ST. PETERSBURG - Key Persons
On returning: Arnie Bellini talks building ConnectWise, the effort to create 77,000 jobs in Tampa Bay and his passion for saving wild Florida
On this episode of SPx, unicorn entrepreneur Arnie Bellini joins the podcast to tell the story of ConnectWise. He shares how the managed IT services provider went from its founding in 1982 in his parents' house to the area's first company with a billion dollar valuation. Then, he shares his efforts to give back, starting with connecting the dots of business and higher education. Finally, he shares his next venture, saving wild Florida.
Job Titles:
- President of the Tampa Bay Rays
Baseball & beyond - a conversation about the St. Petersburg community, entrepreneurship, and education with Brian Auld.
On this episode of SPx, Joe Hamilton sits down with Brian Auld. As President of the Tampa Bay Rays, Auld has a special insight into the evolution of St Petersburg and in this conversation he shares his deep-seated love for our city as well as his thoughts on where the city is headed. And we'd be remiss if we didn't talk a little about the business of baseball. This interview was originally shot on video. Head to the show notes on StPeteX.com to watch instead of listen.
Brian Auld has made a home in St. Petersburg. He arrived a decade ago as a single person, and has enjoyed St. Pete through many phases of life - from single to married - to married with small children. Now Auld, who lives in Old Northeast neighborhood with his wife and children, is not just the President of the Tampa Bay Rays, but also the father of a kindergartener at North Shore Elementary. Despite the popular trend of "school choice" and sending kids of magnet, private, or Montessori schools, the Auld family and many others in their neighborhood have made the choice to support their neighborhood school, and believe that their involvement can change the outcomes of the school.
"My wife and a bunch of folks from my neighborhood have also committed to sending their kids to the public school, because we think that simply by getting involved we are going to be able to make it a lot better school. It is a school that over the years has lost a lot of attendance for no good reason that I can think of. We are at least going to try to put our energy where our mouths are, and put our kids into school and show up and recruit others to support it as well. And we think it is going to be a great spot, great neighborhood school that is an easy drop off and an easy pick up and fits with the vision I always had of my kids walking themselves to and from school as soon as they are old enough."
Job Titles:
- President
- Director of UNICEF
A life of service: Carol Bellamy talks battling terrorism and bureaucracy, saving children's lives at UNICEF
On this episode of SPx, former director of UNICEF (1995 to 2005) and the United States Peace Corps (1993 to 1995), Carol Bellamy joins Joe in the studio to preview her keynote at the Conference on World Affairs. Bellamy discusses the lessons learned from her rich professional history, which began in the private sector, moved to politics, and later into global public service efforts. Bellamy shares her work immunizing children around the globe with UNICEF and preventing terrorism with the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund. As first female President of New York City Council, elected in 1977, Bellamy discussses the state of gender discrimination around the globe.
Carol Bellamy was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head the Peace Corps from 1993 to 1995, the first Peace Corps volunteer to hold the position. She was later appointed director of UNICEF from 1995 to 2005.
As Director of UNICEF, Bellamy worked toward: immunizing every child; getting all children a quality basic education; reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS; protecting children from violence and exploitation; and implementing early childhood programs in every country.
Bellamy says it can be easy to get bogged down in the plights of children around the world, but she tries to keep a broader perspective. "Children are healthier around the world today than they've ever been," she said. "But there are still too many children that die before the age of five from totally preventable causes. More children are at school today than at any time around the world, but there are still over two hundred million children not in school, still more girls not in school than boys."
Bellamy's advice? Be a good global citizen. "To me, a global citizen is not somebody who has a lot of stamps in their passport, it's somebody who wants to try and make a difference and improve their community, be a good citizen in their community."
Success usually means more than a vocation, Bellamy says. "I've often argued that people who are successful in whatever career, a business career, or a career in public service, if they've had some opportunity to do something else - an advocation as well as a vocation, it actually strengthens their success in their vocation."
Most systems, in both private sector and government, have too much bureaucracy, Bellamy says. We should all try to simplify over sophisticated systems. But, Bellamy says, that doesn't mean dumbing them down.
Hartmut Liebel talks iQor's unique two-pronged approach to client service, fearlessness in the face of AI, and his "selfish" morning routine.
On this episode of SPx, hosts Joe & Ashley sit down with iQor CEO Hartmut Liebel to get to the bottom of iQor's unique business model. They discuss how St. Petersburg won out over cities like Chicago, Charlotte and many others for iQor's global headquarters, and what the company is looking for from a talent perspective. Liebel shares his passion projects, local business heroes, and "selfish" morning routine, along with his secret to beating the "lonely CEO" problem.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Managing Director of Innovations Capital Group
Irv Cohen is dedicated to the all-important principal that the key to the future of this country and that of the Tampa Bay area is to be found in its competitive edge; its ability to innovate, and its drive to nurture and empower the entrepreneurs of today as well as tomorrow. He has an in-depth understanding of the macro and micro aspects of finance, capital raising, new business creation, strategic planning, new product development, product management, as well as operations and technology; essential requirements to charting the path to success in a constantly ever-shifting and disruptive technological world.
Mr. Cohen is a Managing Director of Innovations Capital Group where he participated in numerous transactions involving capital sourcing and raising for client Companies. He has extensive experience and relationships with numerous Private Equity and Venture capital organizations. He is also a Managing Director of Southeast Capital Group, which invests in start-up companies in the Tampa Bay area.
