With full service management or a strategic outsourcing partnership, our professionals can help you succeed. �� Transparency �� Innovation �� Personalized Service �� Passion www.yoursearchisdone.com SUMMER/FALL 2016 INFLUENCE | 105 Cannon thought about running for his seat. “But I would not have been able to run if Charlie Gray and Biff Marshall had not said, ‘OK, we’re willing to give you the flexibility and support to run,’” he says. “Very few law firms would have been willing to do that, and their support literally made it possible for me to run for public office.” By 2012, Cannon was term-limited and left the House, but knew he wanted to stay in Tallahassee in the influence business, and started Capitol Insight. “Mayanne Downs and I had worked together when she was president of The Florida Bar and I was speaker, and Biff and Mayanne and I talked off-and-on about collaborating on legal stuff and looking for ways to work together,” he says. “I kept in touch with people at the firm, Charlie and all the folks I’d previously worked with,” Cannon adds. “But I had some friends there I had known for decades, like Tim Cerio and Jason Unger, that I’d known since college.” Unger says the two go back to the late 1980s at the University of Florida. “He was certainly part of the reason that I joined GrayRobinson,” he says of Cannon. “When he was done with the speakership, we wanted him to come back. And we always left that door open. We always maintained a very close relationship through the years. It was always unsaid that we were interested in having Dean back.” Cannon’s and Cerio’s return, with Downs’ ascension, make 2016 “a monumental year for us,” Unger says. “It’s change, but change in the good sense. Dean and his group coming in is a significant add-on to our depth, both in the lawyering and lobbying realm.” What came into focus was Capitol Insight having, among other things, two former House speakers, a former campaign manager for Bill Nelson, a former agency secretary, and a former political consultant to the Republican National Committee and a national campaign, among others. Capitol Insight’s bench is estimable in the influence biz: > Larry Cretul, a former real estate broker, was speaker in 2009-10 and Marion County commissioner from 1994 to 2002. > Rheb Harbison, former senior lobbyist with a national law firm before joining Capitol Insight, was director of legislative and communication policy and research for the Florida Supreme Court. > Cynthia Lorenzo, former director of Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation and Department of Economic Opportunity, also was former secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice. > Richard Reeves, former campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, is a veteran lobbyist who founded his own lobbying firm before joining Capitol Insight. > Kirk Pepper, an expert political strategist, PHOTOS: Mary Beth Tyson Former Speaker Dean Cannon (left) with his mentor, Charlie Gray, in the Orlando office of GrayRobinson. For Profit Thinking, in a Non Profit World. e are an accredited professional services firm which delivers strategic and operational management for state, regional and national not for profit associations and other organizations. The Partners Difference: 325 John Knox Rd Ste L103, Tallahassee, FL 32303 Phone: (866) 587-7620 • info@yoursearchisdone.com
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