24 Warrington alumni named to Florida 500

The University of Florida Warrington College of Business is well-represented on the 2025 list of Florida’s most influential business leaders. According to Florida Trend’s list, 24 Warrington alumni are among the Florida 500, the most looked-to leaders across the state’s leading industries.

Of the 16 industries Florida Trend focuses on, Warrington alumni are represented in over half, including agriculture, finance/insurance, health/life sciences, law, logistics/transportation, manufacturing, professional services, real estate, technology/information/media and tourism/hospitality.

See the Warrington alumni who are among the state’s most influential business leaders on the 2025 Florida 500.

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Agriculture

Johnnie James, Jr. (BSAc ’80, MAcc ’81)

President and CEO | Lykes Bros.

Lykes Bros.’ businesses include cattle, citrus, farming leases, forestry, hunting leases, conservation services, and land and water resource management. James, who has been CEO for nine years, joined Lykes Bros. after a 30+ year career in public accounting serving large agricultural family businesses throughout the Southeast. 

Jose “Joche” Smith (MBA ’91)

CEO | Costa Farms

Smith joined Costa Farms in 1992 after marrying founder Costa’s granddaughter, Maria, and became CEO a few years later, representing the fourth generation of family leadership. Under his direction, the company has grown into one of North America’s largest horticulture operations, cultivating more than 1,500 plant varieties across 5,200 acres and employing over 5,000 people across three regions. The company, founded in 1961, breeds and trials different plant species, raises beneficial insects for chemical-free pest control, and received Florida’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award in 2024.

Read more about Smith in the Warrington News story, “Rooted in Solutions.”

Finance/Insurance

Doug Davidson (BSBA ’93)

Market Executive | Bank of America

Davidson has led Bank of America’s Global Commercial Banking division in Tampa for 20 years, where the branch provides treasury, lending, leasing, advisory, and debt and equity underwriting services to companies with revenue of $50 million to $2 billion across all major industries. Through his involvement with the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Chamber Foundation, Davidson has led three cornerstone research projects addressing Florida’s critical needs in infrastructure, transportation, and logistics.

W. Chadwick Loar (MBA ‘06)

Regional President, West and Central Florida | PNC Financial Services

Loar joined PNC, one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the nation, in 2013 and was named regional president for West and Central Florida in 2016. His market region includes 64 branches and more than 1,100 employees.

John Medina (MBA ‘98)

President & CEO | First Federal Bank

Born in the Dominican Republic and trilingual in Spanish, French, and English, Medina began his career working on farms in Suwannee County before serving as a military officer and entering corporate banking through First Union’s Executive Management Program in 1988. He now leads First Federal, a mutual bank with $3.9 billion in assets.

Steve Raney (BSBA ‘88, MBA ‘99)

Executive Chairman | Raymond James Bank

Raney oversees the banking segment of Raymond James Financial, serving as executive chairman of the bank and on the board of TriState Capital Bank, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Raymond James. He joined the bank in 2006 as CEO after 17 years at Bank of America. 

Read more about Raney in the Warrington News story, “Lessons in leadership” and “Corporate Partnerships: Raymond James.”

Adria Starkey (BSBA ’77)

Executive Vice President & President | Finemark National Bank & Trust, Collier County

FineMark National Bank & Trust, which operates in three states, offers banking, wealth management and professional athlete practices. Starkey has been a FineMark director since 2013 and was previously COO for The Sanibel Captiva Trust Company.

Health/Life Sciences

Bo Boulenger (BSBA ‘82)

President & CEO | Baptist Health

Beginning his career with Baptist Health in 1985, Boulenger became President & CEO in 2022. Baptist Health is among the nation’s largest not-for-profit healthcare systems with a workforce of 28,000 employees and 4,500 affiliated physicians. Boulenger is responsible for the strategic direction of the health system, which includes 12 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient facilities and physician practices spanning four counties.

Charu Raheja (BSBA ’94)

CEO | TriageLogic

Raheja began her career as a finance professor at a university but left academia in 2007 and co-founded TriageLogic, which provides software and services for telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Raheja says she started the company to empower nurses (most of whom are women) to work from home with control over their schedules. She has been CEO for 17 years. 

Law

Juan Enjamio (BSBA ‘82)

Partner | Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Enjamio has led Hunton’s Miami office since 2012. He is one of the founders of the 120-year-old global firm known for its expertise in energy, financial services, real estate, retail and technology. Participating in the Leadership Learning Center at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Little Havana as a child, he now supports the center as a board member. 

Brad Kimbro (BSAc ’87, MAcc ’88)

Executive Partner, Tampa Bay Region | Holland & Knight

Kimbro is an accomplished civil trial lawyer with significant jury and bench trial experience throughout Florida. He has served as the managing partner of its Tampa office for nearly two decades and has been active in bar leadership, including service as president of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, chair of the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s Trial and Litigation Section, and chair of The Florida Bar’s Thirteenth Circuit Grievance Committee.

