As I’ve written a number of instances beforehand, North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) president & CEO Hope Kennedy and I didn’t know one another in any respect when she moved right here from Pensacola practically 14 years in the past to take over the reins at what was then referred to as the Larger Wesley Chapel Chamber (which later grew to become the NTBC beneath her management).
However since then, Jannah and I’ve each been proud to say that we’ve got thought-about Hope to be amongst our closest buddies. Because the writer and editor of this publication all the time she’s had her job, I couldn’t assist however work together with Hope frequently and what I’ve at all times discovered her to be is a consummate skilled who took over a floundering group and reworked it into a real regional powerhouse. Along with her Chamber duties, Hope has served on the Boards of Administrators of native hospitals and enterprise organizations and has been requested to talk on behalf of her Chamber and the North Tampa Bay neighborhood on the openings of too many growth initiatives to say all of them right here.
However, as a couple of quick weeks in the past, Hope now has nationwide credentials to go together with the ever-growing affect she has earned regionally.
On the 2025 Affiliation of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) convention in Philadelphia from July 22-25, Hope was proud to be given the title of CCE — or Licensed Chamber Government — which fewer than 3% of the leaders of the 7,500+ Chambers of Commerce within the U.S. have earned.
“CCE isn’t an honorary title or an award,” Hope says. “To earn the CCE credentials, it’s important to undergo an intensive utility course of and every thing about your Chamber is put beneath a microscope — from financials to accomplishments. You need to have held your place for no less than seven years and it’s important to be sponsored by one other CCE to be able to even be thought-about (Hope was mentored by Tampa Bay Chamber president & CEO Bob Rohrlack). It’s a fairly large deal for each me and our Chamber.”
Hope additionally needed to submit a number of essays, together with one a few main venture she’s pleased with and she or he wrote about serving to what’s now referred to as the Larger Pasco Chamber (GPCC) — which beforehand had been a competitor of the NTBC — recuperate from practically going out of enterprise. Hope’s NTBC Board allowed her to additionally take over the GPCC management on an interim foundation, to be able to proper what in any other case possible would have been a sinking ship — despite the fact that there have been some GPCC Board members on the time who didn’t need Hope to be the one serving to them.
Right this moment, the NTBC and GPCC work hand-in-hand and Hope deserves a lot of the credit score for preserving that one-time rival afloat.
She was one in all 26 new CCEs named on the 2025 Nationwide ACCE Convention — the largest-ever group to obtain these credentials on the similar time — however that doesn’t diminish in any manner her accomplishment. “Incomes the CCE designation implies that I’ve reached absolutely the high of my occupation,” Hope says. “It was a whole lot of exhausting work, to get right here, however it was undoubtedly properly price it!”
So, What About WC Incorporation?
Should you bear in mind, again in March, we reported that Hope and her NTBC Board had determined to steer a gaggle of native enterprise homeowners who needed to look into the opportunity of Wesley Chapel incorporating as its personal metropolis, with the objective of guaranteeing that the residents and companies positioned within the space had their very own native authorities overseeing future growth and different choices and to seek out out if the thought was even economically or logistically possible.
By way of its nonprofit Basis, the Chamber started asking for donations from people and companies to fund two $75,000 research — the primary to find out the financial impression of the realm referred to as Wesley Chapel and the opposite, if the outcomes of the primary examine warranted shifting ahead, an incorporation feasibility examine.
Nevertheless, the attainable begin of the primary examine was placed on maintain when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed ending property taxes, which might have made incorporation much more troublesome to realize. However, the State Legislature rejected the governor’s thought when its session resulted in June.
“That no less than revived the thought of exploring Wesley Chapel incorporation,” Hope says. “We have now restarted our fund-raising efforts, so anybody who needs to make a tax-deductible donation for the examine (or if in case you have questions on it) ought to name the Chamber workplace at (813) 994-8534.”
“We hadn’t truly began amassing any cash earlier than,” Hope says. “However, we did have commitments for a few third of the quantity wanted for the primary examine.”
