Nancy Engel, Executive Director of the Economic Development Council, was hired 22 years ago to establish the economic development division of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce. Prior to her arrival, the Chamber had an Economic Development Committee that met quarterly and had a budget of $10,000 for marketing materials, but no staff to carry out focused programs.

Today, the EDC is a separately funded division of the Chamber with a staff of 7 and a budget of approximately $740,000. Sixty percent of this funding comes from the private sector and 40 percent from public sector.

The EDC is responsible for marketing the area to locating and expanding companies and facilitating access to available resources. Companies like GE Security, Tropicana, Flowers Baking Company, Chris Craft, SYSCO, and Beall's Corporate Headquarters & Distribution Center are examples of this division's successes.

Nancy is a graduate of Indiana University, the Economic Development Institute, and Leadership Manatee. She serves on numerous boards and taskforces, including the Suncoast Workforce Board, Enterprise Florida's Partners Council, Imagine Manatee Steering Committee, the Marketing Committee for the Tampa Bay Partnership, and is past chair of the Sarasota Bradenton Airport Advisory Council. She is a regular instructor at the Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) conducted by USF in the fall.

Nancy was born and raised in Seymour, Indiana but has lived in the Greater Bradenton area for over 25 years and has two adult children that live and work in South Tampa Bay.

Chris Lukowiak is the Director of the City of Palmetto's Department of Public Works. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Chris worked in the field of Public Works for 18 years before moving to Florida. After serving for three years as the Solid Waste Operations Manager for Hernando County, Chris and his family relocated to Manatee County, and now reside in Palmetto. In addition to having earned his bachelors degree in Science with a major in business administration from Trinity College, Chris is certified in a number of First Responder and Public Works specialties.

The City of Palmetto's Department of Public Works encompasses the Infrastructure, Development, Maintenance and Recreational responsibilities of the municipal government. With a staff of 65 and a myriad of consulting contracts with specialists, the Department of Public Works is the largest in the City, managing a budget of 13.8 million, including several Enterprise Funds.

Max Linn, the president of Florida Citizens for Term Limits has spent more than a decade fighting to establish and enforce term limits in Florida.

As a former financial planner Max has dedicated himself to public service and philanthropy. After he sold his planning practice Max established the "Military Families Foundation" to help families affected by the war in Iraq.

More recently, when the Florida legislature attempted to lengthen state term limits from eight to twelve years, Max Linn joined the battle with a campaign he dubbed "Eight Is Still Enough" - a group that is totally funded by Max - and not supported by any tax payer dollars.

For 8 months, Eight is Enough has fought for the term limits cause with weekly press releases, speaking engagements, a banner flown over the capitol and toy hearing aids hand delivered to the opening day of the legislative session so the legislators "might better listen to the will of the people." In May of 2006, Max and his group won the battle to keep Florida term limits at eight years. The Senate and House backed down and removed the amendment from the ballot, but Max believes that the fight is not over yet. He will explain the importance of two additional amendments to further strengthen term limits which his group supports.

People who hear about Max flying all around the state to promote and preserve term limits, often ask - why are term limits so important to you…. Here, with his answer, is Max Linn….

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Tanya Lukowiak serves as the City of Palmetto's Grants Coordinator and the Executive Director of the Palmetto Community Redevelopment Agency. Her responsibilities include grant applications, reporting, and project management, as well as the development and management of programs designed to continue the revitalization of the City.

Tanya is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and immediately following her commission, served as a Field Artillery Officer in Germany. After leaving the service, Tanya accepted employment with the City of Newark, New Jersey, first as an Aide to the Mayor, and then in management positions in the Department of Human Services.

She and her family relocated to Florida in 2000, and currently reside in Palmetto.

Darrell Turner is the President and CEO of Turner Tree and Landscape, Turner Tree Farms and Turner Equipment Sales. Darrell started Turner Tree when I-75 was being constructed and a need for trucking and heavy equipment operators was created. From trucking, the company grew to adding land development and site work to their resume. Several years later they expanded again into landscaping. This is when they began in earnest to grow. Darrell founded Turner Tree and Landscape in Bradenton in 1982. In 2005, they completed their new corporate offices. They now employ over 80 employees and currently have over 60 jobs in production. Turner Tree and Landscape also has over 1200 acres of tree farms under production. Turner Tree and Landscape posted over 12 million in sales last year and they look to surpass that for 2006.

Darrell grew up in Patrick Springs, Virginia. He is married with two daughters. The Turners are very active members of St. Stephen's Episcopal School both as soccer parents and as business partners. Darrell's wife, Mary Ann, chairs several committees for the school, in addition to being CEO of Horizon Bank. They are active soccer parents as their girls play for both St. Stephen's and the Manatee Magic. The family takes a much needed break to Virginia each summer, where Darrell still has his personal farm, to enjoy time with their horses and dogs. He says he keeps the "Old MacDonald" farm going to keep the kids happy. Growing up in Virginia, he is an avid NASCAR fan and has partnered with Wood Brothers Racing Team. During the racing season, whenever his schedule permits, he joins the team wherever they are racing that week.

Darrell also takes an active leadership role in the community. He is personally involved in many organizations as well as corporately supporting many other events and special projects throughout the county.

Dr. John Monhollon, Natural Resource Center. Dr. Monhollon is a board certified Family Physician who has completed an internship in pathology and three years of residency training in family practice. He is also a registered nurse.

