Past Speakers
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June 17, 2024
Barbara Tripp, Fire Chief, Tampa Fire Rescue
Chief Barbara Tripp was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. Chief Tripp graduated in 1984 from Hillsborough High School. After graduating from high school, Chief Tripp enrolled at the University of South Florida to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering. Later she enlisted into the United States Navy where she completed a honorable Department of Defense tour in Hawaii.
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June 10, 2024
Amir Abdur-Rahim, Men’s Basketball Coach, USF
Named the 11 th head coach in South Florida men’s basketball history on March 29, 2023, Amir Abdur-Rahim came to USF after leading one of the nation’s most stunning turnarounds at Kennesaw State, which he guided from a 1-win season to a 26-9 record, ASUN Conference regular season and tournament titles and the program’s first-ever Division I NCAA Tournament berth in 2022-23.
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June 3, 2024
Rocky Brancato, Chief Operations Officer, Public Defenders Office – 13th Circuit, Tampa Florida
As Chief Operations Officer, Rocky Brancato works directly under Public Defender Holt and shares with her the responsibility of overseeing all bureaus and administrative areas in the office. He directly manages the Felony Bureau. He joined the office in 2003 and has worked in every bureau. In addition to his duties as a leader in the office, Mr. Brancato represents clients charged with homicide and other serious offenses.
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May 20, 2024
Richard Rogers, CFRE, Habitat for Humanity Hillsborough, Chief Development Officer
Richard Rogers, CFRE, is the Chief Development Officer at Habitat for Humanity of Hillsborough County. Richard has devoted his career to helping nonprofit organizations grow and better serve the community’s needs. He grew up on the east coast of Florida, where he met his wife of 21 years and the mother of his two children, now age 16 and 14. Richard has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Central Florida. His family moved to Tampa Bay ten years ago where Richard continued his work with nonprofits while also starting up a successful small business, called Escape Thrill. With over 20 years of non-profit leadership, Richard has helped start and grow numerous programs to support children and families in need and served in leadership positions on dozens of Boards and Councils to better serve the community. In 2011, Richard was awarded Lead Brevard’s 4 Under 40 award and was a Citizen of the Year Finalist by Florida Today Newspaper. Richard is also a graduate of Leadership Tampa Bay’s Class of 2021.
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May 13, 2024
Mark G. Haney, Senior VP. Chief External Relations Officer, Zoo Tampa
As Chief External Relations Officer, Haney leads ZooTampa’s expanding government relations strategies, proactively advocating support of innovative conservation policies and programming. Concurrently, Haney pursues government funding opportunities for the developing transformation of ZooTampa by building meaningful relationships with local, state, and federal government leaders. Haney also cultivates his close associations with select major donors in collaboration with the ZooTampa Development Team. Haney previously served as the Vice President of Advancement at The Florida Aquarium and as the Director of Individual and Corporate Giving at Zoo Miami. In his spare time, he enjoys kayaking in Florida waterways and creating animal and abstract art.
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May 6, 2024
State Attorney Susan S. Lopez, 13th Judicial Circuit
State Attorney Susan “Suzy” Lopez leads a team of approximately 300 prosecutors and professional staff in two offices in Hillsborough County. Lopez and the agency are responsible for all criminal prosecutions in the 13th Judicial Circuit, handling approximately 50,000 cases every year.
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April 29, 2024
Steve Johnston, CEO, Ideal Agent
IDEAL AGENT® founder Steve Johnston was born and bred in the real estate industry. Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, his mother owned and operated Century 21 offices in South Florida. Back then, it was a world without cell phones, the Internet, or websites used to search, sell or buy real estate. Selling real estate was more challenging, so the average real estate commission was 6%.