Kids are All Right

Michael Malatin doesn't have any personal connection to adoption — he wasn't adopted and his two sons, 8 and 10, are his own children.

But he began to get involved in adoption after chatting with some good friends, including Tampa manufacturing executive Dave Alexander and Michael Loparco, CEO of the Engineered Solutions Group at Jabil Circuit. Alexander and Loparco are both on the board of the Florida chapter of Gift of Adoption Fund. The fund raises money to help families specifically in Florida defray the costs of adopting a child; the Florida chapter has helped complete the adoptions of some 350 children into forever families since it was launched in 2002.

“Child causes really pull at my heart strings,” says Malatin, who founded and grew his first company, Healthcare Parking Systems of America, into one of the largest valet management systems nationwide. The Tampa-based firm, before he sold it in 2007, had grown to work with 280 hospitals in 33 states. It had more than 5,000 employees and annual revenue in excess of $48 million under Malatin's leadership at its peak. Malatin recently sold another successful company he launched, Pinnacle Automotive Hospitality Services, and now runs a recruitment and executive search-consulting firm he recently co-founded, MC2 Group.