Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Enterprise Florida is hitting the pause button on selecting a new CEO.
But the decision has little to do with the candidates and everything to do with a storm brewing in the tropics.
The Enterprise Florida search committee was expected to make a final recommendation Wednesday, after it conducted interviews with two candidates. But Gov. Rick Scott, the chairman of the Enterprise Florida board of directors, couldn’t make the meetings because of a quickly developing tropical storm.
The search committee interviewed the final two candidates — Michael Finney and Richard Biter — during its meeting Wednesday.
Scott was supposed to meet with the candidates after the committee did, but couldn’t “because of the preparations for the tropical storm,” said Alan Becker, the vice chairman of the Enterprise Florida board of directors.
The U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami said Tropical Storm Matthew, which formed Wednesday, had sustained winds of 60 mph with higher gusts. The storm, which was tracking across the southeastern Caribbean Sea, is expected to become a hurricane by Friday, turning toward Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.
Scott added a 4:45 p.m. briefing with Bryan Koon, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, to his administrative schedule, and was monitoring the storm.
More than 100 people applied for the position, before the list was whittled down to five. The selection committee last week narrowed the list even further to just the two men.
Becker said both men gave “excellent hour-long presentations” during their interviews Wednesday. He said selection of a finalist is now on hold until the governor gets to speak with them. Becker said he hopes the organization will be able to make a final selection as soon as possible.
The next president will be paid $175,000-$200,000 per year, down from Johnson’s salary of $265,000. The agency’s head also serves as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
