AUG. 3-9, 2012 ULTIMATE CEOS jacksonvillebusinessjournal.com THE BUSINESS JOURNAL 13

Brent Brown began developing the concept for Latitude Global Inc., a full-service entertainment com-pany, in 2007.

From the beginning, Brown had a vision for the company’s venues to be places where there was something to do for everyone. In the entertainment in-dustry, he said, venues and companies have to go multidimensional to draw a crowd.

“The shift has already been go-ing in that direction,” he said, “and we are right in line with that shift in entertainment.”

Latitude Global’s flagship location, Latitude 30, opened in Jacksonville in January 2011. It had just under $10 mil-lion in revenue for its first year of op-eration, and a parking garage to handle customer traffic is under construction at the venue.

Under Brown’s leadership as CEO, Latitude Global is rapidly expanding, with locations under way in Indianapo-lis, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Brown said the goal is to open all three by the end of the year.

He hopes to keep expanding across the country and said Latitude Global is looking at five new locations for 2013, but nothing has been signed yet.

Brown said the bad real estate market has opened opportunities for Latitude

Global. There is usually little availabil-ity for buildings that are 50,000 to 70,000 square feet, but Latitude Global has been able to take A-plus locations at a huge discount from the regular price.

As the head of the company, Brown said he tries to hire people who have the same work ethic and vision, people who put the company first. He tries to lead by example.

Philip Alia, the chief marketing of-ficer of Latitude Global, said Brown is not afraid to make tough decisions. And when Brown makes those decisions, he has thought them through; they are not just knee-jerk reactions.

“For any type of CEO in today’s economy, that is important,” Alia said. “Those decisions affect a lot of people, not just the management team.”

Brown also founded Latitude Cares to handle all of Latitude Global’s char-ity business. His wife, Toni, and Despi Garson, wife of Greg Garson, president of Latitude Global, operate it.

Latitude Cares has donated to more than 70 organizations and held func-tions at Latitude 30 for individual chari-ties, most recently Homes for Veterans.

Brown said he feels it is important to give back because Latitude 30’s success has come directly from the community. He wants to show appreciation for cus-tomer loyalty by giving back year after year.

“The Jacksonville community has put us on the map, and we’ll never forget that,” he said.

—Dargan Thompson

G ino Tenace, the president and CEO of Rise Health Inc., is dedicated to developing in-tegrated health systems that improve the quality and affordability of health care.

Tenace started as the chief operating officer at Rise Health in 2009, and helped develop the company’s business model of delivering consulting, analytics and technology services to doctors.

In January, Tenace started Northeast Florida Accountable Care, an organization of 40 indepen-dent, primary care doctors in 14 practices in the Jacksonville area. NEFAC brings the doctors data about patients and helps them redesign their prac-tices to be more effective and efficient

Before coming to Rise Health, Tenace spent 16 years with UnitedHealth Group in a number of different roles. In his last role as senior vice presi-dent, Tenace was responsible for everything that touched the cost and quality of service for the 45 million people UnitedHealth Group served.

With UnitedHealth, Tenace had opportunities to present ideas on transparency to President George W. Bush’s health care team and discuss options for creating universal health coverage for California with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s health care team.

Tenace also helped develop the Just Right Service program, a quality improvement initiative based on Six Sigma principles. UnitedHealth Group trained hundreds of certified Black Belts and thousands of Green Belts. Tenace said he trained the first 40 Black Belts that were certified, and seeing them evolve their process improvement skills was really rewarding.

Tenace said the key is starting with the data to see what the problem is, and then looking at the process. Companies can’t just throw technology at a problem; it has to be the right technology de-signed around the right process.

Jonathan Gavras, chief medical officer and se-nior vice president of delivery systems at Florida Blue, worked with Tenace at UnitedHealth Group. He said the things Tenace was doing were very in-novative at the time and Tenace was considered a go-to person for getting large projects under way.

Gavras said Tenace’s tremendous passion and energy, great business skills and a can-do attitude make him a great leader.

By applying process improvement, Tenace was able to help cut millions of dollars out of United-Health Group’s costs. He is now is trying to ap-ply the same sort of processes to doctor’s offices through Rise Health.

In hospitals and doctor’s offices, the processes must be centered on patients, Tenace said.

“Health care is about patients, and we forget about that,” he said. “We think about insurance and the doctors and the hospitals. It’s really about you and me as patients.”

Rise Health’s first customer was Boston Medical Center. By redesigning the hospital’s processes to be patient-centered, Rise reduced hospitalizations by 16 percent within four months.

Tenace said he hopes to help spread accountable care organizations across the country. Rise Health and NEFAC are already working with Florida Blue to add another group in Miami, and working with various payer organizations in other areas of the country.

— Dargan Thompson

Gino TenacePresident and CEO, Rise Health Inc. Small Company

Brent BrownCEO, Latitude Global Small Company

Brown looks for employees with work ethic and vision

Tenace offers process improvement to health care organizations

Gino Tenace, president and CEO of Rise Health Inc., at San Marco Square.

