As new Tampa Bay Partnership CEO, Rick Homans sees great opportunity to rally a region

After an 11-month national search to find a new economic development leader to run the Tampa Bay Partnership, the best choice turns out to be right here.

Rick Homans, who has led the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. for nearly four years, on Monday was named the new CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership, this metro area's sole regional business economic development group.

His mission: to rejuvenate a 20-plus year organization with a strong history, but one that over time may have spread itself too wide and too thin. Homans wants to elevate the group's role as a primary engine in efforts to raise this area's regional economic bar.

Homans arrived in 2012 in Tampa after a six-plus-year stint in New Mexico as the state's economic development director and, briefly, head of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. He excelled as CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough EDC, which helped recruit to the city and county a formidable string of corporate and job expansions from the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amazon and Ashley Furniture, among others. Plenty more apparently are expected to soon be announced.

In an interview, Homans, 59, said he is excited about his new role as head of the Tampa Bay Partnership because its regional emphasis offers broader opportunities to help unite the bay area. The group's plan to become more politically active, with a political action committee and by working closely with the so-called Bay Area Legislative Delegation, presents a fresh challenge to bring together area business and elected leaders, Homans said.

Why shift from one economic development group to another in the same metro area?

Homans said he was struck by an Oct. 4 Tampa Bay Times editorial headlined "Failure to lead in Tampa Bay" that was critical of an overall weakness in regional political leadership in solving problems in area schools, police tactics and even dealing with the future of the Tampa Bay Rays.

"In many ways, Tampa Bay is on a roll in spite of the political leadership rather than because of it," the Times editorial stated.

"That was very profound and very much on target," Homans said. "There is a giant vacuum in Tampa Bay when it comes to uniting the business and political leadership in an effective way. I think that is the calling of the partnership."

Tampa Bay Partnership chairman Brian Lamb, who spearheaded the search effort for a new CEO, calls Homans a "trouper and a keeper" for the Tampa Bay area. "This is a pivotal moment for the Tampa Bay Partnership as we welcome Rick Homans as the new president and CEO," stated Lamb, whose serves as Fifth Third Bank (North Florida) regional president.

Lamb told the Tampa Bay Times that the group — whose search team included HSN CEO Mindy Grossman, Baycare CEO Steve Mason and Gary Sasso, CEO at the law firm Carlton Fields Jorden Burt — and executive search firm DHR International looked at potential CEO candidates from the top 20 metro areas in the country. Seven with at least 15 years experience in public policy and economic development were interviewed. But no single candidate stood out.

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In a letter to Tampa Bay Partnership business members, Lamb praised Homans for his EDC track record, but also his leadership. "I am confident," Lamb added, "that Rick is the right person for the job as his extensive experience closely aligns with the strategic direction of the organization, which will focus on solidifying 'one voice' for the region."

Finding Tampa Bay's one voice has proved elusive over the decades. But clearly there is a growing appreciation here — at least in theory — that metro areas able to speak as one, and sometimes also with one larger checkbook, can promote a common purpose and compete more effectively than individual counties or cities that try to go it alone.

Homans said he was approached early on in the CEO search as a potential candidate, but declined to pursue the opportunity. More recently, he was reapproached and was convinced to throw his name in the ring after speaking with Lamb and Allen Brinkman, SunTrust Tampa Bay CEO and the partnership's incoming chairman next month. Brinkman recently chaired the Tampa Hillsborough EDC, where he worked closely with Homans.

Homans officially joins the group Nov. 9. He takes the CEO position held for nearly 20 years by Stuart Rogel. Rogel, whose compensation by fiscal 2013 had grown to $458,965, stepped down last fall.

Homans will be paid a base salary of $290,000 as the group's CEO, slightly more than the base he was paid at the EDC, but close to the median of those in similar economic development jobs, according to Lamb. Homans also will be eligible for an annual bonus and that formula, said Lamb, was still being discussed.

EDC vice president J.P. DuBuque will serve as interim head after Homans takes his new position.

Lamb said his phone battery was fading late Monday from all the early and positive feedback on the Homans appointment from business leaders, ranging from Lee Arnold of Colliers Arnold in Clearwater to Tampa lawyer Rhea Law, who played a big role in first recruiting Homans to the EDC from New Mexico.

If his success at the EDC is any indication, Homans may prove to be a coup for a partnership that Tampa Bay needs, but had lost its way.

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay.