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Need to catch up on business news in Southwest Florida? No problem. Here are the top stories of the week pulled from our daily newsletter, Gulfshore Business Daily.

Friday, Aug. 10

DEADLINE APPROACHING FOR BLUE CHIP AWARD

The 24th Annual Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award application deadline is Sept. 4. Coordinated and sponsored by McGriff Insurance Services and BB&T Bank, the Blue Chip Community Business Award recognizes successful, small businesses in Lee, Collier, or Charlotte County that have overcome adversity to achieve success. Independent judges will pick the honoree once all applications have been collected. Businesses can nominate themselves or be nominated by a third party. To qualify, the for-profit business must have been in operation for at least three years under the same ownership with its principal office located in Lee, Collier or Charlotte County; employ five to 400 people; and have overcome adversity to achieve success. The award ceremony will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 1 at Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Bonita Springs. To submit an application, contact Stacey Mercado at (239) 433-7189 or SMercado@mcgriffinsurance.com.

Thursday, Aug. 9

SWFL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE NAMES INTERIM CEO

The board of directors of the Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance has named Susan Pareigis as interim president and CEO of the regional organization. Most recently, Pareigis served 10 years as president and CEO of the Florida Council of 100, following four years as Gov. Jeb Bush’s appointed secretary of the Agency for Workforce Innovation. Pareigis previously was president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Collier County and served in international business development at the Lee County Office of Economic Development. Pareigis has served on the board of directors for Enterprise Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce and chaired the U.S. Department of Labor’s Committee on veteran’s employment, training and outreach.

Wednesday, Aug. 8

LEE HEALTH WELCOMES PIGOTT

Jeffrey Pigott has joined Lee Health as vice president of compliance and internal audit. Pigott is responsible for oversight of regulatory compliance and internal auditing for the health system. He has more than 20 years of audit, compliance, financial and accounting experience for large organizations, including health care. Pigott most recently served as the corporate compliance officer and director of internal audit for Huntsville Hospital Health System, the third largest publically owned health system in the nation, located in Huntsville, Alabama. Before that, Pigott served as audit director for CHAN Healthcare Auditors for clients based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Pigott has an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) and Certified in Healthcare Privacy Compliance (CHPC).

Tuesday, Aug. 7

WEBSITE LAUNCHED FOR ALGAE RESPONSE UPDATES

Lee County has launched a webpage that will allow residents, property owners and businesses to keep up to date on the response to red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and blue-green algae in the Caloosahatchee River and area canals. The page is available at www.leegov.com/waterqualityinfo. A link is also available through the www.leegov.com homepage. The page includes timelines and project updates for both Lee County’s Algae Cleanup Test Project and the Red Tide Beach Cleanup. A map shows the location of dumpsters where residents can drop off fish killed by red tide. There are links included to Lee County municipalities and state agencies such as the Department of Health, Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Monday, Aug. 6

STICKBOY CREATIVE, T3 ENTER PARTNERSHIP 

Stickboy Creative and T3 Communications have recently partnered. Stickboy Creative has made an equity investment in T3 Communications, a subsidiary of Digerati Technologies. Digerati is a publicly-traded holding company and a multi-year recipient of Deloitte’s Fast500 and Fast50 Awards. T3 specialties include cloud-based hosted PBX, integrated voice and data, broadband and metro ethernet, colocation and disaster recovery, SecureBoost and accession. Stickboy Creative, founded in 2007 by Reema Bhatia, a member of the Forbes Technology Council, is also the technology partner with the Tamiami Angel Funds in Naples.

Publicly Traded Companies

HERC POSTS Q2 LOSS

Herc Holdings Inc. reported a second-quarter net loss of $0.3 million, down from a net loss of $27.6 million in the same period last year. Net loss for the six months ended June 30 totaled $10.4 million, down from a net loss of $66.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Revenue in the second quarter totaled $485.5 million, up from $415.8 million in Q2 2017. Total revenue in the six months ended June 30 equaled $916.8 million, up from $805.2 million in the same period last year.

BBGI POSTS Q2 EARNINGS

Naples-based Beasley Broadcast Group posted a net income of $4.9 million for the three months ended June 30, up from $3.9 million in the same period last year. For the six months ended June 30, Beasley recorded a net income of $1.8 million, down from $11.3 million in the same period last year. On May 1, 2017, the company completed the sale of six stations in Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, and that December, Beasley exchanged its Boston adult contemporary station WMJX-FM and $12 million for Boston’s sports station WBZ-FM. The results reflect the operations and results from WBZ-FM in the three and six months ended June 30 and WMJX-FM in the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. The results also reflect one month of contribution from the Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville stations in the three-month period, and four months of contribution in the six-month period ended June 30, 2017.

ALICO POSTS QUARTERLY PROFIT

Alico Inc. posted a net income of $9 million for the three months ended June 30, up from $5.5 million in the same period last year. The company also reported a net income of $12.3 million for the nine months ended June 30, up from $9.6 million from the same time last year. Total revenue equaled $26.5 million for the three months ended June 30, down from $51.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017. 

In other news…

Meet this year’s 47 Best of Business Award winners.

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