Corporate report

SARASOTA-MANATEE
Area executive joins homebuilders' board
Jeff Jackson, president and COO of Venice-based impact resistant window and door manufacturer PGT Industries, has been named to the board of directors of Smith Douglas Homes.

Woodstock, Ga.-based Smith Douglas builds homes in the Greater Atlanta area, Raleigh, N.C. and Birmingham, Ala., according to a statement. “Jackson brings a wealth of executive management experience from important industries, which will add a valuable perspective to our board of directors,” Smith Douglas Homes CEO Charles Schetter says in a statement. “We appreciate his willingness to serve as a director and look forward to benefiting from his judgment and counsel.”

Jackson joined PGT in November 2005 as a vice president and CFO. The following year he helped lead the company's IPO, and was later named executive vice president. Jackson was named president and COO in 2014, and was appointed to PGT's board earlier this year.

Health care foundation hires president
The Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation named Mason Ayres president of the organization.

Ayres was previously executive director of the NCH Healthcare Foundation, which supports Naples Community Hospital and the NCH HealthCare System. He also has experience in the travel and hospitality industry, with companies such as Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando. As president of SMHF, Ayres will lead the foundation's fundraising.

The Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation is a nonprofit that supports the Sarasota Memorial HealthCare system and health and wellness in the area.

LEE-COLLIER
Hall of fame inducts broadcaster
George Beasley, chairman and founder of Naples-based Beasley Broadcast Group and its subsidiary Beasley Media Group Inc., was recently inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Beasley founded the company in 1961 and has received numerous awards over his 55 years in the radio industry, according to a statement. The list includes: The Florida Association of Broadcasters named him Broadcaster of the Year in 2011; the Library of American Broadcasting named him a 2012 Giant of Broadcasting; and Radio Ink magazine regularly acknowledges Beasley in its annual “Forty Most Powerful People in Radio” issue.

Beasley was honored at an event held Nov. 17 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago. Other inductees include Delilah, Steve Harvey, Tony Roberts, Neil Rogers and Michael Savage.

TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG
Area leader to head ports council
Port Tampa Bay President and CEO Paul Anderson was reappointed chairman of the Florida Ports Council.

The Tallahassee-based council is an association of the state's 15 public seaports. It represents the voice of the port industry in Florida and provides leadership for the state's maritime interests, according to a statement.

“I am very excited to be reappointed to the chairmanship of this fine, collaborative agency and humbled by the confidence my fellow port directors have again placed in me,” Anderson says in the statement. “Florida's seaports will continue to be extremely important economic drivers in this state.”

A former federal maritime commissioner, Anderson has held numerous other high-profile leadership positions in the public and private sectors over the past three decades. Prior to joining Port Tampa Bay, Anderson was CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority. He's currently the elected chairman of the Florida Ports Financing Commission, and has held several leadership roles within the American Association of Port Authorities, among other organizations.

Business organization names new chairman
Statewide health care leader Pat Geraghty has been elected chairman of the Florida Council of 100 for the 2016-2018 term. He replaces Tampa attorney Rhea Law, chairwoman of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Florida offices. Law was chairwoman of the organization since 2014.

Geraghty, CEO of Jacksonville-based GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp. and Florida Blue, will be the 30th chair of the organization. He has been a member of the council since 2012.

Formed in 1961, the Florida Council of 100 is a private nonprofit organization of business, civic and academic leaders. Its mission is to improve the quality of life and economic well being of Florida through business-driven public policy.