Jane Castor is the 59th Mayor of the City of Tampa. Born and raised in Tampa Florida, Castor graduated from Chamberlain High School and attended the University of Tampa on an athletic scholarship.
Upon graduating, she joined the Tampa Police Department and worked her way up from serving as a beat cop to being appointed Tampa’s first female Chief of Police. 

In 2019, Jane was elected mayor of the City of Tampa. In just her first few months in office, she successfully launched numerous initiatives, including the city’s largest ever water/wastewater infrastructure plan (PIPES); the Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow Advisory Teams to focus on building a strategic roadmap for the City’s top priorities; establishing a minimum wage of $15 an hour for full-time city employees; securing a federal grant for body-worn cameras; initiating a renewal of the City’s transportation master plan (Tampa MOVES); designating Tampa as a Vision Zero city; and originating a range of community-based initiatives such as Art on the Block, Crosswalks to Classrooms, and Bridges to Business. All of this was done while achieving unanimous adoption of the City’s one billion dollar budget – the first budget in the black since the create recession.

Chef Art Smith is the executive chef and co-owner of Blue Door Kitchen & Garden in Chicago, Southern Art & Bourbon Bar in Atlanta, Art & Soul in Washington DC, Art Bird & Whiskey Bar at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, and Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Florida Kitchen & Southern Shine Bar at Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Art Smith has received two James Beard Foundation awards, the culinary profession’s highest honor, and has cooked for some of the world’s most famous celebrities. 

Smith is the author of “Back to the Table; Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families”; “Back to the Family”; and “Art Smith’s Healthy Comfort,” with a focus on healthy cooking and healthy living.

Chef Smith is the founder of Common Threads, a non-profit organization teaching low-income children to cook wholesome and affordable meals since 2003. 

In 2015 Smith launched a non-profit organization, Reunion, Florida Garden and Kitchen School, in Madison FL at the historic Wardlaw-Smith House near his childhood home in Jasper, FL. 

Since 2010, Thomas Bömkes is Managing Director of Diversity Tourism GmbH, Munich, Germany. A consulting and marketing agency, specialized in LGBT and Medical Tourism worldwide. Offering strategic development, creative marketing solutions and MICE business activities
for tourism suppliers. Since 2010, Thomas is also the ITB Berlin advisor for LGBT Tourism and since 2016, he is also in charge of the development of the Medical
Tourism Segment at ITB Berlin. His company operates the online travel guide TomOnTour.com and other websites for Medical and LGBT Tourism. After graduating at Munich’s University with a Masters degree in economics in 1996, Thomas worked as a marketing consultant since then in different positions.
He has been a member of the board of directors of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) from 1999 – 2009.