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Alumni Use Their Education to Create Opportunity for Others

Joel Raney keeps on truckin’

Stories by Joey Johnston, ‘81 | USFAA

JOEL RANEY’S COMPANY BEGAN in 2010 as an online merchant for custom aftermarket parts and accessories for semi-trucks. In the beginning, while he was still completing graduate courses at USF, Raney, ’11, Life Member, commuted back home to the Ocala “warehouse’’ — the kitchen of a converted house, where parts were crammed into every available cabinet space. Ebay inquiries were diverted to his cell phone, which he answered while darting in and out of USF classrooms.

By 2015, Raney’s Truck Parts was doing more than $10 million in annual sales. Although online sales still account for 97 percent of the company’s business, a transformation began three years ago when he opened a 125,000-square-foot warehouse and showroom, what he calls a “toy store for your big rig."

“People walk in and think they’re in heaven,’’ says Raney, a 2018 USF Outstanding Young Alumnus who has since launched two more businesses: HammerLane Apparel and South Florida Strong, which sells Bulls gear.

For his truckers’ showroom, Raney delighted city fathers by renovating a sprawling abandoned building that “looked like something out of an apocalypse movie.”

What had begun with him, his dad and cousin working out of a kitchen has grown to 100 employees coming to work in a space with beanbag chairs, Ping-Pong tables, billiards and other perks, creature comforts that make everyone happy to be at work.

“It was a direct result of what I learned at USF,’’ Raney says. “I was taking master’s classes in structural engineering, but I wanted to know more about business. The administrators allowed me to do almost a dual major and those MBA classes taught me about human resources, company culture and core values. You always take care of people first.”

Lessons to grow by

A GAINFULLY EMPLOYED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, Julius Davis, ’93 and MBA ’14, just couldn’t let go of the notion of starting his own engineering business. So he studied up. He read autobiographies of prominent business owners. He signed up for the free and low-cost classes offered by the USF Small Business Development Center — some twice. He learned about forming a business plan, taxes, marketing and human resources.

In 2006, he founded Volt Air, an architectural engineering firm, with dreams of one day employing a dozen people – a business big enough to provide him a comfortable life.

Today, Volt Air has 150 employees with offices in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Houston and Dallas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta. It’s doing interior work for the $22-million Indoor Performance Facility for USF Athletics, the USF Honors College and the College of Business on the St. Petersburg campus, along with projects for the City of Tampa and Hillsborough Community College.

“I learned so much at USF," says Davis, Life Member. “Engineering in general really trains your mind differently. You learn to think logically and solve problems. When I got my MBA, that has directed me in the way I do everything from my financials to legal documents. That knowledge is my foundation."

You can’t prepare for the unknown, Davis says – like the 2008 recession, or the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But you can prepare for knowing there will be some unknown. … I couldn’t ask for better than what USF provided."

WHAT IS A HOME WORTH?

Just ask Mike Sutton, ’03, Life Member – president and CEO of the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties.

In 2020, the homes Sutton’s organization facilitated resulted in local and state paid taxes of $981,388, an overall economic impact of $26,666,311 and 239 jobs that were generated or supported. More than $10.8 million in wages were paid into the local economy and more than $15. 2 million invested into operations, construction, rehabilitation and renovation of the homes.

Habitat for Humanity helps low-income families become homeowners, and Sutton’s affiliate ranks second in the nation for performance. This year, it’s on track to build 70 homes.

“The overarching piece is we’re improving and increasing the tax base,’’ says Sutton, who majored in criminology at USF and picked up business and management skills as founding president of his fraternity.

Some of the biggest benefits can’t be quantified.

The homeowners, who qualify for zero-interest mortgages by participating in finance classes and contributing their own “sweat equity,” often see their lives transformed.

“We find that grades improve for kids, who aren’t hopping from school to school and moving every year when the rent goes up. Single women in our program get into healthy relationships. The economics improve. Some people go back to school, make a better living, get promotions. Two or three years down the road, they are typically a different person, often glowing with confidence. That’s a result of having stability in their life they probably never had."

MBA was ‘game-changer’ for pro golfer

AFTER FOUR YEARS ON THE LPGA TOUR and working in sales for a pair of Fortune 500 companies, former USF student-athlete Sally Dee wanted something more. She’d earned a degree in education in 1994, but as her goals changed, so did her educational needs. She returned to USF for what turned out to be her “game-changer” – an MBA in 2011.

“I really wanted to be more about the solution for things instead of just selling,’’ says Dee, Life Member and Alumni Association board member.

In 2012, Dee founded a Tampa-based public relations and marketing agency, Playbook Public Relations. Her firm quickly grew in reputation. It handled the PR and marketing for Tampa’s $230 million Lee Roy Selmon Expressway extension, a challenge that included building consensus among long-established business owners along the corridor. And it played a pivotal role in the sale of baseball great Derek Jeter’s Davis Islands waterfront mansion, where she worked with Smith and Associates to detail the largest residential real-estate deal, $22.5 million, in Tampa Bay area history.

“We’re storytellers," Dee says. “In some ways, we are translators. We learn about the business and translate what they do in ways that are meaningful for their target audience. We’re really good at that.”

She’s also committed to giving back to the community.

“It seems to be in giving that you receive. I’m a total believer in showing the universe I need to be generous because why would it give me abundance if I’m not generous?"

Playbook has just three full-time employees, but employs numerous vendors for Web development, graphic design, copywriting and video work.

“There are probably 20 firms that can do what we do,’’ Dee said. “But we have great long-term relationships, we really deliver and we’re fun to work with."