The Florida State University College of Business inducted three new members into its Alumni Hall of Fame at a black-tie gala at the Turnbull Conference Center on Oct. 3.
The new inductees – retired Air Force Pilot and entrepreneur James “Chef” Barlow, health care entrepreneur and executive Kevin S. Little and serial entrepreneur Bethany Schenk – increased Alumni Hall of Fame membership to 69 since its creation in 2003.
The college bestows the recognition on alumni who have excelled in their careers and made a significant impact on FSU and the College of Business.
“Like previous inductees, these three demonstrate exceptional vision, innovation, integrity and preeminence – qualities we strive to instill in our students and each other,” said Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business. “All three hail from modest backgrounds, which means they labored and grinded – in true FSU fashion – for everything they’ve achieved.”
Also during the ceremony, South Florida-based private banker Tyler Smillie received the college’s 2024 Recent Alumni Achievement Award. Smillie, who earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing in 2014 and an MBA in 2016 from FSU, is an executive director and banker at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Fort Lauderdale. He previously spent five years as private client advisor and senior vice president at Bank of America Private Bank.
The Recent Alumni Achievement Award honors extraordinary alumni who graduated with an undergraduate or graduate degree, typically within the past 10 years.
Here is more on the new Alumni Hall of Fame inductees:
James “Chef” Barlow (BS Marketing ’95)
Barlow is a retired, decorated U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and the founder and recently retired CEO of Blue Air Training Corp., an industry-leading Contract Air Services provider.
Barlow, who grew up and lives in Tampa, says he knew from age 14 that he wanted to be a fighter pilot and attended FSU with that in mind. His book, “The Boy Who Grew Wings,” details his journey of perseverance and entrepreneurship.
“I showed up at Florida State knowing I wanted to go to the College of Business,” Barlow said. “That way, if I got hurt and couldn’t fly, at least I’d have business to fall back on. The beauty of that is, later on in life, that’s exactly what I needed.”
After graduating from FSU, Barlow began his active-duty Air Force career as a Contracting Officer at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. After flight school, he was chosen to fly the A-10 Warthog, a single-seat ground attack fighter jet.
In 2007, Barlow deployed to Afghanistan and became aware that a lack of air support created a bottleneck in training and, as a result, a shortfall in the quantity of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs). Barlow proposed contracting former military pilots to fly retired military aircraft and provide that training. The next year, he founded Blue Air Training, which has trained nearly every JTAC in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Australia.
The company has made the Seminole 100 list of businesses owned or led by Florida State University alumni five times, with two No. 1 rankings. It also has made Inc. magazine’s “500-5000” list of fastest-growing privately held businesses in the U.S.
In March 2022, Blue Air Training merged with Top Aces Inc. of Canada.
Kevin S. Little (BS Accounting ’92)
Little is an influential health care entrepreneur and executive who has helped build three startup companies into leaders in the health care staffing industry. He currently is co-founder and CEO of Health Advocates Network Inc., an industry-leading provider of health care workforce solutions.
“Florida State provided me with a fantastic educational foundation that not only was instrumental in me getting my first job but also being prepared for it,” Little said. “I am humbled and honored to be inducted into the College of Business Alumni Hall of Fame.”
Little’s company, based in Boca Raton, Fla., has been recognized as a “Best Place to Work in Healthcare” by publications such as Modern Healthcare, Staffing Industry Analysts, Clearly Rated and Florida Trend. In addition, Health Advocates Network ranked No. 4 in the 2024 Seminole 100 list of the fastest-growing businesses owned or operated by FSU alumni and No. 300 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America.
Prior to founding Health Advocates Network, Little was a founding member and the CEO of Accountable Healthcare Staffing, a national provider of health care staffing and workforce solutions. As a founding member of Accountable, he led the company in its growth from a startup to one of the largest health care staffing firms in the United States. In 2017, Accountable was acquired and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based Global Fortune 500 company.
Prior to Accountable, Little co-founded and served in various executive roles for 15 years at Medical Staffing Network. During his tenure, he helped lead the company from startup status to an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange as one of the health care staffing industry’s largest companies.
Bethany Schenk (BS Risk Management/Insurance ’92)
Schenk is an Orlando-based serial entrepreneur and philanthropist who has built and sold multiple highly successful companies over three decades.
She credits her success to a motto she coined and carries: “Own it, love it, go for it – no excuses.”
“I live that every day, and I feel like Florida State engrained that in me,” she said.
Schenk started her career as a property and casualty underwriter at Aetna for two years and then was a sales executive at CIGNA Healthcare for five years.
In 2001, she co-founded and led, as CEO, Web Benefits Design, a national employee benefits technology, compliance and enrollment solution. She previously founded BeneTek Corporation, an employee benefits consulting/broker firm. Schenk, her husband, Ron, and their team combined the companies, which eventually boasted more than 8,000 employer clients and 400 broker partners.
In 2019, they sold the companies to CNO Financial Group, a financial-services holding company. Schenk remained CEO for three years before stepping down to pursue Art Originals, a company that custom-designs canvas, framed, acrylic and giclee art to match any space, with a specialization in commercial projects and large format art. She recently sold that company to focus on philanthropic opportunities.
From 2015 through 2021, Web Benefits Design made the Orlando Business Journal’s list of Central Florida’s Top 100 companies.
Other accolades for Schenk and her businesses include Top Ten Technology Executives to Watch from Employee Benefit Advisor magazine in 2019; HR Tech Outlook magazine’s Top Ten Tech CEOs nationwide in 2018 and 2020; CIO magazine’s Top 10 Innovation Tech Firms in 2019 and 2020; and Innovation & Tech Today magazine’s Top 500 Apps that Run the World in 2017 and 2019.