Suncoast Business Forum; Rhea Law

There's a special presentation of w. we do YOU Tampa St. Petersburg Sarasota. What does it take to be named the number one business leader in Tampa Bay was a take to run the largest law farm on the west coast of Florida. What does it take to be named business woman of the year. Well if you want to know then you must meet real law. Next on the Suncoast business. She's a local success story. Born and raised in Tampa Florida real law worked her way through college and law school and is now president of Tampa Bay's largest law firm Fowler white Boggs banker. Over the years she's blazed a trail of high level civic and community leadership. And now we're going to find out how she does it all Rhea.

Welcome to the Suncoast business forum. Thank you I'm glad to be here. It's great to have you. Thank you. Let's talk about your childhood. You grew up here in Tampa and sleuthing as a matter of fact I or my early years I spent with my grandmother and grandfather both from Italy and then ultimately when I was about five moved over with my parents and. It's been a long. Trip. What did your family do. Well my father originally worked with the brothers transfer company it's a family company and then ultimately moved over to some entrepreneurial interests. He had small businesses and to this day he's the hardest working retired person I know. You are well let's talk about school were you a good student did you have hobby. Did you have hobbies where you kind of outgoing kid. Well I was a good student and I did have a lot of hobbies but I wasn't outgoing at all I was a real book or very studious. Is that so. I would imagine people who would look at your career now and all the things you've accomplished would be kind of surprised that you were kind of quiet and shy.

Well probably so but I attribute that to my husband Wayne Williams he has certainly caused me to be more outgoing and certainly with the things that I've been able to do it I've kind of grown that way. Well you were the first person in your family actually to go to college Am I right. That's correct. And you went to University of South Florida. Actually the theory there was the University of South Florida allowed you to have six hours of college free and I wanted to go to college but couldn't quite figure out how to afford that. This way I was able to work there and go to school at the same time and it takes a long time to get a degree in six hours a quarter. But 10 years later I popped out with a degree and ultimately went on to law school. Did did doing a combination of work and study ultimately affect your career do you think. Well I think it probably did. If you're working while you're going to school I think you appreciate it more and you make more of it and you certainly focus on the kind of grades you want to come out with so you'll be successful.

Well let's talk about after college you decided to go on to law school after you took the extended program at university itself or you went to law school. You worked your way through law school as well my right I did. I did. And it was again that was a good experience because I brought my business experience from being at the University of South Florida a practical experience to law school and then again it made me really focus on getting good grades so I be able to get a job when I got out. How did you decide to choose law. Well while I was going to the University of South Florida I originally thought I wanted to go to med school. And so I studied chemistry in biology and as I was getting ready to go to med school they said we want you to go full time and not work. I couldn't afford to do that so I ultimately moved over to business administration got a degree there and took some business law courses and so on. I'm working with contracts and grants now I'm arguing with lawyers every day I can do that. And so I went off to law school and I looked at the type of law that you settled upon was environmental and land use law. How did you end up doing that.

Well that was actually one of those cases of being in the right place at the right time. I studied tax and law school I thought that I would completely change my focus from chemistry and biology side and on the very first day with my new law firm the senior partner asked me Do you know anything about chemistry. And I thought he must be following me around. Yes of course I know a lot about chemistry. And he said Great we have an industrial client that needs air permitting and no one understands the science. So it's you and I started there and now we build the largest environmental and land use group in the state that I'm very very proud of because of all of the expertise and background. Well environmental law and land use development in Florida are obviously important issues that have a profound effect on the quality of life here in the state. You've seen this over a number of years practicing law in this area. How well are we doing in managing growth and preserving the environment. Well we're obviously doing better than we were 25 years ago. However we

still have a ways to go and I think that there are people that are really focused on that the leadership of our state is focused on growth management. Environmental groups are becoming more and more sophisticated in the kinds of developers that are coming into the communities are more responsible because they tend not to just come here and develop something and leave but rather they come here and they stay this becomes their community and they're proud of it and they want to make sure that they don't mess it up. Now over the years you've risen to become the president and CEO of fellow white again we said the largest law firm in the Tampa Bay area fifth largest law firm state of Florida. I imagine lawyers are nice docile people. Very easy to work with very easy to manage am I right. How do you find managing a complex group of people in such a large company. Well first I have to say that I really am blessed and honored to have been asked to do this. But it does take a particular skill set and I think primarily it's communication and listening. And if you think about it that's probably true with just

