R I S I N G STARS WINTER 2016 INFLUENCE | 109 Just call Katie Crofoot a Jill of all trades. She has worked as a legislative staffer, both in the House Majority Office and for Rep. Eric Eisnaugle. She’s spent time at the Republican Party of Florida, working on House campaigns during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles. “Katie knows the game she’s playing from all sides. She’s been professional staff, Speaker’s staff, member staff, (on the) campaign side, political consulting with us, and now lobbying,” said Joe Clements, the co-founder of Strategic Digital Services. “Katie has been in the trenches a lot in her career. None of the positions I just mentioned before were ‘easy;’ she was part of big battles in each one.” Now the 28-year-old Winter Park native is hoping to hone her skills in the policy arena, signing on as the assistant vice president of government affairs at the Florida Bankers Association in October. The job will give her a chance to “specialize and hone in on” one specialty. And while Crofoot has tried her hand at almost everything in the industry, it’s the policy side of things that just keeps calling her. “I’m brand new to banking, but I feel I have the skills because of working for (the House),” she said. “I love public policy.” PHOTOS: Mary Beth Tyson (Crofoot and Buckley); courtesy E. Ewards; courtesy Carol Bowen Eric Edwards, 33 Assistant vice president of governmental affairs for U.S. Sugar Sugar runs through Eric Edwards’ blood. Born and raised in Clewiston, several members of his family worked for U.S. Sugar. He has friends who work there. And now Edwards is officially part of the sugar family. “It’s an area, it’s a company, it’s an entity that I’ve been aware of for my whole life. Their issues affect my family; their issues affect my friends,” said Edwards, who was recently named assistant vice president of governmental affairs at the company. While it may seem like a natural fit, Edwards wasn’t always on the path to be a member of the lobby corps. He went to school to be a doctor, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. But after two and a half years, he changed paths, deciding politics and policy was more his speed. He got his start in 2004 as an intern for the Republican Party of Florida, before making the shift to the Florida Legislature. It’s there he learned to love the process, becoming a top aide to former Senate President Don Gaetz. “We have wanted to strengthen and expand our internal government relations operation for some time, and we have patiently searched for just the right combination of experience, personality, and potential,” said Robert Coker, vice president of U.S. Sugar and its head lobbyist, earlier this fall. “We hit the trifecta with Eric Edwards.” Katie Crofoot, 28 • Assistant vice president of governmental affairs at the Florida Bankers Association
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