CBA Spotlight: Richard Quinn

Instructor
Management Department

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Richard Quinn came to UCF in 1999 after retiring from the Eastman Kodak Company. Today, he is a full-time instructor in the CBA Management Department and works closely with the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

With more than 53,000 students, UCF is now the largest university in the state, but Quinn believes the institution has grown in a positive way. "For me, it is not just how much the university has grown in the past 10 years, but how it has grown. With most large universities, the surrounding community grows primarily to service the needs of the university. At UCF, the opposite is true," he explained.

"UCF has systematically grown to serve the needs of the communities that surround us. The bond between UCF and the central Florida region is not only strong, but impressive in its vitality and sense of purpose," he added.

Quinn is the brainchild behind the Florida Small Business Resources Association (FSBRA), a new program that helps small businesses obtain affordable employee benefits. FSBRA connects small businesses with discounted insurance and management services through a membership group, which can negotiate improved coverage and lower premiums. So far, big-name companies Blue Cross Blue Shield, Insurance Office of America and FrankCrum have signed on to help the new group - likely the first of its kind in the Southeast.

"The main thrust of the FSBRA initiative is to help central Florida small business better compete with larger businesses. The lack of access by small businesses to a comprehensive portfolio of employee benefits tends to tilt the competitive landscape in favor of larger businesses. By providing smaller businesses with the same portfolio of benefits previously available only to larger businesses, we believe the landscape will level out, allowing small business to attract talent and resources necessary to pursue the growth opportunities that are vital to the future of the central Florida economy," he said.

Eventually, UCF and its partners hope to offer the program statewide and as a national model.

You can learn more about the new program by visiting the FSBRA web site.