If Orlando’s tech community had a Mount Rushmore of people who have left an indelible mark on innovation, Kunal Patel says Carol Ann Dykes Logue would be on it.
The 69-year-old leader of UCF’s Business Incubation Program and Central Florida Tech Grove has played a pivotal role for Patel in several ways.
As a sounding board for Patel, the entrepreneur, the event creator and even the father. When his mother passed, she was there with a hug.
It’s that versatility and unwavering support that makes her a strong leader, Patel said.
“You need that person who can adapt to multiple audiences and have that empathy and understanding,” he said. “She comes from a great background, being able to handhold a startup or the Lockheed Martin executive who wants to explore the region’s businesses.”
‘Mount Rushmore’ Figure for Orlando Tech
At a meetup event on Tuesday, Orlando’s tech community celebrated Logue’s career as she prepares to turn over the reins at the end of the month.
The event attracted leaders from Orange County, business organizations and Mayor Buddy Dyer, who mentioned Logue’s service while proclaiming the day in honor of the incubator’s 25th anniversary.
As the parade of startup and tech leaders mingled in the hallways of the downtown Orlando Tech Hub, they shared their thoughts on Logue’s leadership.
“She is responsible for so many of the different pieces of the ecosystem that we have,” said Dawn Haynes, CEO of the startup incubator Starter Studio. “Without what she has done at the incubation program, we would not have as many organizations offering all of the other pieces of support for tech founders. She’s’ definitely a formative person in the Orlando tech community.”
For Logue, stepping away now just happened to be the right time.
Celebrating a Legacy of Connection and Growth
For months, she has been helping her hand-picked successor, Rafael Camaaño, learn more of the programs’ ins and outs.
“It’s time for new leadership,” she said. “We all hope we will be missed but, like I say, everybody is irreplaceable but everybody is replaceable.”
Don’t expect her to disappear from Orlando tech, of course.
Despite receiving some of the credit for helping steer the community through the past 20-plus years, she says she will continue to contribute, albeit on a volunteer basis.
She said standing up the Tech Grove, which has helped bridge a gap between Orlando’s robust defense industry and the Department of Defense, and the incubation program were her greatest accomplishments.
“It filled a gap in the community,” she said. “It has enabled a lot of local entrepreneurs and businesses to engage with the government and university in ways that they couldn’t. We are solving real problems with real solutions.”
When Logue was brought on board, fresh off a stint as associate director of a NASA tech transfer program at University of Florida, Cam Ford was on the search committee.
At the time, he said, entrepreneurship wasn’t necessarily a major topic on campus, although iconic UCF leader Tom O’Neal had started to change that by the time Logue was hired in 2002.
She quickly got to work.
“She’s got an incredible superpower to connect people,” Ford said. “She has gradually accumulated this scaffolding of relationships in the community and on campus.”
Ford called her a catalyst for connectivity.
As UCF’s entrepreneurial focus has intermingled with the city, Logue has been on the forefront.
Ford said Logue has been a key reason that so many of the resources and efforts around Orlando have been able to coalesce around one single community.
“Through her force of personality, trustworthiness, acumen, she was able to build momentum,” he said. “It’s a very selfless thing, the kind of work she does.”
At the celebration of the incubator this week, Logue wore out a trail in the carpeting between her seat and the front of the room.
Anyone with a proclamation or speech honoring the incubator mentioned her, as well.
Orlando Tech Community CEO Sheena Fowler called her an “extraordinary mentor.”
Dyer thanked her for helping build the incubator into an “incredible program.
And Roseann Harrington, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings’ chief of staff, called her the “heart and soul” of the community while declaring the day Carol Ann Logue Day.
“You know you’ve made it when people call you by your first name,” she said.
The “Superpower” of Connecting People: Logue’s Enduring Impact
The gathering featured a couple of fireside chats.
In a discussion with Rob Panepinto of Govo Venture Partners, Logue laid out her thoughts on why the incubator has been successful.
“You are part of a family,” she said. “We know your spouses. Your kids. The names of your pets. The car you drive. We go through life with you.”
She mentioned the dozens of so-called “boomerang” CEOs who return to the incubator with either new businesses or with the same business they started at the incubator.
“It’s gratifying to all of us in the program for entrepreneurs to be successful once and then put their trust in us to come back and help them be successful again,” she said.
As she steps aside from the tech community, those who have been along for the ride with her for years say her skillset will be missed.
She is an expert at not only making connections but skillfully navigating them to introduce people to each other, said Jack Henkel of the Florida High Tech Corridor and Cenfluence.
“She has had such a widespread impact on both companies and the ecosystem,” he said. “If a company has a problem, Carol Ann probably knows someone or has away to solve it or make a connection to help that company figure it out. She figures out how to make something happen.”