about anything you do but we spend a lot of time talking to our partners and our associates and focusing on their good ideas on how they can service clients and I can tell you they have some great ideas so it's my job to implement them. You also take take on enormous responsibilities in that in the community you are president the chairman of the chairperson of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce the chairperson of the Committee of 100. Those organizations have a significant role in helping this community develop. How did you see your tenure there. What were some of the important issues that you focused on and some of your best accomplishments in doing so. Well for the Tampa Chamber of Commerce the focus my year was primarily on the military and we. Invigorating the Military Affairs Committee. We focused on the Abilene award and I'm pleased to say we've now won it twice since then. So yeah I mean award is the Abilene award is an award by the military the Air Force for the most supportive

community in the country and we've won it twice in a row. And I'm just real proud of that because it shows that the people of this community really care about our military and they care about that base out there. As far as a Committee of 100. You know that's the economic development focus for our community. And just last year I led a governance taskforce that recast how we would govern our Committee of 100 and how we coordinate with all of our partners. So as we look at economic development going forward I think we have a great foundation and I'm proud of that too. Do you see leadership rising among younger folks in the Tampa Bay area to take positions with the Committee of 100 with the Chamber of Commerce and other civic groups. Oh I think so. There's a real interest in that the chamber just a couple of years ago started a new group called emerge which is for the 35 and under and it's wildly successful there's an incredible number of people that are. Getting into that program and really focusing on what's good for the community and of course is always

leadership Tampa which is a program that I went through myself and I now feel is just imperative that we continue to focus on leadership going forward. That is our future. Well you've managed to balance professional and civic involvement and also a very dynamic personal life. How do you manage to balance all these things so well. Well balancing is an interesting question. You define what a balance is. And it may not be the same as other people around you but as long as the people that surround you all agree that's what balance is that's how you how you're able to move forward and I work a lot with the people not only in my family my husband for example but also with the people in my firm. They focus on our joint goals and we're able to accomplish them. You can't do this without a lot of help from your friends. Do you have processes that you find that help you manage your time better that top you set your priorities.

Oh absolutely I'm very goal oriented. Always have been and that's something that my husband and I do together. We focus every year on a what we call business plan for our life and we focus on what we're going to be doing for the next year very specifically what we're going to look like in five years and then something we call over the horizon. What is the long term goal and how do we want to fit into it. And once we start talking about that and talking about what kind of community involvement we're going to have what kind of hobbies what kind of things we're going to do personally. It's pretty easy to get those sorted out. You have a formal process the two of you actually follow. We absolutely absolutely do on Thanksgiving Day every year. We first give thanks for what has happened over the past year. And then we focus on the future. What do you feel that you personally get from your involvement in the community both professionally and personally. Well personally fulfillment. This is my community. It has changed a great deal and it's going to change even more. But the opportunities are just incredible and I'm really excited to be able to be a part

of that. As far as for the community itself wonderful opportunities out there and it's great to help provide the impetus and the resources to achieve some of those things. Let's talk about regionalism. You served as chairperson of the the Tampa Bay partnership which is a relatively new organization that's sort of a super chamber of commerce if you will tries to unite the entire Tampa Bay region with seven counties am I right. That's correct. It actually has been a fact for 10 years and it has made tremendous strides in those 10 years. I'm proud to say that the year that I served as chair we focused on creating the Bay Area legislative delegation which is the legislative delegations of all seven counties and this goes from her Nando all the way down to Sarasota County and from Polk County all the way over to Pinellas. When we put all of those legislative delegates into the same room and we started counting noses we suddenly discovered that that

was about 25 percent of our legislature for the state. That's a huge competitive advantage for our region and an opportunity for us to really focus on regional needs. So what we have been doing is pulling together those people and focusing in them on the things that all of the business partners as well as local government partners can can agree on are good for our region. So it's a great opportunity and I hope that that continues and in the future for years and years. Unfortunately there was not enough dialogue among the different communities in this region and it's great to hear that actually this is occurring as formally and as effectively as it is now. What do you think have been some of the impediments though in the past to making this work history. There's been a lot of protein alyssum throughout all of these counties. But I think you see that that's changing now and it's primarily being driven by the business community because if you think about it the business community is more than in just one geographic location you see

