South Florida. There will be spinoffs here at the University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center. We have a lot to offer the scientific community. In Pinellas, there are a lot of medical device manufacturers that (fit in) with what USF and Moffitt are doing.
What we have here is very attractive to people. We need to build on what we have and be opportunistic as to what the next opportunities are.