• The Jacksonville-based Burdette Ketchum marketing consulting and communications firm hired Charles Chunn as business development director. Chunn was in advertising sales development for Turner Broadcast System’s Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and CNN brands in Atlanta and New York City. A Jacksonville native, Chunn graduated from Episcopal High School and from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
• Who has the license plate FLORIDA? Local insurance executive John Stoudemire.
• At least one commercial real estate venture is doing OK. Mike Shad’s office building in Five Points, it’s above the theater, has only one vacancy.
• Former Mayor Ed Austin was a good football player at Duke and grandson Austin Slater can handle himself on the sporting field, too. He’s accepted a baseball scholarship to Stanford.
• Our city’s oldest country club will undergo a massive renovation this year. Timuquana Country Club will replace its aging ballroom and banquet kitchen. The project should start soon and be completed by the Christmas season.
• The economy isn’t all that bad. The Concours d’Elegance elegant car show at Amelia Island expects to top last year’s record of 235 cars when they roll into town for the March 11-13 show.
• Jacksonville University basketball coach Cliff Warren likes his team’s winning record, but he’s more proud of the academics. In his seven years here, every player who made it to his senior year has graduated.
• Mary Tappouni, president of Breaking Ground Contracting, was named the 2011 chair for the Associated Builders and Contractors Florida First Coast Chapter. Tappouni will lead the organization and its approximately 150 member companies representing thousands of Northeast Florida construction industry professionals. The local ABC chapter serves contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and associates in Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Hamilton, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns and Union counties.
• New leaders include Watson Realty broker Dane Leslie for the local real estate association and contractor Michael Bourre for the homebuilders.
2011 resolution: Bob Buehn
Chief, Military Affairs, Veterans and Disabled Services, City of Jacksonville
“To continue to improve the electronic newsletter to better serve the veteran community in Jacksonville, and to connect the city with the U.S. Navy’s yearlong Centennial of Naval Aviation in 2011. On the active military side, to continue to push for home-porting a nuclear aircraft carrier in Mayport, along with other surface ships, to fully utilize the basin there, enhance national security through strategic dispersal and provide quality jobs for Jacksonville.”