Veteran owned company wins Florida SBA award

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -A veteran-owned business in Panama City is being recognized by the North Florida District Small Business Association. Randall Shepard, CEO, and founder, of RSAE Labs Inc., was awarded the 2022 North Florida District Veteran Business Owner of the Year.

Shepard was nominated for the award by the Florida Veteran Business Outreach Center.

“I understand the number of Veteran-owned businesses here in north Florida and the quality of those. So to be nominated and to win is really significant for us and we are proud of that because the competition is stiff,” Shepard said.

Shepard has spent a lot of time in Panama City, dating back to the 80s when he was working at Tyndall Air Force Base.

“I actually started coming on summer research here in the early 80s while I was teaching at the Air Force Academy,” Shepard said. “I was lucky enough to get a follow-up assignment to develop what became the radar testing facility out at Tyndall Air Force Base.”

When Shepard retired from the military after serving 20 years, he along with a few others opened one of the first PC compatible stores in Panama City.

From there he turned to other avenues going about several different business ventures. Until September 11, 2001. Shepard said after that he began working with container tracking. Which is what he is doing with RSAE Labs today.

“Ever since we have been evolving with that working with the Department of Defense and high valued cargo tracking and protecting that around the world, as well as providing efficiency for the supply chain management,” Shepard said.

Shepard is also not the only veteran working at the company, he told NewsChannel 7 that about a third of the staff are veterans.

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