- December 17, 2025
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Innovaro CEO quits
Doug Schaedler, who took over as CEO of Tampa-based Innovaro Inc. last year, resigned Aug. 16. Schaedler said the departure is amicable.
Innovaro, formerly known as UTEK Corp., will search for a permanent CEO and evaluate candidates within and outside the company. Asa Lanum, a former executive with CTO Group and Fortel Inc., was named interim CEO.
Schaedler joined UTEK in 2004 as vice president and served in other senior positions before becoming CEO last fall, succeeding company founder Clifford Gross. UTEK changed its identity to Innovaro this past spring.
Edward Jones expands
Financial services firm Edward Jones plans to expand its presence in the Tampa Bay market over the next 10 years to 120 offices throughout the region.
The St. Louis-based company operates small offices staffed by at least one advisor. Location decisions are based on demographics as well as finding the right people to head each office, a company spokesman said.
Florida is considered one of Edward Jones' strongest markets because of its high concentration of baby boomers reaching or approaching retirement. The firm cited 9% growth last year despite a contraction in the financial services industry.
USF lauds Law
Rhea Law, chair and CEO of Tampa-based law firm Fowler White Boggs, was awarded the University of South Florida President's Fellow Medallion. Law has chaired the USF Board of Trustees the last four years and served as vice chair since the board was founded in 2001.
During her tenure as board chair, USF exceeded $380 million in research funds. Law, an education graduate of USF, has been with Fowler White nearly 30 years.
Insurer wins subsidies
TZ Insurance Solutions plans to locate an office in Fort Myers where it expects to hire 125 people in the next three years, according to the Fort Myers Regional Partnership.
State and local government will provide TZ with subsidies totaling $585,500. The funding is contingent on the creation of the jobs and wages that exceed the county average.
TZ initially is recruiting 70 employees in Fort Myers, including 50 licensed insurance agents who will sell life and health insurance. TZ Insurance is a subsidiary of Tranzact, based in Fort Lee, N.J.
Alico hires executive
Alico Inc., a land management company based in LaBelle, has hired Chris Ward as its vice president for planning and business development.
Ward previously founded Magnolia Florida, a private investment firm specializing in the purchase of Florida tax certificates. Alico holds a 40% interest in one of Magnolia's funds, the company says.
Prior to his founding Magnolia, Ward served as vice president of strategy and marketing for Centex Homes' Southeast region and as vice president of strategy for North American for InterContinental Hotels Group.
High-end homes sell
A greater number of homes priced over $500,000 were sold in Naples in July 2010 than the year before, and properties with the highest price tags are being sold at a faster pace than in 2009.
In July, Realtors sold 118 homes priced over $500,000, up 24% from 95 the year before. And most of that change was driven by high-end sales. Fifty-one homes sold for $1 million or more this year, compared to 33 last year, a 55% increase.
But while 580 homes sold for less than $500,000 in July 2009, only 416 such homes sold in July of this year, according to data released by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.
The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort, a landmark hotel property on Longboat Key, has closed indefinitely.
The closing, the second for the Colony in the last 11 months, stems from a ruling handed down by a federal judge presiding over the property's bankruptcy case. The judge, in an Aug. 9 decision that surprised most people connected with the case, ruled to convert the Colony's Chapter 11 reorganization plan with its unit owners to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
The liquidation ruling essentially means that the Klaubers, the prominent local family that has run the Colony for 40 years, are no longer in charge of the condo-hotel and resort that sits on 18 acres. Instead, majority control of the property now belongs with the Colony Association's board of directors, which has been in a legal fight with the Klaubers that led to the first closing last September.
Colony Chairman Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber had run the property with his daughter, Colony President and General Manager Katie Klauber Moulton.
Port Manatee has been designated one of several nationwide ports eligible for funding through the federally run Marine Highway Program.
The program, run by the U.S. Department of Transportation, chose eight ports in five states from Florida to Texas to compete for $7 million in grants. The ports in the program stretch from Port Manatee in north Manatee County to the Port of Brownsville in Texas.
Louisiana-based IberiaBank recently won a foreclosure lawsuit worth $10 million over a 167-room hotel in south Sarasota County.
The hotel, the Holiday House, was owned by Venice-based Best Southwestern Motels, Inc. The company took out a loan in 2006 to finance its purchase of the property. The Sarasota County Clerk of Court is now scheduled to auction the hotel.
Iberia Bank entered the Gulf Coast market in late 2009, when it took over some of the assets and deposits that belonged to Naples-based Orion Bank and Sarasota-based Century Bank.
