Back to the future

In 2007, when the Business Observer celebrated its 10th anniversary, we asked 10 business leaders from Tampa to Naples to look into the future. From retail and health care to philanthropy and, of course, real estate and development, these big hitters opined about what their industry, business, or in the case of University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft, their school, would look like in a decade.

This is a look back at some of those projections and predictions. But more significantly, it's also a look forward another 10 years. And just as in 2007 — no one really knew the danger that lurked around the corner back then — these executives are, for the most part, upbeat and positive about the future.

Judy Genshaft, President, USF
In a letter to the future she wrote in 2007, Genshaft made several accurate projections, most notably that by 2017 the Tampa-based school would be “recognized as a premier metropolitan research university.”