by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Since 1999 the Florida Council on Economic Education, with support from Raymond James, has hosted the First Coast Business Hall of Fame. Each year, a group of people who have become successful through the combination of business acumen and community service have been inducted and honored by their peers.
Thursday, four new names were added to the list.
Gary Chartrand is chairman and CEO of Acosta Sales and Marketing, the largest sales agency in North America. The company provides sales, merchandising, marketing and promotional services to more than 10,000 retail outlets in the United States and Canada.
In 2006, he and his wife made a donation to the St. Vincent’s Foundation to establish the Gary and Nancy Chartrand Heart and Vascular Center. In 2007 he led the effort to bring the “Teach for America” program to Jacksonville and enlist the nation’s most promising young educators to eliminate educational inequality.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Board Chairman and CEO Dr. Robert Lufrano was also honored.
He joined the company in 1990 and served as executive vice president for health business prior to being named president and COO for the parent corporation.
Lufrano serves on the board of directors of America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Florida Council of 100 among others. He is also a member of the board of trustees for the University of North Florida Foundation.
Vestcor Companies CEO and former Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas John Rood has directed 59 investment partnerships that resulted in the development of more than 10,000 units of housing ranging from high-end condominiums to affordable housing. When he returned to Jacksonville in 2007 following his service as ambassador, he formed the JDR Companies to develop multifamily properties in Florida, the Carolinas and Texas.
He was also co-chair of The Jacksonville Journey Steering Committee and helped assemble 140 community leaders and subject matter experts to develop ways to reduce violent crime in the community.
After working in his father’s Pepsi-Cola business in the 1940s, Bob Shircliff embarked on a career as a Pepsi-Cola bottler in 1950. In 1963 he was instrumental in the merger of five bottling operations into Pepsi-Cola Allied Bottlers, Inc. and was elected president of the company. In 1968 the company was merged into General Cinema Corporation and Shircliff was elected to the board of directors of General Cinema and became president of 12 of its subsidiaries.
In 1973 he resigned from General Cinema and founded his own national consulting firm that specialized in equity enhancement. He also served as director of Atlantic National Bank of Jacksonville, Computer Power, Inc. Alliance Mortgage Corporation and Everbank Financial Corporation and many other companies.
Shircliff has received the Servant Leader Award from Volunteer Jacksonville, the Man of Vision Award from Prevent Blindness, Inc. and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Jacksonville University.
U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw was scheduled to be the guest of honor, but spoke to the audience via videotape from Washington, D.C. He apologized for not being able to be there in person due to Congress having to deal with what he called, “What is certainly our nation’s biggest economic crisis in my lifetime.”
Crenshaw went on to say, “It’s hard to overstate the seriousness of the situation. If we don’t do something people will lose their jobs and their savings. I think we’re on the brink of a tremendous collapse.”
Mayor John Peyton also addressed the audience and pointed to the recent influx of new business. He said he believes, “Jacksonville is in a unique position because most of our expansion has been international operations. I think our future is very bright.”
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