Tom Wallace is stepping down as president of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, which he cofounded and helped transform from a plucky band of networking techies into an influential trade group.
Wallace will remain on the forum's board but said he wants to give someone else an opportunity at the presidency. Taking over will be George Gordon, chief executive of Enporion, a Tampa group that helps electric and gas utilities make business deals on the Internet.
"I think we're ready for some fresh leadership. I think that's healthy for any organization," Wallace said Monday. A serial entrepreneur, Wallace runs several companies, including MarketSmart Technologies, which devises e-mail marketing campaigns.
"The Tampa Bay Tech Forum owes much of its success and recognition to Tom and his leadership," said Michelle Bauer, the forum's executive director.
"He's been an outstanding and articulate spokesman and someone who really has been an evangelist for this organization and for technology and entrepreneurs in the Tampa Bay area."
Gordon, the incoming president, said he hopes to increase the group's membership 50 percent this year, from 200 to 300.
Gordon, 56, intends to draw from his experience in tech trade groups in the Silicon Valley and Pennsylvania.
He said he sees the mission of the forum as bringing together the four pieces of the "technology pie": entrepreneurs, government, capital sources and research and development centers. "Contacts and capital is what it's all about," he said.
Created in 2000, the tech forum was feisty at the outset, criticizing the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce as lethargic. Wallace made headlines after saying the chamber was so focused on luring the next big call center or chip-making plant that it was overlooking tech start-ups here.
Since then, the forum has evolved from outsider status. It shifted from individual members to corporate memberships and, with the aid of a $100,000 infusion last year from the Tampa Bay Partnership and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, began working with those groups to promote regional technology.
"We became firmly convinced early on we can't do this alone," Wallace said.
In May, the forum is teaming with the Florida Research Consortium to host a statewide technology transfer conference. The inaugural conference will showcase various technologies that are available for licensing and commercialization from Florida's research universities and institutions.
- Times files were used in this report. Jeff Harrington can be reached at harrington@sptimes.com or 813 226-3407.
