| 19 August 2011
Florida Guides Association member and Southwest Regional
Director, Capt. Gary Colecchio, has a new
job. Capt. Colecchio will be joining
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in their Southwest District
Office beginning August 9, 2011.
The Southwest District has jurisdiction over Citrus, Desoto, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Sumter, and west Marion County.
The appointment was announced by Jeff Littlejohn, Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs. Mr. Littlejohn welcomed Capt. Colecchio to the new position as Director of DEP’s Southwest District Office saying, “With more than 30 years of experience in environmental planning, policymaking and regulation, Gary is an excellent addition to DEP’s Regulatory Leadership team.”Gary will move to DEP from Cardno TBE, where he served as Office Manager and Senior Project Manager for their Southwest Office. His responsibilities there included client relations management, administration, maintenance of general engineering services contracts for state and local government and developing strategies for major capital improvement projects while applying environmental permitting criteria as a basis for design. Prior to his tenure at Cardno TBE, Gary served as Project Principal and Water Resources Consultant for Stanley Consultants and in other leadership positions with private sector environmental consulting firms in South Florida.
In addition to his private sector work, Gary has broad experience in the public sector as an elected and appointed official as well as performing in a senior supervisory engineering position in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment with the South Florida Water Management District and as design engineer with the City of Deerfield Beach.
Gary’s education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Oceanographic Technology from Florida Institute of Technology and completed advanced professional studies at Clemson University (Advanced Project Management) and Harvard University’s, Graduate School of Design (Urban Planning). Gary and his wife Dawn reside in Bonita Springs with their corgi, Roxanne.
Speaking of his new appointment, Capt. Colecchio said, “This represents a very exciting opportunity for me as an FGA Captain to continue our support of recreational fisheries as your local natural resources manager for habitat and water quality for our coastal environment.”
For more information on the DEP’s Southwest District click here.
