Newsmaker

Retiring SRQ airport chief rose from janitor's closet to executive suite

Rick Piccolo began his 53-year career scrubbing toilets at a Buffalo airport. He will leave SRQ after 30 years doing nearly every airport job along the way.

By Andrew Warfield
| 5:00 a.m. December 21, 2024
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Rick Piccolo has spent 30 of his 53-year airport career at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Manatee-Sarasota

When Rick Piccolo arrived on the west coast of Florida 30 years ago as a fresh-faced 43-year-old, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport was something of a mess.

As a rising star in the world of airport administration, though, he’d had plenty of experience in cleaning things up. Now entering his final seven months as president and CEO of SRQ, Piccolo looks back on a 53-year career entirely devoted to airport operations — starting in 1970 as a janitor at Buffalo Niagara International Airport.