Sheila McDevitt, Chair
Sheila McDevitt is the chair of the Board of Governors, State University System of Florida. She served as Vice Chair before being elected as chair in June 2008.
Ms. McDevitt is an attorney with the law firm of Ackerman Senterfitt and a business strategist with extensive experience in the public utilities sector. Ms. McDevitt is a recognized authority on ethics and compliance with a proven track record of creating long-term, sustainable solutions in response to complex business issues from mergers and acquisitions and other commercial transactions to litigation, governance, and political matters.
Prior to joining Ackerman Senterfitt, Ms. McDevitt retired, after 26 years, as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Legal Officer at TECO Energy, Inc. in Tampa, Florida where she is credited for having built the first Legal Department within a 108 year old, large, traditional utility company.
At TECO, Ms. McDevitt was a key member of the CEO’s senior leadership team formulating and implementing strategic initiatives and providing solutions to many significant issues affecting the corporation and its operating companies. She led the corporation’s legal affairs, all corporate compliance and governance, environmental strategy; internal and external communications; diversity and the corporate secretary duties.
Ms. McDevitt led the strategic acquisition and merger of Florida’s largest regulated gas utility which expanded the company’s service footprint throughout the state.
Ms. McDevitt’s leadership of groundbreaking NSR pollution control negotiations with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice led to an agreement that established TECO Energy as a national leader in the environmentally responsible production of electricity. She developed international utility expertise by establishing and structuring ownership and financing of power plants and other companies in Central America and Europe.
Prior to joining TECO Energy she was a trial attorney in central Florida. She began her career working with state government in the Florida and Georgia state legislatures.
She has received numerous awards including: the Outstanding Contribution Award for Pioneering in Business Ethics from the Center for Ethics at the University of Tampa; Distinguished Alum from the College of Law at Florida State University; several times she was named as one of Florida’s Elite Business Lawyers by Florida Trend magazine and Corporate Counsel of the Year by the Hillsborough County Bar Association.
Ms McDevitt has a deep commitment to public service and higher education. She chaired the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education Minority Access and Diversity. She is also a Trustee of St. Leo University and served from 2005 to 2007 as the Chair of the Board. For the College of Law at Florida State University she chaired the Board of Visitors from 2004 to 2005 and has remained a member since 1996.
Among her numerous volunteer efforts within the community, Ms. McDevitt is the Co-Chair of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society at the United Way of Tampa Bay, a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee for The Florida Orchestra, and President-Elect of the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation.
Ms. McDevitt holds both a B.A. and J.D. from Florida State University in Tallahassee. She has been admitted to practice in all Florida State Courts and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. In 1989, McDevitt was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
