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Results for:

  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • October 22, 2004
Punishment for the Poor

Minimum-wage laws and pro-union legislation do much more harm than good. They create poverty. Hereis why.

  • Opinion
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • December 31, 2004
Tourism to Pick Up

Tourism officials expect the new year to be a good one for visitors to the Gulf Coast.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • August 15, 2008
Coffee Talk

+ Kleiner Perkinsinvests in companyKleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the best-known venture capital firms in the world, recently disclosed it is an investor in Lehigh Technologies, a Naples-based company that was the winner of the Gulf Coast Business Review's technology innovation award for the Lee-Collier area in 2006.+ Newsflash: Checkthe copyright booksThe irony of this story is especially sweet: Seems that a group of supposedly well-intentioned attorneys across Florida goofed on a basic legal principle when forming a group to provide free legal services to homeowners facing foreclosure.+ Walter Industriesstock rises and fallsWalter Industries saw its stock jump to more than $104 a share this month on the New York Stock Exchange on the heels of a good quarterly report.+ Commercial propertyowners find tax helpNot every real estate-related business is in the doldrums.+ Developer doesn't give up,despite a massive loan issueA $40 million loan default isn't exactly what Brent Virkus had in mind when he made his initial foray into the Gulf Coast development pool two years ago.+ PODS marksmillionth milestoneClearwater-based PODS Enterprises Inc., the portable storage company, delivered its one millionth PODS container recently to Paul Johnson, a customer doing a home remodeling job in Fullerton, Calif. + Manatee business climatecontinues to sufferIn many cases, the issues facing senior exec

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • June 17, 2011
Corporate Report: June 17

The latest news from Valcom, HSN, and other Gulf Coast companies.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • October 22, 2020
Florida charter school leader targets expansion

Launching — and then managing — a charter school is a singular business challenge. Financial executive-turned-school choice leader Erika Donalds might be the perfect student for the task.

  • Education
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • February 7, 2020
Entrepreneur makes big push for shipping container homes

Although shipping container homes aren’t new, the niche has mostly been one-offs that make for cool, funky-looking sustainability or downsizing projects and nice spreads in architecture and interior design magazines

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Grier Ferguson |
  • February 22, 2019
Family farm market grows into four-store operation with hundreds of employees, plans for more growth

Behind the success of Detwiler’s Farm Market? An intense focus on the customer.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Brian Hartz |
  • June 8, 2018
Rowdy return: Leader comes back with a plan

Tampa Bay Rowdies owner Bill Edwards had double-bypass heart surgery last year, but he's back and ready to resume his visionary role in St. Petersburg.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Andrew Warfield |
  • August 24, 2018
A case for longevity

Korchmar enters fourth generation of leadership after marking 100 years of manufacturing leather case goods the hard way

  • Leadership
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Amanda Postma |
  • April 22, 2022
Community banks feel pinch of shifting industry

Several community banks in the region are looking to find opportunity amid a heavy amount of challenges, leading with the industry’s rapid digital shifts.

  • Finance
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • January 23, 2015
Incentives: dissected

The Business Observer breaks down incentive strategies used by counties on the Gulf Coast outside of Sarasota.

  • Florida
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Louis Llovio |
  • June 6, 2025
$300M Tampa project positions Coke Florida for generational growth

Coke Florida has opened a new automated distribution and sales facility on 156 acres in Hillsborough County that simplifies its processes and improves efficiency.

  • Tampa Bay-Lakeland
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Brian Hartz |
  • December 12, 2025
Hoffmann Marine's top executive navigates $150M in deals

Hoffman Marine President Jenny Gezella navigates the acquisition-hungry business of boating through a high-energy, high-reliability approach.

  • Charlotte–Lee–Collier
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • February 2, 2026
Leadership secrets revealed from a day at Disney's famed leadership institute

Lessons, in leadership and in life, abound at the Disney Institute. One example: It’s OK to be off task if you’re on purpose. Another one: What gets recognized gets repeated.

  • Leadership
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • July 18, 2008
Sarasota/Manatee 40 under 40

A look at the best an brightest under 40 in Sarasota and Manatee Counties.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • April 28, 2023
Daughter’s drug overdose fuels insurance exec’s new life mission

Michael Ortoll scaled the peaks of the insurance industry for 30 years. But the challenge that brought him to his knees didn’t come from work.

  • Leadership
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • December 8, 2006
Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk: Horizon Mortgage Co. president N. J. Olivieri spent most of his working days in the month leading up to Thanksgiving in a Sarasota courtroom, intently involved in the lengthy and complicated trial between various partners who built the Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Sarasota. And while a jury ultimately awarded Olivieri $1.85 million, the trial might as well have been a root canal. Cancel the call to the coroner: Pineapple Square is not dead. Tampa-area politicos and economic development officials were in full chest-thumping mode this week, claiming another victory in the ongoing effort to bring cutting-edge research and technology to the Sunshine State. The latest entry is SRI International, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based research firm that plans to open a marine science research facility in St. Petersburg.American Banker, the leading banking industry trade publication in the U.S., feted Orion Bancorp's Jerry Williams at a gala at the Pierre Hotel in New York City on Nov. 30.There weren't any surprises in the inaugural report on the ups and downs of the real estate market put together by the University of Florida's Center for Real Estate Studies.Ed Morton, the former chief executive officer of not-for-profit NCH Health Care System in Naples, lashed out at for-profit hospitals during an academic lecture at Florida Gulf Coast University recently.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • September 13, 2007
Corporate Report

Fox Electronics marketing XpressO oscillator to JapanAT&T widens cell coverage with new Sanibel towerKesselring Holding Corp. appoints Badertscher to CEOWCI elects Icahn, ends sales effortObee's accelerates marketingFormer Hartford Canada presidentnamed new Oswald Trippe COOChico's increases board, adds Staples CFORaymond James Financial offers 10-cent dividend

  • Industries
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • October 19, 2007
Mixed Signals

The residential real estate downturn is spreading to other industries and appears to be leading a general decline in business activity on the Gulf Coast. But some sectors, such as technology and exports, aren't feeling the pain.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • April 27, 2007
A Seller's Market

The private equity market continues to set records, raising $44 billion in the first quarter, up 67% from last year. Growth is expected to continue well into 2008.

  • Entrepreneurs
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