Join other CEOs and business leaders in Northeast Florida who are building great businesses for a greater purpose.
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It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn’t have to be.
We know leaders limit their potential when they lead from isolation. But, when surrounded by trusted advisors with a common goal and a biblical worldview, they can maximize performance and energize cultures. With faith as the foundation, this powerful group of peers meet in an exclusive, confidential forums around the Jacksonville metro, Gainesville, and Ocala to have their questions answered and their answers questioned.
Chairs
Business Forum Leaders in the Northeast Florida Area
BOB SHALLOW
Bob was blessed with a unique 28-year corporate career that touched many aspects of business leadership. This included working for…
BOB SHALLOW
Bob was blessed with a unique 28-year corporate career that touched many aspects of business leadership. This included working for Ford Motor Company where only God could have orchestrated the 16-year path that took him from Database Programmer to Vehicle Line Manager for the Taurus/Sable Product Line. Along the way Bob became a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), earned his Master of Science degree in Engineering Management (Wayne State University), became certified in Lean Manufacturing and as a Six Sigma Quality ‘Black Belt.’ After much thought and prayer, Bob made the difficult decision to leave Ford Motor Company, joining Hyster-Yale Group where he spent the next six years, first as Director of Global Product Development Processes, Systems and Operations, and then as the Director of the Americas Warehouse Products Development Center. Prior to joining C12, Bob served as Vice President of Quality, Engineering and Continuous Improvement for TWG, a Dover Company. Bob is thrilled with the opportunity to bring his passions together as the C12 Managing Chair for Northeast & North Central Florida! He has always had a passion for leadership and serving his Lord which has given him many opportunities to serve in church leadership capacities (e.g., Deacon, Teacher, Youth Leader, Small Group Leader). Bob also has a passion for workplace leadership, teaching, coaching and mentoring, having developed and delivered many training classes in Project Management, Change Management and Lean implementation. He is a student of Organizational Theory and tools (including DISC and Meyers-Briggs personality profiling and Emotional Intelligence/EQ tools) and has also facilitated numerous process improvement and Kaizen events. He has also served as Adjunct Professor at Wayne State University, teaching a Masters-level Project Management course. Because of Bob’s broad, hands-on experience with strategic and operational management methods, he has an expansive toolkit from which to draw upon to help businesses achieve their desired results. Bob and his wife, Sandy, live in north St. Johns County with their two youngest sons Jack and Harrison. Their oldest daughter, Brooke, graduated from Auburn University and is now serving in campus ministry at Oxford College in Oxford Georgia and is married to her husband Robert who just completed his Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Mercer University. Their oldest son Trent graduated from Valdosta State University in Georgia, with a major in Finance. Bob enjoys time with his family, outdoor activities, tennis, golf, running and walking their Black Lab, Vader, as in Darth.BRETT KIRKLAND
Brett brings a wide range of experience to his C12 Chair role. Early in his career, he served as an…
BRETT KIRKLAND
Brett brings a wide range of experience to his C12 Chair role. Early in his career, he served as an accountant in the public and private sectors and held positions in sales and marketing. He then had the opportunity to move into executive leadership, which included serving as the President & CEO of a $9 million organization. After a merger, God moved Brett into full-time vocational ministry, where he served in local missions with Sherwood Baptist Church, creators of the movies Fireproof and Courageous. While serving in this role, Brett also became a chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains. That’s when his passion for business excellence and his heart for ministry collided. He would go on to join Marketplace Chaplains in a division director role for over six years, where he was afforded the opportunity to be a part of a C12 group. Now, God has called Brett to chair his own groups where he can invest time and energy into equipping other Christian business leaders to steward their lives and businesses well. Brett holds an undergraduate (B.S. in Accounting & Business Administration) and graduate (M.S. in Management) degrees from Troy University. Since 2000, he has developed a passion for leadership, organizational development and health, employee engagement and culture development, strategic planning, and more. Brett is also a certified biblical counselor through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Brett lives with his wife, Carol, in Fleming Island, FL and they have two adult daughters. Brett and Carol worship at the Church of Eleven22 where they lead a home disciple group together, and where Brett serves on the care team.VAUGHAN ROBISON
Vaughan Robison brings over 15 years of leadership, consulting and entrepreneurial experience to his role as a Chairman of the…
VAUGHAN ROBISON
