Community Spotlight
Tampa Bay
More than just a community, Tampa Bay
is a region unto itself, and for the past two
decades the Tampa Bay Partnership has
worked to build its communities into a
technology and innovation hub.
The Tampa Bay region consists of four
contiguous metropolitan areas – Tampa-St.
Petersburg-Clearwater, North Port-SarasotaBradenton, Lakeland-Winter Haven and
Homosassa Springs – and includes Citrus,
Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco,
Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties, eight
highly diverse and vastly different counties.
From a technology perspective, it is home
to several high tech companies, including
IBM Global Services, Jabil Circuit, Microsoft,
Nielsen and Syniverse Technologies. In
addition, a number of incubators and
accelerators such as Tampa Bay WaVE,
SMARTstart and the HuB can be found
throughout the region.
At an anniversary event November 21,
Partnership members celebrated not by
looking back as much as looking forward
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to plans for continuing the robust economic growth of the
Tampa Bay region.
According to current Partnership Chair Brian Lamb, president
and CEO of Fifth Third Bank (North Florida), “The Tampa Bay
region is on the verge of being one of the preeminent business
destinations in the world. The region is situated in a great
location with world-class assets and the infrastructure that sets
it apart from other regions around the country.”
Nothing says success in high tech economic development like
expansion and relocation announcements, and punctuating
the Partnership’s 20th anniversary celebration were two such
announcements that also made for a successful conclusion
to 2014.
Cognizant, a business and technology services company,
will expand its operations in Tampa by adding more than
400 new jobs over the next four years focused on technology
applications across the financial services, insurance and
health care industries.
As well, iQor, a global provider of customer contact solutions
and product support services, is relocating its global
headquarters from New York City to downtown St. Petersburg
with more than 100 employees. Earlier in 2014, iQor acquired
St. Petersburg-based Jabil Aftermarket Services.
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