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Several Sarasota-Bradenton area executives have committed to expand the payrolls at their respective firms to connect with a heart-tugging cause: unemployed military veterans.
The potential hires are part of Helping our Heroes, a nonprofit concept founded by Sarasota attorney Bill Robertson. The CEO of law firm Kirk Pinkerton, Robertson hosts Let's Talk Law, a weekly radio show Fridays at 4 p.m. on 106.9FM and 1220AM WSRQ in Sarasota. On the last Friday of each month the show is now devoted to veterans who seek work and executives who can hire them. “It's kind of like an on-air job fair,” Robertson tells Coffee Talk.
The first CEO-veteran show aired live in March with Jaime DiDomenico, president and owner of Sarasota-based CoolToday, an air conditioning, heating, energy and plumbing business. DiDomenico hired a U.S. Navy veteran on the show.
Alltrust Insurance executive Steve Hall, who, like DiDomenico and Robertson, is involved with the Gulf Coast CEO Forum, has helped recruit executives to participate in the program. Hall says it's an easy sell given the cause and the fact that many executives place a premium on the discipline and organizational skills often learned in military service.
Other executives lined up for future shows include John Saputo, owner and president of Gold Coast Eagle Distributing; Observer Media Group CEO and Editor Matt Walsh; Mercedes Medical CEO Alex Miller; and John Horne, president and owner of Anna Maria Oyster Bar. “These people are so willing to help out,” says Hall, who served in the U.S. Marines in the late 1980s. “It's been humbling.”
Robertson, whose father was a military veteran, also works with area ex-military on housing and financial issues through his radio show. “We as a firm try to give back to the community in a different way, and I've always been partial to veteran causes,” Robertson says. “I'm probably more excited about this than anything else I've ever done locally.”
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