Born in Richmond, Va. the youngest of four, Dr. Monhollon grew up in the states of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. He was raised in the nurturing environment of the Christian home provided by his accomplished parents Jimmie and Patsy Monhollon.

He become interested in nutrition at age twelve when his father brought home an eye-opening article from Executive Health Magazine about the ill effects of sugar. Dr. Monhollon stopped eating desserts at that time and received the label of health-food-nut which he has worn proudly ever since.

The next step in his journey into health awareness was in 1982 when he attended a lecture given by the prolific author Gary Null. The day after the lecture, Dr. Monhollon ate a beef taco at his eighteenth birthday party. Having pondered Dr. Null's message for 24 hours, Dr. Monhollon resolved to never eat flesh foods again and has not done so since the beef taco.

Dr. Monhollon spent the next summer making fresh vegetable juice for his beloved elderly grandma, Lola Monhollon, in an effort to improve and lengthen her life.

Dr. Monhollon's determination to become a medical doctor heightened in his teens when he began to realize that there were unhealthy biases and blind spots in the prevailing worldview of the medical industry. "I saw things that needed to be changed about the way medicine is practiced in America. I believed that I could have a greater impact by working on the inside rather than by complaining about the problems from outside the industry."

What Dr. Monhollon hopes to offer the world during the balance of his time on Earth 1. To help sick people find health and teach them how to keep it. 2. To supply impetus for improvement in the medical industry by adding to the number of citizens who have been healed by "alternative" therapies. 3. To reduce evil on Earth by promoting personal salvation from sin through Jesus Christ.

Jennifer Anderson, Bay News 9 Reporter. Bay News 9's commitment to county-by-county coverage of news throughout the Bay area means coverage of stories in your community by reporters who live in the counties they cover. In Manatee County, Bay News 9 reporter and Bay area native Jennifer Anderson is on the job, uncovering stories that matter to you -- stories the other stations miss.

Jennifer joined the Bay News 9 team in October 2004. She returned home to the Bay area after working at WCJB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Gainesville, where she completed a 20-part investigative series exposing unsafe daycare operations, dishonest mechanics and restaurants with health violations. Before that, Jennifer was the primary evening anchor, reporter, and news talk show host for CBS affiliate WXVT-TV in Greenville, Mississippi.

A graduate of the University of Florida, Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in telecommunications. While enrolled at UF, she was a reporter, editor, photographer and anchor for WUFT-TV, the school's television station, and an associate producer for radio station WUFT-FM. Jennifer has strong ties to the Bay area.

She attended Manatee Community College before heading to UF and completed her college internship at WTVT-TV in Tampa.

Lieutenant Doug Dodson, Florida Highway Patrol

Alan Zirkelbach is the President and CEO of Zirkelbach Construction, Inc. Alan holds a Florida General Contractor's License. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange. He is a member of Palmetto Community Redevelopment Authority, the Palmetto Planning and Zoning Board, and a member of C12, Christian Business Academy, since 1998. Alan and Zirkelbach Construction have actively been involved with the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, the Mantee Economic Development Council, Leadership Manatee, and the Manatee County Schools Foundation since the early 1990s.

Alan works to promote technical education because of its importance in the entire business community. All industries are suffering from a lack of skilled technical labor. More than 75 percent of the students who graduate from the local public education system will not graduate with a full college degree. Yet, many parents continue to view a four-year college degree as the ONLY path to success. Parents must be educated that there are many good-paying and fulfilling careers and jobs that come as a result of attending a technical education center. And, these students are leaving the technical education centers with considerably less debt than the tens of thousands of dollars of debt that many students attending a community college or university accumulate, often taking them decades to pay-off.

Personally, Alan is married and enjoys spending as much time as possible with his wife Carmen and their five-year-old daughter Annie. He has a standing "date night" with them at lease once a week where they go to the movies, enjoy a baseball game or just ride the ATC on their property in Palmetto. Alan's further interests involve American history, astronomy, fishing and golf. He also has a passion for anything "presidential". A deeply spiritual Christian man, Alan and his family attend Church on the Rock in Palmetto and are very involved in all of the church's activities.

Sheriff Charlie Wells of Manatee County was elected to his first term as Sheriff in 1984 and re-elected in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, for his sixth term. His academic credentials include an Associate of Science degree in Criminal Justice Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Eckerd College.

Sheriff Wells began his career in law enforcement with the Florida Highway Patrol working for 15 years as a State Trooper. He left the Florida Highway Patrol to work as an investigator for the State Attorney's Office, serving for one year before being appointed as the Chief of Police for the City of Bradenton. After working for two years as Police Chief he was elected Sheriff.

As the chief law enforcement officer of Manatee County, with over 1,100 employees and a budget of approximately $77 million, he has worked hard with his staff to develop and implement many innovative practices in law enforcement and corrections. Some of these programs include the nation's first juvenile offender boot camp, which has served as a model throughout Florida and the Nation. At our boot camp we focus more on education and counseling than on drill team formations and physical activity. Other programs include: " The Juvenile Youth Academy, the Omega 10 Juvenile Prison Center, the jail inmate farm, the Leading Inmates to Future Employment (LIFE) program, the Stop Turning Out Prisoners (STOP), Police Athletic League (PAL) Charter School and Victims First.

Sheriff Wells was appointed to serve on Governor Jeb Bush's transition team. He formerly served on the Governor's Drug Policy Council and currently serve on the Florida Domestic Security Advisory Panel.