Everett Wilson (BSBA ‘86)

Office Managing Partner | Polsinelli

Polsinelli is an AmLaw 100 full-service law firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 24 offices throughout the U.S. Wilson, a health care regulatory attorney with a business and finance background, has led the Miami office for more than six years. He is past chair of the Health Foundation of South Florida and held leadership positions with the American Red Cross and Make-A-Wish. He’s also served as chair of the Health Law Section of the Florida Bar and has served on and led numerous other Bar committees.

Logistics/Transportation

Beth Kigel (BSBA ’90)

Vice President | HNTB Corporation

Kigel is a global thought-leader in new mobility and smart city ecosystems and is responsible for assisting transportation agencies, cities and regions in developing smart and connected infrastructure solutions. As chair of the Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees, she also helps guide the growth of Florida’s only public STEM university.

Manufacturing

Betsy McGee (BSBA ‘88)

President | ADI Metal

Founded in 1958, ADI Metal is an ISO-certified company in Fort Lauderdale specializing in worldwide metals distribution for marine, government and industrial applications. McGee has made a point of empowering other women in manufacturing.

Professional Services

Avani Desai (BSBA ’02)

CEO | Schellman

Desai leads Schellman, the largest niche cybersecurity assessment firm in the world that focuses on technology assessments. Desai is an accomplished executive with domestic and international experience in information security, operations, P&L, oversight, and marketing involving both start-up and growth organizations.

Read more about Desai in the Warrington News story, “The unpredictable road to becoming CEO.”

Tim Giuliani (MBA ’09)

President & CEO | Orlando Economic Partnership

A private-public partnership with 40 employees, the Orlando Economic Partnership boasts of creating 21,500 new jobs and attracting $2.5 billion in capital investment over the past seven years. Before coming to Orlando, Giuliani led two combined economic development/chamber organizations—the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Real Estate

David Martin (BSBA ‘98, MBA ‘01, JD ‘01)

CEO | Terra

Terra is a South Florida-based development firm founded in 2001 by David Martin and his father Pedro Martin. With a team of 80-plus professionals and active projects across 16 municipalities, Terra is known for its thoughtful, community-focused approach to development. During his time at the University of Florida, Martin opened Java Lounge, a popular Gainesville coffee shop that sparked his interest in how the built environment shapes human connection—an ethos that continues to guide his work at Terra.

Todd Powell (MBA ’04)

Vice President/Real Estate Development | Weyerhaeuser

Powell has led all real estate development and mitigation services activities across the Weyerhaeuser’s U.S. portfolio since 2016. In Florida, the company is in the process of developing multiple large-scale mixed-use projects and is a major player in land conservation.

Mitch Sinberg (BSBA ’01, MBA ’06)

Senior Managing Director | Berkadia Florida

Sinberg has been with Berkadia for more than a decade. In his role, he provides strategic vision and leadership to Berkadia’s seasoned investment sales and commercial finance professionals across the state of Florida, one of the firm’s top-producing regions. 

Craig Ustler (MSRE ’95)

President | Ustler Development

Ustler is an owner, investor, developer and broker of various property types including multifamily residential, student housing, hotel, office, restaurant, retail and mixed use. He has extensive experience in land sales, urban planning and highest and best use analysis. For over 25 years, Ustler has focused on urban infill projects as advocated by the “new urbanism” planning movement.

Technology/Information/Media

Suneera Madhani (BSBA ’09)

Co-Founder & CEO | Worth AI

After founding and selling Stax Payments, Madhani and her brother launched Worth in 2024 to fix a massive gap in financial services—onboarding small businesses. Worth’s platform uses AI to instantly verify and underwrite businesses with just a name, address and tax ID.

Melissa Medina (BSBA ’00, MBA ’02)

President & CEO | eMerge Americas

Medina founded eMerge with her father, Manny, to transform Miami into a global tech hub by connecting capital and talent. It draws more than 20,000 people from 5,000 companies in 45 countries. Beyond a single event, eMerge now is a year-round platform hosting investor summits, start-up pitch competitions, virtual education sessions and other events.

Sal Rehmetullah (BSBA ’10)

Co-Founder & CEO | Worth AI

Rehmetullah founded and leads Worth AI along with his sister, Suneera Madhani. The brother-sister duo hopes to emulate the success they had with their first startup, Stax Payments, originally known as Fattmerchant. Their new venture, Worth, helps fintechs and financial institutions instantly onboard and underwrite small businesses.

Tourism/Hospitality

David Barilla (MBA ‘11)

Executive Director | Community Redevelopment Agency/Downtown Development Board

Barilla has been a leader with Orlando’s Downtown Development Board for 13 years, working with a team of 65 to reimagine Central Florida’s urban core. From revitalizing downtown spaces and fostering partnerships with developers and artists to championing affordable housing and transportation solutions, it’s reshaping how people live, work and connect in Orlando. This vision is further realized through high-profile developments like the $500-million Westcourt project, adjacent to the Kia Center, home of the NBA’s Orlando Magic.