tend to see them throughout the region in perhaps a state maybe even the country. So their focus is much larger than the particular county or a city. With that kind of perspective it's easy for them to say to local governments look we need to do things that benefit the region as a whole. So again great opportunities out there I'm delighted to see it happening we have so much strength when we pull each other together as opposed to push each other away important part of our development of course is going to be quality of education. You went to local schools you went to University of South Florida you went to Stetson law school you really have experienced the gamut of what the educational system here has to offer. You serve as a trustee of the University of South Florida. How do you see the USF as an economic engine and an important part of the educational development of the area. It is a huge part of our economic future. If you think about the focus on biomed the technology sector our high

tech corridor which is between the University of South Florida the University of Central Florida and and has now included the leg to the University of Florida we have a research triangle of our own and USF is really driving what happens in this community. Duty again chef to the president of USAF is currently the chair of the Committee of 100 for the chamber. So she's on the economic development side as well as on the educational side and is pulling those two together. We have a new research park with two buildings that are coming out of the ground will have a very shortly we're going to have a ground or a actual grand opening for those which is a place for a center for entrepreneur and entrepreneur ism. It is a place for us to really focus our research towards those bio med biotech companies that we would like to attract to this community. And then of course we have Moffitt Cancer Center which is right across the way which really adds to the research focus for our community. We've got a lot of great things coming down the pike that we have to offer to new

businesses and that's why USF is so important. How do you think new businesses are responding to all this. You were so actively involved. Well you know they're responding very well. They are amazed when we can show them what we have available what we need to do is communicate this better. We need to let people know in the region in the state in the country what we have to offer here. That's the challenge. How do you think this community can better can better communicate this message outside of the area. Well we do it through our businesses. We do it through the people that can best speak for this area and that's the the business people that are located here. And we have many organizations that market and try and bring people here but it's really the business people the local governments to show that they're willing to work with you that they want to make businesses successful here. If we're aggressive about that we'll be successful. Let's change the subject a little bit and talk about women in business for only 5 percent of the law firms in the United States are managed by a woman president CEO.

I assume you believe that some of the barriers to women succeeding in business are coming down is that correct. Well that's true it's 5 percent of the large law firms. And and I think what you're seeing is that women are now aging up. They've been in the legal business long enough to have moved to these positions. And I think you're going to see that more and more. I actually there's no reason not to if if you look at the people who have come before I look at the people who came before me which really probably had a hard time in making it in the male dominated area. But the truth is it was much easier for me and hopefully it's much easier for the person that follows me. Do you feel you encountered barriers along the way. Well live perhaps we won't call them barriers we'll just call them challenges and I think you know everyone is a combination of all of their experiences so those things only make you focus on how to achieve your goals and sometimes you don't achieve them the way you thought you would. But you keep working at it and you make it happen.

Issues of pay. Are there issues that are related to pay scales between men and women that need to be addressed. I don't certainly see it in our law firm and I would hope that you wouldn't see it in other law firms. I mean we are focused on equality and having a diversity of practice areas as well as people within the practices so. So I would hope that's not true. Well I've got to I've got a 7 year old daughter and she's not thinking about her career yet but what if I was would you give me to help raise my daughter so that she has all the potential to achieve whatever she wants in the business world. Well first of all you need to encourage her every day that she can do anything that she sets her mind to. And I truly believe that that is totally a question of supporting and encouraging and opening up the areas of opportunity. I didn't really realize that this was available to me until I started working at the University of South Florida. And so that needs to start early on in life. So you encourage her every day and then expose her to things. One of the things

that I do for kids is I have them come spend a day with me at the law firm and I like to just show them the law from not that they will become a lawyer but this is just a professional business place. Let's show you what this is all about. Let's get you excited about what you might want to do in the future and then let him go out there and spread their wings and and do good. You've achieved a lot in your career. You're still achieving a lot. What are your benchmarks for success. While the benchmarks is first of all remember that business plan for life I was telling you about. My benchmarks are you hitting those every year are you hitting them quarterly. And then it's that long term view are you going to be where you want to be at the end with your family with your community. And I've got a lot of very specific benchmarks that I want to share with you but I will tell you that as you set those you set those goals you set them high. Don't the worst thing you can do is set a low goal because you might get it if you set a high

