SFBW has been counting down the days to the Apogee Awards celebration on Oct. 21 at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, with biographies about the winners in each of the eight Apogee categories: chairman, CEO, president, COO, CFO, CMO, CIO and top HR executive.

 The event is being presented by the Octagon Family of Recruiting Companies (including its divisions of Octagon Technology Staffing and Octagon Professional Recruiting). Other sponsors include Quantified IT, Tripp Scott, BankUnited, Comcast Business and NSU Art Museum.

Here are the top HR executive biographies:

Broward: Tracy Wiggan, Federated National

For over 20 years, Tracy Wiggan has focused her career in the financial services industry. She joined Federated National (formerly 21st Century Holding Co.) in 2005 and was promoted to director of human resources in 2008, where she continues to oversee the growth and development of the company with responsibilities for compliance, training and development, payroll/compensation and benefits. She recently took over the operations of facilities management in addition to her HR responsibilities.

 

Federated National, which began in 1992, offers homeowners insurance, condo insurance, flood insurance, umbrella liability insurance and general liability insurance. It has a financial stability rating of “A” (exceptional) from Demotech.

 

Wiggan believes in education and volunteers her time at a local high school where she speaks to junior and senior classes about the expectations of entering the workforce.

 

Miami-Dade: Adriene McCoy, Baptist Health South Florida

 

Adriene McCoy has more than 20 years of experience in health care human resources management. She leads Baptist Health South Florida’s HR function, which includes talent management, talent acquisition, benefits, compensation, leadership development, employee learning, HR operations and employee communications.

 

McCoy’s background includes leadership roles in both for-profit and nonprofit health care environments, including large hospital systems and acute and long-term care facilities. Since joining Baptist Health eight years ago, her mission has been to transform the HR team to make it more responsive to the needs of employees and the business. During her tenure, Baptist Health has increased its employee population by almost 5,000.

 

McCoy is on the advisory board for FIU’s Center for Leadership and on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami. She is the 2015 winner of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Executive Leadership Excellence Award. 

 

Palm Beach: Jo Carol Rutherford, SBA Communications

 

Jo Carol Rutherford has been the senior vice president and chief human resources officer of SBA Communications (NASDAQ: SBAC) since January 2014. Since joining the company in July 2001 as vice president of human resources, she has been instrumental in overseeing critical functions that drive culture, organizational growth and change management to support SBA’s corporate strategy on a global basis.

 

Prior to joining SBA, Rutherford spent nine years with Invacare Corporation, an ISO-certified manufacturer of home health care products. From 1998 until 2001, she was corporate director of human resources for Dixon Ticonderoga, where she managed all human resource functions, including collective bargaining, plant consolidations and organization restructuring.

 

Rutherford has a bachelor of arts in organizational psychology and an MBA and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources.