Board Members
Willis Bowick, President/CEO
Mr. Bowick is the founder and President CEO of the Tampa Bay Black Chamber of Commerce Inc. since 2008.
He has been a Community Activist for the past 35 years.
Mr. Bowick affectionly known by his friends and family as “ K. C “. He spent his primary years of schooling in The Hillsborough County Public School System. He graduated from Enterprise High School, Enterprise, AL.
He also attended Columbus and Tennessee Universities. Mr. Bowick continues his community activities by serving on the COMTO’s Board, Economic Development Land and Committee and the Falkenenburg Academic Advisory Board.
Currently, he is a committed member to the ST. CLAVER CATHOLIC CHURCH where he has served for the past twenty five years.
Dexter Allen,Vice President
Dexter Allen is currently an Independent Healthcare Executive working as an Advocate and Life Coach for persons with disabilities. Dexter has worked extensively in Banking & Finance as well as Mortgage Sales and Business to Business Sales. He specializes in Community Development and Event Planning and is the founder of Luxe Life Entertainment & Media Group & Phoenix Healthcare & Independent Living Services. His vision and passion is the ongoing desire to see the Chamber grow into a "Chamber of all Chambers" within the Tampa Bay area.
Carolyn Ford, Chairman
Beginning as a teacher in the 1960s, Carolyn Ford has dedicated her life to improving the impoverished rural Florida county where she was born. She founded the North Florida Educational Development Corporation (NFEDC), in 1986 to empower individuals and families in Gadsden County to become more self-determined, self-sufficient, and self-sustaining. In addition to directing NFEDC's work in affordable housing, education, job training,youth leadership, and economic youth leadership, and economic development. Carolyn was elected mayor of Quincy and during her tenure overturned numerous racially discriminatory city laws and policies. Carolyn is Chair of the Florida Black Chambers of Commerce and a founding member of Southern Partners Fund.
Theodore Harvey, Boardmember
Theodore "Ted" Harvey loved the business world so much he spent over 35 years working for several small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Ted started his career as an accountant for a non-profit organization. After several years, he moved on to working for a manufacturing company. Once again opportunity knocked when he was offered and accepted a position with a major newspaper in Los Angeles in advertising sales.
Ted has worked in several sectors in the business community is currently semi-retired after year as a banker for a top five bank. He is currently building his own small business in the health service field. For Your Health Only in the business currently under development.
Ted currently holds the position of Director of Banking and Finance and is looking forward to working with the small business community. His goal is to work with businesses to provide information and make available bankers, money lenders, and venture capitalist to create a constant cash flow for our members.
Thaddeus Shaw, Boardmember
Thaddeus M. Shaw possesses a unique blend of executive acumen, leadership and team building, technical operations experience, and systems development experience. Much of this initial experience was gained while serving in the United States Army as a Telecommunications Analyst, Cryptanalyst, and Linguist. After serving honorably and discharging from the US Army, Thaddeus built on those experiences and became a Senior Consultant working with companies that were using and developing technologies that directly supported our deployed Military and The Department of Defense. As Chief Operations Officer and co-founder of Analyst Warehouse LLC (AWL),
Thaddeus has helped to build an impressive business that has consistently delivered stellar results to its customers by properly aligning innovative technologies and processes with customer requirements. In the role of President/COO, Thaddeus directs the daily Operations of AWL, which collected over $5.3M in revenue from 2009-2011, over $7.2M in yearly revenue for 2012, and has projections for well over $10M in 2013. This steady growth is a direct result of the operational vision put in practice, coupled with the strategic business development practices at AWL. In his technical role, Thaddeus directs Technology and Data Integration efforts on behalf of the United States Air Force (USAF).
