Tampa airport CEO search down to two internal execs

The search for a new CEO for Tampa International Airport is down to two candidates after the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority’s board voted Wednesday on the finalists.

The two men left standing to replace retiring CEO Joe Lopano are Michael Stephens, the airport’s general counsel and executive vice president, and John Tiliacos, its executive vice president of operations and customer service.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday morning to cut in half a list of four possible replacements and set a Nov. 12 special meeting for Stephens and Tiliacos to make public presentations.

(The other two candidates also worked in the airport's executive ranks.)

A final decision could be made afterward, according a statement.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have such a strong candidate pool, making this a difficult decision for our board,” Brig. Gen. Chip Diehl, the board’s chairman, says in the statement.

“This speaks volumes to the talented executive team that Joe Lopano has brought to lead TPA over the past decade, and it bodes very well for the airport’s future. I’m looking forward to the two final candidates’ presentations and I have no doubt we will have an incredible leader in place at the end of this process.”

Lopano, whose contract runs through April and is the airport’s third CEO since 1965, announced in February that he was retiring after running the airport for 13 years.

He saw the airport through the pandemic and a large renovation that includes building the rental car center, the SkyConnect train system and a concessions redevelopment program.

The search for the new CEO was narrowed down to the four finalists earlier this year. And just last month the board said it and the executive search firm Korn Ferry planned to interview the candidates one-on-one beginning the week of Sept. 30.

The airport has said the new CEO will take over from Lopano “sometime after the new year.”