Mr. Cohen is also currently a Managing Member of Florida Funders, an online portal that connects accredited investors with startups seeking funding. He is also a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Tampa Bay (SVP) and is a Charter and Board member of TiE Tampa.
Mr. Cohen has over thirty years of experience working in Wall Street at premier global organizations. His last position was President of JP Morgan's Treasury Technology Corporation where he was responsible for all Business, Technology and Operations for the Treasury Services business line and also served on the Firm's strategic committee responsible for sourcing and closing on new products, technologies and strategic acquisitions.
Prior to JP Morgan, Mr. Cohen was a Managing Director at ABN AMRO; Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Barclay's Bank, North America and served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for the trading division of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Cohen began his career working for Price Waterhouse Coopers in New York.
When JP Morgan Treasury Services operations relocated 2100 jobs from New York to Tampa, Mr. Cohen led the effort and attracted and secured some of the brightest financial, technical and multi-lingual talent in the industry. Under his stewardship, the Firm was recognized as "employer of choice" in the Tampa Bay region
Mr. Cohen received his post-graduate degree in Finance from New York University and his MBA from Pace University. He is a Charted Global Management Accountant, a Certified Public Accountant, is the recipient of the New York State Society Certified Public Accountant Award of Honor, and is a member of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants and the Association for Financial Professionals.
In 2003, Governor Jeb Bush gave special commendation to Mr. Cohen for his leadership as Chairman of the Florida Financial Services Cluster Initiative (FFSCI), created to help accelerate the growth of the Financial Services Industry in Florida. He was also a key member of the team which helped recruit the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp to Tampa.
He has served as Chairman of the Board of Learning is For Everyone a non-profit organization that creates engaging experiential learning opportunities in the sciences and the arts for all ages. LI4E programs include FIRST Robotics program, TEDx events, Makers Festivals and successful community partnering on a variety of youth programs and educational efforts across Tampa Bay.
Mr. Cohen also serves on the Board of Heartbeat International. This organization is dedicated to saving lives by providing pacemakers, defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization devices and other cardiovascular therapeutic solutions to people in need across the globe.
An avid supporter of education, Mr. Cohen has served on the Board of Directors of the Council for Educational Change,, and is Treasurer of the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay, still remaining active as a Big Brother himself.
He has also served in the capacity as Board Member, and Chair of the Audit Committee of DHS Technologies, Director of American International Lifestyles, LLC; Board Member of Persystent Technologies, Dean's Advisory Board at USF, Tampa Bay Partnership, Florida Council on Economic Change, Chair of Florida Financial, and was the Past Chairman (2004) of the American Heart Association Ball. He has served as the Board Chair of the Tampa Innovation Center and is currently a member of the Council of Professionals at USF CONNECT.
Mr. Cohen is married with two daughters who practice law and who also reside in Tampa.
Joe Hamilton is publisher of the St. Pete Catalyst, co-founder of The St. Petersburg Group, a partner at SeedFunders, fund director at the Catalyst Fund and host of St. Pete X.
Joe first entered the startup world with Steve Case's Revolution Money (prior to AMEX's $350MM purchase of the company). There he built the card fulfillment, statementing, customer service and communication infrastructure for the innovative credit card company.
His next start-up, SavvyCard, raised over 2 million dollars. Joe connected with the company as an investor first and later joined as COO and board member. During Joe's tenure, SavvyCard enjoyed rapid growth, launching their Real Estate product and expanding rapidly.
After earning an MBA from the University of Florida, Joe co-founded ThinkTank - a creative strategy firm that grew by 50% year-upon-year for 5 years before merging in 2016 with Big Sea. Joe exited Big Sea in late 2018 to grow the St Petersburg Group.
The St. Petersburg Group was created in 2017 to focus local brain power on solving issues in a new way. By staying agile and connecting across silos, the group drives progress in the public sector with private sector strategies. SPG has launched several projects including Catalyst for Good, Beach Drive and St Petersburg Press.
Waveney Ann Moore's first St. Pete Catalyst byline appeared just over two years ago, on Nov. 25, 2020, and her weekly columns have enriched and elevated our journalistic output a thousandfold. The Guyana-born Moore began writing for us following her retirement from the Tampa Bay Times, where she'd been a well-known reporter and columnist for 24 years. "My husband's been telling everybody, for the past couple of years since I retired from the Times, that I failed retirement," she says with a laugh in this SPX interview with Catalyst publisher Joe Hamilton. This month, however, Moore is taking another shot at slowing down. After more than 100 Catalyst columns - about community, about equity and about the abundance of positivity amongst the people of St. Petersburg - she is now officially, no-turning-back retired. With Hamilton, she discusses her career, from earliest days in Kansas and Oklahoma, to her work for a Clearwater-based trade magazine and, finally, to the vaunted Times staff in 1994, where she began in neighborhood news before graduating to general assignment reporter. In addition to extensive coverage of the St Pete Pier, Moore was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1998 and 2010. Reflecting on her work with the Catalyst: "I learned a lot about the African-American community that I thought I knew, and I didn't," Moore says. "I learned a lot more. And I was able to focus on other minorities … I think it was definitely the people that I met, and the things that I learned, that's what I value."
Waveney is a community icon. She was more than a reporter in that she drilled down into the underlying history and motivations of her subjects. Her empathetic approach to the people she covered is a lost art and journalism in Pinellas County will miss her.