Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on cybersecurity company:
Business News
Tampa cybersecurity company expanding
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: February 7, 2015
TAMPA — A cybersecurity company started here 10 years ago is expanding its headquarters in downtown Tampa and hiring 40 new employees.
Sunera LLC, an IT and data risk consulting firm, is growing as fast as the spreading security risk to companies nationwide, said Casey Kochey, marketing content strategist for the company started by Emmett Lange and Peter Armstrong.
The company, a subsidiary of Cyber Risk Management LLC, is combining two smaller offices into a half-floor of leased space at the Fifth Third Center in downtown Tampa. Sunera is investing $185,000 into the space upgrade.
Kochey said the average salary for the new employees will be $65,000, and they will include data privacy professionals, IT auditors, hackers and internal auditors.
“Sunera and CRM are proud to continue growing in their consulting operations in Tampa,” said Joel Schleicher, CEO of Sunera and Cyber Risk Management. “We are excited to be adding an additional 40 high-wage high-skilled jobs to the downtown core and we look forward to filling these positions with the top IT and security professionals in the area.”
The company is receiving $164,000 in hiring incentives through the state’s Qualified Target Industry program, with the city of Tampa contributing $29,520 of that and Hillsborough County contributing $3,280. The company must create the jobs before it receives the government funding.
Florida ranks second in the nation for tech job growth and third for high-tech establishments, according to a news release issued by Gov. Rick Scott’s office on Friday. The state’s software and computer systems design and integration industry is one of the largest in the U.S. with nearly 12,600 firms.
Sunera’s expansion is another example that this community is continuing to create “very high skill and high value jobs,” said Rick Homans, president and CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp., which helped broker the deal.
“It’s a headquarters facility in the downtown area,” Homans said. “And it’s in one of our strongest areas, IT and cybersecurity.”
Sunera has more than 100 employees in Florida and more than 200 across North America.
“Information technology companies are fueling the growth of Hillsborough County’s innovation economy,” said Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Sandy Murman. “We’re committed to promoting the growth of this industry in Hillsborough County and providing existing businesses like Sunera with the assistance they need to flourish here over the long term.”
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said companies like Sunera are “building Tampa’s international reputation as a major center for information security. The information technology and cybersecurity companies that have launched and are growing here are setting the standard for the industry.”
