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Familiar Face to Lead Tampa Chamber

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By MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

Bob Rohrlack

TAMPA - A veteran of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce is returning to lead it.

The chamber this afternoon announced Robert Rohrlack Jr., 47, as its next president and CEO. Rohrlack, who will start April 27, replaces Kim Scheeler, who left the Tampa chamber in August for a similar job at the Greater Richmond (Va.) Chamber of Commerce.

Rohrlack will be a familiar face to many in Hillsborough County business circles. He has worked for the Tampa chamber twice before, most recently from 1993 to 1996, as executive director of the chamber's economic development arm, the Committee of One Hundred. He also served as a project manager there from 1986 to 1991.

More recently, Rohrlack worked as a senior vice president at Enterprise Florida in Orlando, the state's economic development arm. There, he oversaw efforts to retain, expand and attract new business to Florida.

Under his watch, Enterprise Florida helped lure several high-profile scientific research institutes to the state, including the M2Gen project in Tampa, an effort of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and Merck & Co. He and his staff also developed incentives packages for the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, which opened a satellite operation near Orlando, and the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, which opened a branch in Port St. Lucie.

Rohrlack is a former president and chief executive of the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce and a former executive at Mississippi's economic development agency.

Henry Gonzalez, the 2009 chairman of the Tampa chamber, said in a prepared statement: "Bob Rohrlack has a proven track record of sound strategic planning and a true sense of collaboration."

In a brief interview today, Rohrlack said he has a soft spot for Tampa, partly because this is where he met his wife. He grew up in Longwood, a suburb of Orlando.

Tribune researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.

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