Vaughan Robison brings over 15 years of leadership, consulting and entrepreneurial experience to his role as a Chairman of the C12 Group of Northeast Florida. As an Army officer, Vaughan commanded a company of soldiers in combat in Baghdad, Iraq and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership. As a consultant, Vaughan was a Principal Consultant at InfoWorks, Inc. establishing their Analytics and Business Intelligence Practice and leading key client relationships with Fortune 500 companies. Vaughan went on to found three successful companies: Mindful Data Science (a data science consulting and staffing organization), Seek Insights (a management and IT consulting firm), and Grace Conservatory (a value-centered dance studio that his wife Kristina owns). Vaughan’s passion is helping businesses from startups to multi-million dollar organizations align with their mission and values in order to improve profits, establish winning cultures, and positively impact their market. Vaughan has helped companies set strategy that allowed them to outpace their peers in industries including healthcare, manufacturing, higher education, government, nonprofit, and retail. Vaughan has worked with and consulted for the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Altria, Ascension Health, Vanderbilt University, Bridgestone, CDC, Tractor Supply Company, CDI Corporation, NYPD, Bible League International, FBI, and PEPSICO. Vaughan holds an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a Master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He also holds certifications in project management (Project Management Professional, PMP) and in organizational metrics and analysis (Certified Business Intelligence Professional, CBIP). Vaughan lives in Ponte Vedra Beach with his wife Kristina and three children: Ivelisse (age 5), Pierce (age 4) and Lark (age 3). He enjoys working on old cars, paddle boarding and pro bono consulting for nonprofits throughout Northeast Florida.JOSHUA SIZEMORE
I was born in Homestead Florida in 1976, the youngest of three. I would say I had a safe and…
JOSHUA SIZEMORE
I was born in Homestead Florida in 1976, the youngest of three. I would say I had a safe and fun-loving childhood growing up. Mom and Dad loved each other, and we were the “leave it to beaver” family. My family grew up lower middle class in a not so good neighborhood. My dad would tell me, “We don’t have a lot of things son, but we have love and that’s all we really need.” At the age of ten our family moved to Jacksonville Florida, and we have been living here ever since. I married at the age of 20 and became an instant father. My marriage was extremely difficult to navigate as a young man. I married a woman that had been treated very poorly as a child. She had many unhealed wounds from her past that made our marriage a very volatile and hostile environment. As time went on, I did my best to become a better man and leader of our home by reading books, praying, seeking counsel, prayer and learning new ways to cope. But it never brought the peace and calm that I desired and experienced in my childhood home growing up. After two years into our marriage my wife become pregnant, and we had three children total in the span of four years. This also added great stress to an already stressful environment. As I was working and trying hard to stay afloat, I heard Father tell me to start an IT business. At that time, I had $1,000 in the bank, a mortgage, a decent paying job, a car payment, my wife’s student loans, some medical bills, and some credit card debt. So, I quit my good paying job and started an IT company in my garage. I found something that I was good at and poured all my energy and time into. (My little kingdom) I took something that God had blessed and started and turned $1,000 into millions of dollars. The problem was that I became completely intoxicated with work. This became my new identity. Success and pleasure were my new god. I found so much happiness in fixing other people’s problems when it came to IT and the money was, well, amazing! Before I sold WorldwideIT in 2016 I was netting almost $1,000,000 a year in profits. As a young man in his 30s with little self-control you can see how toxic this elixir is. My marriage unraveled at the seams, and I filed for divorce in 2009. It was the most painful and difficult time of my life. I ended up getting custody of my three children at the age of 7, 8, and 9. With this new start I was able to really focus on rebuilding my broken family and business. I found though that only after a few months that the pull of the world just sucked me back in. During the week I was great being a father to my children and focused on building the IT business, but on the weekends and summers when they would go away with their mother, I would go mad searching for pleasure and “FUN”. This quickly became a problem, and I almost imploded my life. Thankfully God in all His mercy sent a new woman to me. A woman who was just as broken as I currently was but could see right through all my posturing and elaborate disguises I had created. We quickly married after 6 months of dating and blended our family. Her three children and my three children. It was a mess! I, again, had created, in my poor decision to not wait and give us more time dating, a perfect storm. Thankfully Melissa, my wife stuck with me even after asking and telling her to leave my house four times. This is what finally broke me. Seeing her love for me while I was being the most contemptible person you could imagine. It broke my heart to see her still loving me and choosing to stay with me. Her love for me changed everything. I began to open up again to love. I finally broke the walls down that I had built up of cynicism, contempt, bitterness, sadness, and distrust of anyone. I sold my company in 2016 and in 2018 I left my position as regional VP to really get away and get my heart back. Which, because of Christ, I did. For two years and eight months I did not work and in this season, Jesus gave me wonderful gifts. One of them was Him leading me out of my addiction to alcohol which was the hardest personal battle I have ever faced. I still long for the taste of it but know it’s not good for me and will lead me to death. In this season, I found joy, peace, and life again. His name is Jesus, and His ways are amazing. In October 2020 my old company asked me to come back and run the Jacksonville office. After prayer and confirmation, I came back and ran the Jacksonville office for one year and was able to make our region more profitable, with less clients and less staff. Now we will start the new journey as a C12 Chair.DAVE STEWART
Dave’s life has been marked by commitment, perseverance and purpose. He began working part-time in college for United Parcel Service,…