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Highlands Today

Farewell To FHREDI

Lynn Topel Leaving Economic Development Organization

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Lynn Topel has been serving as executive director of Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative. She is leaving after four years with FHREDI.

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By Bill Rogers | Highlands Today

Published: January 13, 2008

SEBRING – Before last weekend, it had been four years since Lynn Topel had taken a bike ride.

Topel also loves gardening but there has been no time for that either.

However, that will soon change for the executive director of Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative (FHREDI). Topel will be leaving her position after four years in leading the organization that covers six counties – Highlands, Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, DeSoto and Hardee – as well as communities in Palm Beach and Collier counties.

In the first two years on the job, 80-hour weeks were the norm for Topel because of the devastating impact from the hurricanes – especially Charley – had on the region.

"I can tell you that those weeks were long," she said. "Now it's gotten much better. This past year has been much more normal – 40 to 50-hour weeks. But it also took those two years to create those relationships all through the state that are important to the region."

While she won't miss the long hours or some of the travel, Topel said she will miss the excitement of the job.

"...I think if you talk to staff, you would find that there is not one day the same," Topel said. "Because we have so many things going on when you have six counties."

Among her accomplishments she said she is proud of is creating a "clustering" concept. Topel said the region knows who its businesses are, what their products and services are and how they can assist each other.

Topel added that FHREDI started last year in educating businesses about exporting.

"We are now at the mentoring process," she said. "That feeds directly into the cluster. Now not only can we export, but we can marry people in the region to maybe fill a container that before they wouldn't do it because they couldn't fill a container.

"It makes shipping cost-wise for them," she added. "They also now have created a partner here in the region that they can do other things with."

Topel is also pleased that a housing consortium has been established in the region and that "inroads" have been made in transportation.

A native of Wisconsin, Topel has been in Florida for 26 years.

She and her husband, Bob, bought property on Lake Sebring in 1994. They had a three-car garage built with a one-bedroom apartment above it. She had left a Fortune 100 company in Fort Lauderdale and then became vice president of a small company.

Lynn came to Sebring while Bob had two more years to work at his job. She moved to the garage apartment in Sebring and started to build their house

She met Allon Fish, the former head of the Greater Sebring Chamber of Commerce. After completing a small project for the chamber, Fish suggested to Topel to get involved with a project for the economic development organization.

"I had no idea who FHREDI was," she said. "So I did a project with them and then started consulting with them doing small projects. And the rest is history."

Topel is well known in the region and is going to be missed.

Louise England, executive director of the Highlands County Economic Development Commission, said Topel's contributions have been "very, very significant."

England said Topel has basically been the economic developer for some of the counties in the region that didn't have someone in that position and has revived economic development for the region.

"Lynn has always been supportive and is one of the kindest people I have ever met," England said.

"It is a mixture of happiness for her and sadness for the region," said Roger Hood, executive director of Heartland Workforce, when asked about Topel's departure.

Hood said Topel was the best personality for the job at the time she took over FHREDI's top job. Hood said the member counties and cities had a tendency to think locally and not regionally.

"They needed a person to build rapport and she has done that," Hood said. "They have gone beyond the parochial view."

Topel's advice to her replacement?

"This person needs to have the vision to continue the relationships, and right now there are groups from all over that want us to be their region," she said. "They want to take credit for the Heartland. As long as they do good for the Heartland that's great.

"We became very successful in this region," Topel said. "I'm very proud of the fact that we're looked at as a very strong region. We've set the benchmark."

When Topel announced several weeks ago that she was resigning, she indicated she wanted to leave at the end of January. But she has since decided to remain through February and help with the transition. She noted that she will be doing some projects for FHREDI from time to time.

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