ST. LEO, Fla. – For 25 years, Bob Clark Jr. has been the man behind one of Tampa's most talked-about lunches. Now, he's coming to breakfast at Saint Leo University. The longtime Tampa business leader behind the weekly gathering at Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City is the featured speaker at "Breakfast with Bob Clark Jr.: The CEO Breakfast Series" at 8 a.m. on Friday, December 4, at the university's Wellness Center.
Clark, president of Tampa Steel Erecting Co., will share lessons from nearly 65 years in the family business, including his experiences in leadership, building lasting relationships, and strengthening the community through connection. The event is open to Saint Leo students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.
Registration is free but required and is available online at form.jotform.com/262932628653061.
Event Details:
"Bob Clark represents the kind of leadership we want our students to see up close: someone who has spent a lifetime building not just a company, but a community," said Dr. Jim Burkee, president of Saint Leo University. "His story is a lesson in what it means to invest in people, and we are honored to have him share it with our campus."
Founded in 1945, Tampa Steel Erecting has grown under the leadership of Bob Clark Jr. to become Florida's oldest surviving structural steel fabricator. The company's projects include EPCOT's Spaceship Earth, SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium, the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, the 40-story Tampa City Center, and Tampa International Airport's Airside F. Clark and his team have also earned awards for bridge projects across the country, including the Casco Bay Drawbridge in Portland, Maine, and the Twin Arch Bridges in Dallas, a 300-foot-high span designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava.
Clark's legacy extends beyond the structures he has built to the connections he has forged. Every week, he hosts a lunch at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, where he deliberately arranges the seating, putting a university dean beside a medical executive, or someone job-hunting near someone hiring, to engineer connections between people. He moved the lunch to the Columbia in November 2001, and this fall marks 25 years there. "Table 100" now features a plaque bearing his name.
Clark's community involvement runs deep. He serves on the boards of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Visit Tampa Bay, Floridians for Better Transportation, and the Florida Transportation Builders Association, and he has been executive director of the Miss Tampa Pageant for more than 30 years.
For more information about this event, visit form.jotform.com/262932628653061.
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