Profiles

Q&A with Tom Porter of ProActive Tax & Accounting The Business Report sat down with Tom Porter to discuss the many important reasons why business owners benefit from working closely with a CPA. TBR: For those who may not be certain, can you start by explaining what CPA stands for and what it means? Porter:...

Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, a Utah-based fast casual Mexican cuisine concept opened at 3581 SW Archer Road in the Archer Centro West Shopping Center in early September. This location marks the first opening of Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill in the state of Florida. Costa Vida held a day-long grand opening celebration on September...

When you think of healthcare in Gainesville, UF Health Shands, North Florida Regional Medical Center and the VA Medical Center may instantly come to mind. But there’s another medical powerhouse that works hard to keep our community healthy: LifeSouth Community Blood Centers. LifeSouth is a nonprofit blood center that serves more than 130 medical facilities...

Eat the 80 is a locally owned and operated healthy meal delivery service co-founded in 2014 by husband and wife team Chris and Carlee Marhefka. The Business Report sat down with Carlee to discuss her passion for helping people eat healthily, and how Eat the 80 evolved from an idea into a successful business.  ...

Healthcare. Often a divisive term, it almost immediately draws sides concerning politics, high cost, availability, waste and corruption. And when stories flood the news concerning a healthcare executive jacking up prices for an antibiotic drug by fiftyfold, or the cost of EpiPen®, so critical to so many lives on a daily basis, skyrockets from $57...

Joni Jarrell has been passionate about the salon industry for her entire career. The Business Report recently spoke with her about her role as Owner, Director and President of Gainesville’s Summit Salon Academy and about how her school prepares students looking to launch their own careers as salon professionals.   TBR: For those who may...

Stepping into the large kitchen and dining room facility that houses the Eastside High School Institute of Culinary Arts is unlike entering a typical classroom setting. Walk in and you may witness a group of students clad in chef coats practicing their Batonnet knife cuts on a series of onions and potatoes. Or, the students...

The Sequential Arts Workshop (SAW), a school created to help burgeoning graphic novelists in Gainesville, kicked off their fifth year-long program on August 22. Tom Hart, who had been teaching comics at New York City’s School of Visual Arts since 2001, decided the prices for art school were too high and the curriculum should be...

As the director of energy studies at the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, Ted Kury helps utility providers and policymakers decide how to best prepare for severe storms. With the first storm of the 2016 hurricane season in the books, Kury weighed in on how well utility companies have prepared, what homeowners can...

Photo credit: Jesse S. Jones, UF Health Communications When you walk through UF Health Shands Psychiatric Hospital, it doesn’t take long to notice numerous hand-painted murals adorning the walls of the facilities. The story behind these murals began 14 years ago, when Jerald Davis joined UF Health as a mental health technician, providing care for pediatric patients at...