JAMES CRICHLOW

Brent Brown, CEO of Latitude Global Inc., at Three Lions Fountain in San Marco Square.

JAMES CRICHLOW

AUG. 3-9, 2012 ULTIMATE CEOS jacksonvillebusinessjournal.com THE BUSINESS JOURNAL 15

Connie Hodges knows that leadership is crit-ical to a successful organization, and not just leadership in the management team. “It is identifying leaders throughout your orga-

nization, and then building a team and a sense of connection with that team that ensures that all the facets of the organization are striving and working toward the same ultimate goal,” she said.

So when Hodges became CEO and president of the United Way of Northeast Florida in 1998, she quickly made changes.

She first worked on the internal structure of the organization, recruiting a strong team.

“I knew that I wanted to build a very strong team internally, and build the kind of depth and strength that we needed to really move some key areas that were important for the United Way to make an impact on the community,” Hodges said.

From her years of experience as a United Way employee, Hodges also knew the organiza-tion needed an employee recognition program. Wanting it to be employee-built, she identified a group of employees who then came together to create the Touchstone program, which rec-ognizes employees for their commitment to United Way’s core tenets.

Jerri Franz, United Way’s vice president of marketing, said Hodges coaches employees at all levels to the next level of leadership.

She said Hodges is a strong leader because she has passion and energy for the work the compa-ny is doing.

“She has more energy than 10 people put to-gether,” Franz said.

In her leadership role, Hodges has helped de-velop new programs to benefit the elderly and the youth in the Jacksonville area. She has also led United Way in increasing the overall community campaign by 75 percent, generating more than $25.5 million in the past 12 months.

Outside of her work, Hodges is involved as a member of the board of trustees for the Jack-

sonville Children’s Commission, on the board of governors of the Jax Chamber, involved in Downtown Rotary, Jacksonville Women’s Net-work, Leadership Jacksonville, and her church.

Since United Way’s goal is providing com-munity service, Hodges said it serves as a sort of bridge between nonprofits and the corpo-rate world.

R. Travis Storey a managing partner of KPMG LLP has worked closely with Hodges as the chair-man of United Way’s board of trustees.

Storey said Hodges has done an outstanding job through the tough economic times, and Unit-ed Way has had a more significant impact in the community because of her leadership.

— Dargan Thompson

According to a University of Arizona study, a key-board carries 400 times more bacteria than a toilet. Hospital infections are the fourth leading killer of Americans. One in 20 people who walk into a hospital will get an infection, and 100,000 of those people will die from those infections. They cause more U.S. deaths than breast cancer, AIDS and auto accidents combined.

All of these statistics alarmed Bradley Whitchurch and led him to found his own company called Seal Shield Corp., where he developed a dishwasher-safe keyboard, mouse and TV remote in addition to waterproof protec-tive covers for touch-screen devices like iPhones and iPads.

“He saw a problem and found a solution that saves lives, and he founded a company with the purpose to save lives,” said Jason Bray, the vice president of operations and in-house council for Seal Shied. “We don’t want just to be a good corporation, but also good corporate citizens.”

Before this, Whitchurch worked with another com-pany from the United Kingdom that engineered a washable keyboard for things like coffee spills. But ac-cording to Whitchurch, that keyboard wasn’t success-ful in the United States, and it didn’t work for his goal of preventing hospital infections. So he invented his own technology.

“When Brad first approached me about this, I thought he was crazy,” said Scott Filion, the vice president of sales and marketing at Seal Shield. “But Brad really has spent the past 10 years of his life in self-improvement. I knew he could do it because of his ingenuity, and he is doing an incredible job as CEO.”

But in addition to helping hospital patients through his business and the washable products, Whitchurch said he also wants the company to be actively involved

in the community.“We have a formal program to donate 1 percent of our

profits and 1 percent of our time to the community,” Whitchurch said. “We pride ourselves on being a phil-anthropic organization. If they ask, we do everything we can to try and donate.”

Whitchurch volunteers individually as a coach and at the Museum of Science and History — anything to spend time with his sons. But as a whole, all of the employees

get three paid days off each year to work in the commu-nity. Plus, Seal Shield also donates a lot of its products to schools, public libraries and the University of Central Florida’s new medical college.

According to Bray, Whitchurch does everything he can to be community-minded.

“I’ve seen him grow and develop as a CEO,” Bray said. “He’s not just my CEO. He’s my friend.”

— Lauren Darm

Whitchurch’s goal: Reduce death from hospital infectionsBradley WhitchurchFounder and CEO, Seal Shield Corp. Small Company

Hodges changed United Way’s business model early onConnie Hodges CEO and president, United Way of Northeast Florida Medium Company

Connie Hodges, president and CEO of the United Way of Northeast Florida, at the Treaty Oak on the Southbank.

JAMES CRICHLOW

Bradley Whitchurch, founder and CEO of Seal Shield Corp., on the Northbank’s riverwalk.

JAMES CRICHLOW

“She has more energy than 10 people put together.”

Jerri FranzVice president of marketing United Way of Northeast Florida

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