Up & Comers: Karley Fant

The Tampa Bay area has no shortage of young talent. This ongoing special section seeks to celebrate the rising talent in your workplace and the community. 

We have selected another group of professionals to highlight.

Selection was done internally and is based on both your nomination form and your letters of recommendation. 

Fant advances strategic initiatives by developing key relationships and building SSR’s presence across the Southeast. Smith Seckman Reid provides engineering, commissioning and technology services both nationally and internationally.

Now based in Tampa, she has served on the board of directors of the Nashville chapter of Women in Healthcare since 2019 and is the 2022-24 chapter president. In addition to WIH, she serves on the 2022-23 membership committee for CREW Tampa Bay, whose mission is to advance women in the CRE industry.  

What are some of the ways you have demonstrated leadership in your current or previous roles? 

I realized that one of the most important parts of leadership is knowing when to elevate others, especially when working within a team. When I took on the role of supporting business development within the firm, many of my responsibilities included creating processes or plans that would be disseminated across a larger group. Beginning in that journey, I learned that although I have a lot of knowledge, I don’t know all the things and that a team environment was the best way to accomplish the shared mission. With this in mind, I effectively communicated the vision of complex projects to a team of strategic thinkers to collectively build a business development growth plan to support the company’s strategic goals.

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