Blazing Regional Trails: An Interview with Stuart Rogel, President & CEO

The Tampa Bay Partnership is the regional economic development organization for the seven-county, 5,742 square-mile region of west central Florida that includes the metro areas of Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Sarasota/Bradenton/Venice, and Lakeland. Before taking the helm as CEO of the Partnership, Stuart Rogel served as regional director for the Florida office of New Boston Fund Properties and as assistant city manager and economic and community development director for the City of Miami Beach. Stuart serves as a trustee of the Florida Chamber Foundation, on the Board of Directors of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, and, at the national level, on the Urban Land Institute’s Transit-Oriented Development Council.

I recently spent a very pleasant and fascinating couple of hours over lunch with Stuart, discussing nonprofit CEOship generally and the work of the Tampa Bay Partnership. Here are some highlights from our discussion:

Doug: Stuart, in today’s and tomorrow’s rapidly changing, always challenging world, what do you see as the preeminent skills and attributes that nonprofit CEOs must have to succeed as leaders?

Stuart: First and foremost, in these turbulent times, you’ve got to have a robust appetite for innovation and change, and you’ve got to be prepared to help the people in your organization learn to lead and manage change. This isn’t easy by any means. I’ve seen plenty of people over the years rhapsodize about how they love change, only to dig their heels in when it comes to actually changing. The fact is, the great majority of people probably don’t relish the prospect of changing. But you don’t really have any choice. You and your nonprofit either take command of your own change, or the world around you is going to change you, probably in pretty painful ways, like declining revenue and damaged credibility. So leading change is at the top of the list of skills you’ve got to master in this topsy-turvy world we live in.

Closely related to this, you’ve got to understand – and pay really close attention to – what’s happening in your immediate environment, especially your customers’ changing circumstances, needs and demands. Letting your customer ties erode by failing to produce real value for them is a sure-fire strategy for declining. Your organization also has to be very nimble and adaptable; otherwise the world’s going to leave you in the dust. Facilitation skills are also tremendously important to me as CEO of a regional organization that involves the collaboration of many really strong people on multiple fronts. You can’t be a traditional commander-in-chief at the Tampa Bay Partnership, waving a sword and riding a white horse. Rather, I spend most of my time leading from behind, facilitating, not directing. There are lots of other important attributes and skills that I might mention, such as being able to think on your feet, but they pale by comparison to the ones I’ve described.

Doug: Tell me about the external relations dimension of your work as president & CEO of the Partnership.

Stuart: It’s pretty much the whole ballgame in terms of my role as CEO of a regional organization covering a diverse, sprawling area of seven counties that’s engaged in fostering and facilitating a number of initiatives involving regional collaboration. You won’t be surprised to know that I’m constantly out of the office meeting with our key stakeholders – our “investors,” as we say – and so I’ve put a really solid internal management structure in place. If I truly need to be involved in dealing with an internal administrative issue, I obviously deal with it, but that’s the rare exception to the rule.

My Board members and I are excited by the long-term potential impact on the Tampa Bay region of two wide-ranging collaboration initiatives that the Tampa Bay Partnership is fostering and facilitating. One is a regional strategic planning effort that is intended to result in a detailed vision for our region, covering such critical areas as education, health care, transportation, and land use. Another, which is now taking shape, is an initiative aimed at passing a sales tax referendum to finance development of a true regional transportation system for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. So you can see that the Partnership isn’t just a traditional economic development organization that’s focused solely on business attraction and retention. We’ve become what you might call a “catalytic agent” that’s engaged in regional comprehensive development that puts all the pieces of the puzzle together, not just the jobs piece.

Doug: The word in the Tampa Bay community is that you’ve built a really solid partnership with your Board of Directors, and that you and your Board make up a true leadership team. What are some practical things you do to keep this high-priority relationship healthy?

Stuart: That’s easy to answer, Doug. First, I spend lots of my time on Board affairs, probably easily 30 percent. Of course, governance is a people business, and I stay in close touch with my Board, including talking every day with at least one Board member, usually my Chair. And I make sure that my Board members aren’t just a passive audience for staff work; my staff and I see to it that they’re actively engaged in leading, and they’re well-prepared to play a strong role in critical meetings with stakeholders around the region. You’ll never hear our Board members described as figureheads, much less rubber stamps. Never!