Wise move

Sarasota health care executive Sue Wise knows the true value of business succession, partly from a family tragedy nearly 40 years ago.

It happened in 1977, when her father and two brothers, who ran a family cattle farm in Michigan, were among seven people who died in a plane crash. Three other employees died in the crash, too, and the business soon began to struggle. “There was nobody left,” says Wise, now CEO of Sarasota-based Take Care Private Duty Home Health Care.

While nothing as nearly dramatic, Take Care, which Wise founded in 1995, recently made a big step in its succession plan: The company named Wise's daughter, Courtney Wise Snyder, president. Snyder, 35, has been with the business since 2008.