Business Advocate
When the Florida Legislature is in session, David Hart’s job is “as close to 24/7 as you can imagine.” As the chief lobbyist for Florida’s largest business voice — with about 139,000 members — the 46-year-old is grateful he can go for months on only four hours of sleep a night.
Business Advocate DAVID HART, TALLAHASSEE Executive Vice President, Florida Chamber of Commerce by Linda Kleindienst
When the Florida Legislature is in session, David Hart’s job is “as close to 24/7 as you can imagine.” As the chief lobbyist for Florida’s largest business voice — with about 139,000 members — the 46-year-old is grateful he can go for months on only four hours of sleep a night.
“It’s not uncommon to work a 15- to 18-hour day. To my wife’s great frustration, I actually sleep with my Blackberry during session. I get emails in the middle of the night and sometimes I’m up and on the computer, reading bills and seeing what amendments have been filed,” Hart says.
While more than 100,000 jobs have been created in Florida since January of 2011, Hart says that still leaves close to 1 million workers unemployed and the Chamber wants to help whittle down that number by promoting legislation to: cut unnecessary regulations, encourage more college degrees in the sciences, ease the financial burden on small businesses, eliminate unfair competition
and increase international trade.
Hart joined the Chamber’s staff in 2010, but he served on the organization’s board of directors from 2001 until 2007. “I was part of the conversation about what the Chamber could become, and now I’m helping to implement those dreams,” he says.
1. Most people don’t know: I was in Berlin the day the wall came down. I stood at the wall with a hammer and chisel. I helped to do it. I watched families walk through the Berlin gate and reunite. I witnessed freedom breaking out … it left an impression on me I will never forget.
2. Escape: I go off and climb big mountains. I climbed Mount Rainier last summer. I’m in pretty good shape from all my running, but that’s an awesome mountain. When I saw it out the plane window, it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Summer after next I hope to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
3. Relaxation: I’ve been a runner for 25 years. I still have my best ideas when I’m running.
4. Favorite Team: Boston Red Sox. I grew up in Winter Haven and the Sox had their spring training there. When you live in a little town, you get to meet the players in places like the local pizza parlor. I played Little League and they’d come out and do events with us.
5. Best Advice: My mom told me to be nice to everybody. Dad told me if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. It’s challenged me to think about where I want to be in life and what I want to achieve.
6. Hero: I’m sure there was a time when I would have said Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. But the more I live, the more my mom and dad are my heroes. Neither completed a college degree, but they made sure me and my sisters got that. It took a lot of sacrifice.
7. Like to share a cup of coffee: I really want to have coffee with the first man or woman who travels to Mars and returns to tell the story. In all likelihood that boy or girl has already been born and is among us. I hope I am around to have a cup of coffee with them when they get back, and I really hope they make their departure from Florida.
8. Electronics: I just got my first iPad. It’s pretty cool.
9. Biggest challenge: Completing the Miami Marathon. Miami was hot, hot, hot. I was dehydrated and my legs were cramping from mile 16 on. Not pretty. But I knew my kids were waiting at the finish line, and I was not going to let them see their dad quit at something.
