RICKY HARPER

As the Principal Chairman for C12 Northwest Florida, Ricky has the privilege of working with top Christian CEOs, owners, and leaders across Florida’s panhandle and Southwest Georgia. He is honored to have a team accompanying him on his mission of equipping Christian CEOs to build great businesses for a greater purpose, these ‘Associate Chairs’ are Dr. Jeff Cerny in Destin and Major General USAF (retired) Norm Brozenick in Pensacola. All three share a common vision of bringing excellence in business, life, and faith to leaders throughout the region. After a four-year stint in the US Army Ricky spent 29 years with GE Healthcare. He began his GE career as an engineer installing and maintaining MRI systems. Eight years later he became the area’s senior engineer and after nineteen years he put down the oscilloscope and stepped into management, at first leading a small team of engineers in Southern Georgia, and then taking over the largest territory in the Southeast where he led the service division of a team of more than 50 engineers and sales representatives. In 2009 he retired from GE and began consulting, specializing in change management. In late 2010 Ricky went to work for Florida’s Department of State as the state’s Chief Corporations Officer, running ‘Sunbiz’ and working with state leaders to foster business growth and improve Florida’s business entity registration process. During this time, he oversaw the rewriting of Florida statutes governing the state’s LLC rules. After two years Ricky returned to the private sector and consulting. At the same time, he launched his first business and admits he learned more from its failure than from his many years of success. In 2017 he heard about C12 and answered God’s call to become a full-time Peer Advisory coach. He formed C12 Tallahassee and markets C12’s service throughout the Florida Panhandle and recently added South West Georgia (SoWeGa). Ricky loves Jesus and has been married to his beautiful bride Gail for 46 years. They have two sons and four grandsons. He is an elder in his church and serves in other ministries. His spare time is spent building and racing cars in the Champcar Endurance Road-Racing series.

JEFF CERNY

Jeff is honored to serve as the C12 Chair for the Emerald Coast. The Emerald Coast includes Destin, Ft Walton Beach, Niceville, and Santa Rosa Beach of Florida. In this role, he wants to assist business leaders in building their organizations to both have a greater impact and to operate at a higher level on the Emerald Coast and beyond.   Jeff has over 45 years of professional work and 35 years as a graduate-level professor with Florida Tech. More importantly, for over 30 years he has professed Jesus Christ through lifelong and expanding learning experiences by the grace of God.   His government service includes military service as a Commander of an Army Field Artillery unit and training in Airborne, Ranger, and Pathfinder operations. His government research work was at the Army Aviation and Missile R&D Engineering Center and the Army Night Vision Lab as a general engineer. His related industrial work was at Booz Allen Hamilton as an Associate, at the University of Alabama Huntsville as a Research Scientist, at General Dynamics as a Director of Special Projects, and at Textron Defense Systems as Director of Advanced Programs.   He is a graduate of West Point, the Army Production Engineering Intern Program, Texas A&M-Texarkana University, Nova Southeastern University, and the Air War College Seminar Program.   He has been blessed with four grown children from his first wife of 34 years who died of brain cancer in 2008. He was remarried in 2011 to Robin, an Army veteran also, who has three grown children for a blended family of seven grown children and twenty-one grandchildren. Robin and Jeff live in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. They serve in a growing church and continue to fulfill the Lord’s Kingdom purpose in their lives and those they touch.

NORM BROZENICK

As C12 Chair for the Pensacola area, Norm is excited to serve leaders growing great businesses for a greater purpose. God’s blessed him with extraordinary opportunities to experience “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). Norm looks forward to coming alongside business leaders that encourage and challenge each other, bonded together by a common goal and biblical worldview.      Norm began military service as an Air Force pilot flying mobility and special operations aircraft. He later commanded an Air Force special operations wing and joint special operations task forces during combat. While serving as commander of Special Operations Command Pacific, Norm led his forces in the development and execution of regional strategies teaming with interagency, allied, and partner nation counterparts across the Indo-Pacific region. As vice commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, Norm shaped multi-year resourcing and readiness programs for 19,000 Airmen and guided the professional development of active duty military and civilian members. Norm’s duties during Pentagon assignments included operational planning, force structure assessments, and politico-military counsel as a member of Secretary of State delegations. Graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science in international relations, Norm subsequently completed master’s programs at Troy State University, the Naval War College, and Air University’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies. He also studied as a National Defense Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Norm retired from the Air Force as a major general after more than 31 years of service.  As a defense industry advisor for Stellar Solutions, Inc., Norm informed strategies to mature client technologies, coauthored a report on precision munitions requirements, and joined former U.S. officials in a deterrence dialogue with an ally’s military leaders. As an independent contractor Norm mentored senior executives taking part in a unique command team experience and foreign students studying strategy development at Joint Special Operations University, U.S. Special Operations Command.  Norm grew up in “almost heaven” West Virginia and his wife Lisa was born and raised in the “great lakes state” of Michigan. Norm and Lisa adopted Pensacola as their “home” on Florida’s Emerald Coast. They enjoy serving as life group coaches at their church. Norm also serves as an advisor to two national faith-based veterans organizations.