Sarasota-Bradenton airport CEO to retire in 2025

After 30 years leading Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, a search firm has been contracted to recruit President and CEO Rick Piccolo's replacement.

By Andrew Warfield
| 4:05 p.m. November 18, 2024
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Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo is overseeing the largest expansion in the airport's history.

Manatee-Sarasota

Come June 30, 2025, Rick Piccolo will complete his 30th year as president and CEO of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

It will also be his last.

Tucked away on Page 167 of the packet for Tuesday’s meeting of the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority is a notice that national executive search firm Korn Ferry has been selected to search for Piccolo’s replacement. The document also reads that Piccolo will transition into the role of advisor until Dec. 31, 2025, at which time he will retire.

Lead recruiter Michael Bell will serve as the lead recruiter. Korn Ferry has been the lead consultant on 29 airport CEO searches in North America, including some of the largest airports in the country and three in Florida.

Bell lives in Florida and is familiar with the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, according to the document.

Piccolo has led the airport through unprecedented growth as commercial passenger service expanded rapidly during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it among the fastest-growing airports in the country. Among his crowning achievements will be the December completion of the first five gates of Concourse A, all ground-based boarding gates that have been leased to Allegiant Air.

News of Piccolo's retirement follows Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano also announcing he will retire in 2025. Michael Stephens, the longtime legal counsel for TPA, was named CEO.

author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.