►Global outdoor clothing company L.L. Bean highlighted Take a Kid Fishing, a Polk County-based nonprofit, in a marketing video for its new campaign, “Welcome to the Catch,” which features founder Will Dunn and two teens he has mentored, his neighbor Camran DeLong and Tye Harriell.
►Robert Weech was named the interim fire chief for Polk County Fire Rescue.
►Watson Clinic has two new additions to its team of board-certified specialists: Mara Cvejic, who provides comprehensive sleep medicine services from the Watson Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, and Folayan B. Fatade, a member of Watson Clinic’s radiology department; both physicians provide patient care from Watson Clinic Main at 1600 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland.
►The Florida Polytechnic University Foundation board of directors elected Lakeland businesswoman Alice Hunt, a marketing, office management and customer care specialist at Hunt Construction of Central Florida, as its new chair; the new vice chair is Jack Harrell III, senior vice president of marketing, sales and research development at Harrell’s in Lakeland.
►Blackton, an Orlando-based supplier for the home building industry, was awarded a contract from D.R. Horton to provide flooring products worth an estimated $500,000 for Orchid Grove, being developed in Polk County; that follows a contract worth more than $3 million to provide flooring materials for Enclaves at Festival Towns, coming soon near the Osceola-Polk county line.
►Webber International University in Babson Park will offer a new Bachelor of Science degree in sports performance, health and fitness.
►Jeff Cusson, sales Associate at Saunders Real Estate in Lakeland, brokered the sale of a 3,641+ citrus property for $29,134,905.
►Lakeland-based MidFlorida Credit Union merged with Ocala-based Community Bank & Trust of Florida, a $730 million-asset bank, and acquired the Florida assets of First American Bank of Iowa, which operates in Southwest Florida; after both deals close, pending regulatory approvals, the combined entity will boast $4 billion in assets, $3 billion in loans, 1,100 employees and 63 full-service branches.
►Highland Homes, a 23-year-old homebuilding company in Lakeland, founded by father-son team Bob and Joel Adams, was sold to a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
►Dr. Brad E. Hollingshead was appointed by Florida Southern College President Anne Kerr as provost and vice president for academic affairs at the Lakeland college.
