LAKELAND – Weymon Snuggs will introduce himself officially as the new chairman of the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting tonight at the RP Funding Center.
Really, no introductions are necessary.
His chamber service marks just another milestone in 20 years of service to the Lakeland community he loves so much.
Snuggs demonstrated his love for the community in November 2007, when he worked as market president for Polk County at Bank of America in Lakeland. Faced with the bank’s decision to transfer him to another city, Snuggs, then 50, chose to retire instead.
“We loved it here,” said Snuggs, referring also to his wife, Wendy. “It’s a great community. Lakeland is a special place with special people.”
The decision was easier in another respect because the couple had decided to put roots down in Lakeland when they arrived in 1998 after having moved to eight different cities during his previous 16 years in banking, Snuggs added.
Snuggs can joke about it now. He recalled that 2007 conversation with his wife about relocating, when he misinterpreted Wendy’s reluctance to move as an expression of how much she would miss Lakeland.
“I said to her, ‘You’ve been great about putting up with all this moving,’” Snuggs said. “She said to me, ‘You don’t understand. I meant I’ll miss you.’”
The retirement didn’t last long. The following January, Snuggs joined Citizens Bank & Trust, where he now works as its chief operating officer.
Citizens is a good fit because top management, from President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Littleton down, share his civic-mindedness, he said.
“I’m very appreciative of him (Littleton) because he not only supports but encourages our involvement in the community,” Snuggs said. “It’s one of our core values.”
'Problem solver'
The chamber will hardly mark his first time leading a board of directors.
Last year, Snuggs finished a one-year term as chairman of Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine. Previously, he chaired the boards for the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland Vision and the United Way of Central Florida.
In 2011, Snuggs chaired the Building Committee at the First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, which raised $16 million for expansion and new facilities.
In October, Snuggs began a two-year term as vice chairman of the Lakeland Regional Health board, usually a predecessor to becoming chairman, and also serves on the board of its parent organization, Orlando Health.
“Weymon’s biggest strength is his incredible character. He has incredible integrity,” said Elaine Thompson, president and CEO of Lakeland Regional Health. “He’s also an outstanding problem solver.”
Since joining its board in 2008, Snuggs has mastered the complicated rules and procedures of health care and has mentored new board members on those issues, she said. One of his major contributions has been improving the organization’s compliance program with accreditation and state and federal regulations.
“He absolutely made us stronger because of his efforts,” Thompson said.
Officials at other civic organizations characterized Snuggs’ leadership style as forward thinking.
During his one-year term chairing the United Way board in 2015-16, Snuggs spearheaded the effort to develop its Vision 2020 Strategic Plan, said Alan Turner, president and chief executive officer.
“Weymon looks at the bigger picture and the entire community,” he said. “He’s very detail oriented, but on the bottom line, he wants what’s best for the community.”
One of Snuggs’ major contributions to the plan was pushing for more extensive use of social media, both to spread United Way’s message and to broaden the base of participants, Turner said.
Snuggs said he’s been interested in United Way since 1979, when he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Birmingham-Southern College and began his banking career at the former AmSouth Bank, now Regions Bank.
AmSouth encouraged United Way involvement among its young executives, Snuggs said, and that led to a three-day bus trip around his native Birmingham exploring its social-service needs.
“Coming out of school, I had not been exposed to those issues affecting our community,” he said. “It was a life-changing event. I realized how fortunate I was.”
One of Snuggs’ earliest civic involvements in Lakeland was with the Volunteers in Medicine program. He played a leading role in bringing the health-care program to the city.
That also involved a 1999 trip, this time to Hilton Head Island, S.C., where the original model for the program was developed.
“I said, ‘Absolutely, this is right for Lakeland,’” Snuggs said.
Snuggs co-chaired the capital campaign that raised $7 million to remodel the former John Cox Elementary School at 1021 Lakeland Hills Blvd. into a medical clinic, said CEO Bobby Yates.
“Weymon is tireless, and it becomes infectious to those who work with him,” Yates said. “People become more committed and more energetic.”
The Volunteers in Medicine concept appealed to him because it served working people and their families who don’t have, or have lost, health insurance through no fault of their own, Snuggs said.
Vision for Chamber
Snuggs plans to bring his energy and forward-thinking leadership to the Lakeland Chamber on several projects during his one-year term.
He would like to strengthen the chamber’s role in workforce development, not only for its members, business owners, but for their employees, Snuggs said.
The chamber has already developed a mid-level management training program as part of a more comprehensive workforce development program it will undertake this year, he said. The program will kick off in early April with a fundraising dinner.
The chamber is also close to closing on a downtown property that would be the site of a new $4 million entrepreneurial center similar to the National Entrepreneur Center in Orlando, Snuggs said. The Orlando center has 13 business organizations, such as Asian American Chamber of Commerce and Accion USA, a microlending network, involved in helping small-business start ups and expansions.
Snuggs in 2016 led a chamber committee that laid the groundwork for the center, he said, and it hopes to begin the capital campaign to finance the facility by the spring. The new president expressed hope it would raise the entire $4 million by the end of his term a year from now.
“We’re getting very good feedback and support, and we are very optimistic about our ability to do this,” Snuggs said.
The Lakeland Chamber will move from its current location into the entrepreneur center, he added, but will become much more. It hopes to attract many of the same state, federal and private organizations involved in business development that work in the Orlando center.
If anybody can get the Lakeland entrepreneur center off the ground, Snuggs will, said outgoing chairwoman Janice Jones, a partner at the Lakeland office of accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP.
“Weymon is kind of a unique individual – he’s a banker who can think strategically,” Jones said. “He’s good with numbers, but he’s also a very forward thinker.
After starting his banking career with AmSouth, Snuggs joined Barnett Bank in Florida in 1983. It eventually became Bank of America, which transferred Snuggs to Lakeland in 1998.
Weymon and Wendy Snuggs have two daughters – Whitney Lawson, a teacher at Berkley Charter School in Auburndale, and Tracee Snuggs, a vice president with Citigroup in Jacksonville. They have two grandsons, one by each daughter.
Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980.