• Jeffrey Carbiener, president, CEO and director of Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services Inc., is stepping down immediately for “significant health-related reasons,” the company reported Wednesday. The LPS board set up a search committee. In the interim, Lee A. Kennedy, executive board chair and former CEO of LPS’ prior parent company, Fidelity National Information Services Inc., will serve in the additional roles of president and CEO. Carbiener, whose age is listed as 48 by Bloomberg Business Week, said in a statement that LPS has established itself as an industry leader since its start more than three years ago. “Although I would very much like to continue leading our outstanding team, because of recent changes in my health, I have made the decision to resign,” he said. He will serve as an adviser to Kennedy and the board.
• The office vacancy rate in the Downtown Northbank was 27.2 percent as of June 30, according to the Cushman & Wakefield real estate group. The Downtown Southbank rate was 11.8 percent. The suburban office vacancy rate in June was 21 percent. The largest suburban market, the Butler/Baymeadows area with 10.4 million square feet of office space, was 19.6 percent vacant.
• Lad Daniels will retire as president of the 300-member First Coast Manufacturers Association by yearend. Daniels said Wednesday that a search committee wants to have a successor in place by the end of September and he will stay on during the transition until the end of the year. Gov. Rick Scott recently appointed Daniels, a former City Council president, to the St. Johns River Water Management District governing board for a term ending March 1, 2015. A job posting at www.fcmaweb.com said the committee wants to present a candidate to the manufacturers’ board Aug. 15 with a desired start date of Sept. 30. Daniels has been president since May 1992.