We’re proud to present our second annual roundup of innovators and doers who are shaking up the business scene. Some are brash young newcomers while others have careers that go back for decades, but they all share one trait: a restless energy for change and improvement. They run the gamut from mega-developers who have snagged a Waldorf Astoria and one of the best-known theater entertainment companies in the world for a downtown Sarasota project to a 20-something public relations manager who is coming up with novel ways to keep tourism in our region humming. No matter what their field, we promise you’ll be hearing about them all in the years to come.

Karen Cook and Gary Moyer
Former Michael Saunders realtor Karen Cook, 49, and Florida office/retail developer Gary Moyer, 55, of Lion’s Gate Development Group win the contest for flying under the radar. Over an 18-month period, the married couple quietly amassed 20 properties encompassing two city blocks to develop The Proscenium, a luxury, mixed-use downtown Sarasota project of up to $1 billion anchored by a Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Initial plans call for condos, upscale retail and offices, and an 800-seat theater to be completed by fall 2010 if all goes well. The couple is partnering with Allen Ostroff, a hospitality industry icon. Moyer is upbeat about his market timing: “The best time is when you’re in a trough,” he says. “You want to bring the product to market when things are thriving.”

Moody Chisholm
When Moody Chisholm took over as the new CEO of Manatee Memorial Hospital in 2006, he was facing a surgeons’ rebellion over unpaid emergency room duty that caused his predecessor to resign and a crisis in recruiting specialists. But the outgoing, accessible Chisholm, 48, a former world champion power lifter and body builder, is an optimist at heart. By using the same can-do spirit and listening skills he’d used as a hospital administrator in Texas, he’s making progress. His next big step? Persuading taxpayers and elected officials to set up a special tax district to fund indigent care. “We have got to improve access to physicians,” he says.

Lou Schultz
After a high-powered career as CEO of Initiative Media, a $23-billion global media services company, Lou Schultz semi-retired to Sarasota to run LMS-Unlimited LLC, a communications consultancy, and Towles Court’s hip little Canvas Café Leysin. But the entrepreneurial Schultz, 62, keeps turning the rpms up. This past spring, he acquired Car and Driver’s Road Smart America, a training program that gives teens insight into the “real world” of driving through the use of DVDs, the Web and mobile technology. He’s passionate and deadly serious about the project: “Thirty-eight percent of teenage deaths are caused by driving accidents,” he says.

DeWanda Smith-Soeder
A diversity and organizational development consultant, DeWanda Smith-Soeder, 48, remembers everyone she meets and knows who to connect with whom. In 2004, she moved to Sarasota from Cleveland, where she was a BP exec for years, joined The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce as a trustee and then started the Black Business Professionals Network—a group that’s attracted 250 members in less than a year. Smith-Soeder still travels all over the state as a consultant, but her passion remains connecting people. “I found my niche with the Black Professionals Network,” she says. “I wanted to introduce the concept of diversity and to connect that group to the broader community. The ultimate goal is to create a global network.”

Kelly Kirschner
Everyone’s watching 33-year-old Kelly Kirschner. In April, the wonkish neighborhood activist—a native son raised in a prominent local family where public service was de rigueur—became Sarasota’s youngest-ever city commissioner. (His father, Kerry, also served on the city commission and was mayor.) After earning a Georgetown foreign-service degree in the late ’90s, Kirschner spent three years in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where he co-founded a grassroots education and environmental association. Because he campaigned on slow growth, some business interests are dreading his commission term. But to tag him as anti-growth is to dumb down his message, says Kirschner: “We can do a better job. People want to be included and don’t want surprises.”

Mindy Tew
Mindy Tew, a former SunTrust Banker, became executive director of the 565-member North Port Area Chamber of Commerce in March, and immediately dove into planning the chamber’s new building. Exploding development has ignited clashes between the city and county governments, but Tew, 34, a longtime chamber booster, remains upbeat. “We’re experiencing growing pains,” she explains. “We’re transitioning from a bedroom community to a place where people can live and work.” And with Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowe’s entering the scene, Tew says small businesses need greater name recognition and community support to survive. She’ll encourage North Port residents to wield their purchasing power at locally owned companies.