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grief, don't just bole it up. We all experience death, and we all have to work on how we're going to handle that. Some handle it beer than others. Let's talk about the CEO Forum. It's a great organization—tell us about it. It was founded five years ago. We have a sister company, the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, and a lot of local CEOs were going up there for meetings with other CEOs. We realized we needed an organization down here for like-minded people at the top of their companies. We started with 16 members, and now we have over 100. We're all about relationships, ideas, solutions. We invite speakers and hold social or special events to keep members growing as people individually, but also to help their businesses. I think it's valuable to the community that all these leaders get together who are so passionate about Sarasota and Manatee. ey want to keep learning and also give back to the community. Of your 100 members, how many are women? We have 12 women, but we are still growing and hoping to get more. Our guidelines are that you have 10 or more employees and $1.5 million in sales. It was an all-male board when I first started. But I said, "is isn't an old boys club—we need to get some women invited and get them on our board." ey've listened. Now we have three women on a board of 16. We're growing , but it's still not a fair ratio. at's one of my initiatives, reaching out to more women. Are you planning to stay in Sarasota? I had an opportunity to go to Boston to a wonderful job aer Mike passed away, but I felt that this is a different community in Sarasota, Bradenton and Manatee…there are people from all over here, but it's such a strong community. I want to see it grow in a positive way. In the bigger cities you don't have that, so it's exciting for me to be here. D She Said at's not something nice about me. He Said I'm getting there. We've been married for 15 years. You don't get here without being best friends and soul mates. Our marriage is my biggest accomplishment. In the end, all the trophies on the wall don't matter….with the exception of a wedding anniversary—that's my biggest accomplishment. And that goes two ways. You know, all the stuff that comes from Toby Keith songs that got us here. She Said Is that a good thing? He Said I'm trying to think of country songs that are apropos. Where do you see yourselves 10 years from now? He Said e end all be all is that we enjoy what we do. If we sell this place, we have no job. Money, but no job. So we have no plans to divest ourselves of this part of what we do. Hopefully 10 years from now we would be able to take 30 days to do something fun. But we would still be working. Other than maybe traveling, we haven't thought out that far. She Said I don't know what the next chapter will hold. I guess we'll be planning our 25th wedding anniversary! D Continued om page 37 - Kim Miele Continued om page 39 - He Said /She Said Subscribe at GravitasMag.com | 41

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