goal and you maybe almost make it you're still above where the logo would have been and would you know you might even get that high goal. What about failure. Have you had to deal with failures or setbacks and if so how do you deal them and have you seen other successful people deal with setbacks. You use it as a learning experience. OK that didn't work. But if that's still a worthy goal let's figure out some other way to get to it. And you know that's kind of what we do as lawyers. Sometimes the client will come and have an issue that they would like to have resolved in a certain way. And it may not be possible to do it that way but it's still achievable. So let's identify the art of the possible what can be done and then let's go get it done. Looking at the state of Florida how do you envision him particularly as it comes to land use environment but other important issues education so forth. Are you optimistic about what you see. I am. The reason is that our legislative delegations our governor are. Those people that are in power at this

point really are interested in the quality of life for our community and with their focus and with the business people supporting them. I think we can get there. I think you're going to see a lot of changes out of this legislative session. And I think they should be for the better. Are you pleased on a national level with the way environmental issues and development issues are being addressed. Well I think again we are evolving we're learning better how to do things. If you think about where we started 25 years ago we have come light years. And as we move forward we get better science we get a better understanding of the things that can be done to a comedy not only. The people who are living here but the animals and plants that are living here it's a balance as everything in life is. And I think that they're getting better at that. But it's for us as citizens as the people that are going to live here to really stand up and say these are the things we want for our quality of life.

As you're growing up you watch this community develop in the last decade or more it's developed in ways I imagine you could never imagine we have performing arts centers you know and in communities all throughout the bay we have a vast growing university system. What role do you see the arts playing in the in the growth in the success of this region. Well as you know the focus of the mayor is that this should be the city of the arts and you're going to see a huge redevelopment area along the riverfront in the in the city of Tampa. I think that business is coming to this community want a component of the arts. I think they look for that for the enrichment of their own lives in the lives of their children. So I think it's important that we have that. We need to have that in concert with the other things education good transportation system all of those things go into the mix so it's not just one thing it's not just arts and it's not just transportation it's everything together and that's where we ought to be focusing.

Can we achieve all those with a tax base that we currently have although the methods of taxation there are currently available here in the state. Well this might not be something that people will be anxious to hear but the truth is no. I think that we're going to have to do something about how we pay for these things and we need to focus some dedicated funds towards that. You would do that in your own business and I think it's true in government. I think the Tampa Bay area right now is very fortunate to have some very enlightened civic leaders elected officials who have broad visions of the of the future. It probably hasn't always been so but do you find it a unique moment in time where you have a great cooperation among the elected officials here in the region in terms of economic development. Well absolutely we're seeing that not only between the various cities in this region but we're seeing it. Throughout the state. We're seeing that our governor the speaker of the House the president and the Senate are aligned and doing things about

growth management they're aligned on economic development initiatives. We have a number of organizations that are working together very well the Tampa Bay partnership is obviously one of those great examples and it is working with all of the economic development entities that each of the local levels. So I think we have a team that can really go out there and achieve some good things for our community. And how about health care are we going to be able to achieve the health care requirements we have for our aging demographic. Well I certainly hope so I will tell you that's one of the big issues that's being addressed by the partnership in the business community right now. We see the health care costs rising incredibly every year and people are feeling the pain of having to pay more and not getting the same kind of service. We've got to solve that problem if we want to make this the place to come. State of Florida the place to come. We're going to have to do something about that and I think everybody's really focused on it now and with a lot of good minds thinking about it. We should be able to make some progress in sort of last question. A big focus

of the chamber in the committee 100 is attracting new business but an important part. And I know you believe in this is taking care of existing businesses and making life better for existing business is that right. It's absolutely true. Eighty percent of the business growth that we have is from existing businesses and their small businesses and we can grow them into big businesses. I mean if you look at some of the businesses it started right here and now they're national and international. That should be a focus for us and that's the whole point of having our incubator side out at the University of South Florida you take in these small businesses you support them you give them the resources from the university and then you grow them into something that's really beneficial not only to them but to our entire state our country. Well Rhea I want to thank you so much for being with us in the Suncoast business forum it's been great to have you. It's been my pleasure to be here thank you. And we invite you to join us next time for the Suncoast business for. Us.