Services
Award Recipient
Joseph J. Incandela
CEO
Cross Country Home Services
www.cchs.com
Joseph J. Incandela serves as CEO of Cross Country Home Services (CCHS), the fastest-growing provider of home warranties and home service plans. With only 3 percent of homes across the country being covered by home warranties he has identified an opportunity and expanded the company’s market presence. CCHS has gone from strictly financial and real estate channels to insurance, utility, retail, connected home, direct-to-consumer and fee-for-service channels.
His journey to the top began back in 2003 when Incandela became part of CCHS as a member of its Board of Advisors. During his short time on the board, he exhibited leadership that advanced him to chairman of the Advisory Board in 2004. By 2006, he was asked to serve as CEO. Though Incandela was brought on to sell the company because of its unprofitability, within his first year CCHS had a positive EBITDA for the first time in more than five years.
Today, CCHS has a customer-centered focus, based on the understanding that customer trust builds loyalty and loyalty translates into profitable growth. Incandela leads by example, demonstrating his emphasis on providing high-quality customer service and being proactive rather than reactive. He believes that his main job as CEO is to recruit people who are truly passionate about driving a lifelong business relationship with partners and homeowners by aligning CCHS’ goals with the customers’ needs.
One of Incandela’s first actions as CEO was asking all employees what they thought CCHS’ values should be. These responses were aggregated and make up the company’s core values today, which are to optimize customer lifetime value and experience by delivering best-in-class home management solution products and services.
Incandela also stresses the importance of good corporate citizenship and responsibility to the communities in which the company is located. This philosophy is important to the overall mission of CCHS and is ingrained within the company’s HR practices.
Finalist
Scott V. Dols
CEO
Big Truck Rental, LLC
www.bigtruckrental.com
Scott V. Dols, CEO of Big Truck Rental, LLC, is a pioneer in the waste industry. Applying his vision, perseverance and ingenuity, Dols has steered Big Truck Rental toward consistent growth.
Big Truck Rental provides niche services to a broad segment of the waste industry. With a strong supply pipeline, infrastructure and capital outlook, the company is well positioned to face new challenges in the coming years.
Dols faces two primary challenges: maintaining adequate capital levels and competing with local refuse truck dealers. Big Truck Rental is highly leveraged due to the cost structure of the business, which presents a challenge in gaining access to and maintaining adequate levels of capital. Dols has built strong relationships with bankers, and as such, the company maintains a healthy capital structure and was able to weather the recent financial crisis.
When Big Truck Rental instituted the refuse truck rental business model, there was no competition in that segment of the market. As others recognized the success of the business model, however, local refuse truck dealers adopted similar strategies. Big Truck Rental differentiates itself from these dealers by having the latest in refuse truck technology, maintaining a fleet with trucks no older than 18 months, executing on its promise to deliver to customers within 24 hours of their order and having lasting customer relationships.
Trust and loyalty are the key ingredients in cultivating a successful business relationship. Dols conducts his business with suppliers and clients with this in mind because he believes relationships are critical to the company’s growth and overall success.
Dols believes it is the responsibility of all businesses to be active in the communities in which they exist. Big Truck Rental participates and donates to numerous charities and organizations in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.
Finalist
Craig Mateer
founder and CEO
Bags
www.bagsinc.com
Craig Mateer, founder and CEO of Bags, has gone from delivering baskets to delivering baggage. Upon graduating from Florida State University on a basketball scholarship in the late 1980s, Mateer returned to his hometown of Orlando. Over the next 25 years, Mateer would draw on the skills he honed on the hardwood — competitive drive, persistent motivation and effective communication — to transform the travel and hospitality industry by delivering on a key desire: making travel easier.
Within a year after graduation, Mateer identified an opportunity around the parking issues that were prevalent in Orlando. His first foray, City Nights Valet, offered tourists and visitors to the city’s hot spots a premium front door service.
As he searched for different business lines, the city of Orlando began laying the foundation for a light rail public transit system. The conversations of a light rail system sparked the question of what travelers would do with their luggage. Soon, the idea for remote airline check-in and luggage delivery was born. That was in 2000. Now, Bags operates in all 50 states and more than 250 airports.
Having transitioned Bags into a multi-faceted operation with a leading technology platform, Mateer has his eyes set on a global luggage delivery system. One of the primary challenges to overcome with global expansion is dealing with each country’s regulatory environment. The company, however, has already undergone discussions with regulatory travel agencies in countries outside of the U.S. in order to begin laying the foundation.
On a personal level, Mateer has always demonstrated a passion for charitable causes, particularly those benefitting children. Over the years, he has provided significant support of organizations such as Arnold Palmer’s Children’s Hospital, Give Kids the World, Kids Beating Cancer and Sheperd’s Hope.
Finalist
Todd M. Wilcox
CEO
Patriot Capital, LLC
www.patriotdefensegroup.com
With a background of patriotic service — first as a U.S. Army Special Forces officer and later as an accredited diplomat with the U.S. Department of State — Todd M. Wilcox has combined his military and government service with business acumen and regional expertise to grow and expand Patriot Capital, LLC.
As CEO, Wilcox actively seeks out business opportunities in areas where active armed conflicts take place. That approach is based on a philosophical motivation to support and promote social and economic stability in war-torn regions of the world, emerging markets with a lack of infrastructure and frontier economies.
Since its beginning in 2006, Wilcox has grown Patriot Capital into four segments: Patriot Defense Group, Strategic Risk Management, Innovative Logistics and Riz-Q Capital Partners.
Patriot Defense Group, the company’s flagship business, provides advanced training solutions to the U.S. military and law enforcement, and has become the first non-government provider of this type of training.
Strategic Risk Management provides business intelligence and specialized corporate security services to the defense, energy, media, financial and legal sectors, while Innovative Logistics specializes in logistical support in hostile environments and emerging markets.
Riz-Q Capital Partners, the company’s newest addition, is a private equity firm focusing on early- and later-stage equity investments in markets where Strategic Risk Management operates.
Under Wilcox’s leadership, Patriot Capital has not only survived spending cuts and government shutdowns, it has thrived in the face of adversity. In the service industry in which it operates, quality of service is achieved through a talented, high-performing team.
Wilcox developed proprietary curriculum taught by the most-qualified personnel in the country. His performance-based management system promotes the growth of the company, and an incentive program aligns performance with the strategic goals of the company.
The evolution of the company and its vision is captured in its motto: “Sharpen the Sword, Strengthen the Shield, and Stabilize the Economies.”
