Six months ago, Sarasota Coastal Credit Union president and CEO Tom Randle told the Review his institution was like a gnat when compared to the Gulf Coast's community and regional banks.Make that more of a growing swarm of gnats. It turns out PGT, the recently turned public Venice-based manufacturer, makes more than impact-resistant windows and doors.It also produces MBAs. It's latest output was 13 employees, all of whom graduated earlier this month from the MBA program at the Sarasota/Manatee campus of Webster University. Ever improving and expanding our coverage, the Gulf Coast Business Review has hired Dave Szymanksi as Tampa Bay Editor. WCI Communities, the Bonita Springs-based homebuilder, postponed its annual meeting after corporate raider Carl Icahn urged fellow shareholders to stay away.Although CFOs in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area predict a decrease in the hiring of accounting and finance professionals in the third quarter of 2007, hiring in the market is the same as the national average according to survey results released by Robert Half International. Katie Rickert is carving up the old axiom that teenagers and college students are lazy, lackadaisical and longing for direction. And she's doing it one knife at a time. The Sunshine State has topped yet another list of good places to do business.
