Valerie McCarthy is the Chief Operating Officer of The Pickleball Club LLC. She has been involved in physical fitness her entire career, with over 20 years’ experience in the fitness industry. She held numerous positions in the non-profit YMCA. Her last position as Executive Director of facilities in Mountain View and Palo Alto California. Valerie founded and operated FLEX FITNESS, a successful fitness facility in Sausalito, California for nearly a decade.

Valerie holds a BS and MS in Exercise Physiology from Kent State University.

Valerie is active in our community in the following non-profit organizations, Chair of Business Development for United Way’s Mission United Advisory Council, Member of the Military Officers Association of Sarasota, and Chair of Event Planning for the Sarasota Military Officers Foundation. Valerie currently serves as the Executive Director of the Play For Life Foundation, Inc.

Karin is the Managing Partner and Senior Wealth Advisor at SRQ Wealth in Sarasota, Florida.  She earned her undergraduate degree in accounting and finance at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a few years later, her MBA from the University of Arizona with a concentration in Finance. Karin is both a CPA in the State of Florida and a Certified Financial PlannerTM practitioner.

Her current community activities include Treasurer of the International Women’s Forum, Suncoast Chapter and a mentor to a Take Stock in Children scholar.  In addition to being active in the Sarasota Women’s Alliance & Leadership Florida, Karin has served as Board Chair to both The Selby Foundation and Planned Parenthood of Southwest & Central Florida as well as Vice Chair & Treasurer for Jewish Family & Children’s Services.  Other Board work has included the Pines Foundation, the local Financial Planning Association, Treasurer for the Bradenton Yacht Club and Manatee Tiger Bay Club.   She wrote a financial planning column regularly for the Bradenton Herald for two decades.

Justin is a partner at SRQ Wealth in Sarasota, Florida. He earned his undergraduate degree in finance from The University of Tampa, Florida. Justin is a Certified Financial PlannerTM practitioner.

His current community activities include founder of Future Lancer Business Leaders at his high school in Tampa, FL. He is a member and former president of a Toastmasters chapter in Tampa, FL. He previously served as a Big Brother through Big Brother Big Sisters.

Linda retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army in 2011, with more than 29 years of active-duty service. She served first as a Military Intelligence Officer and then as a fully accredited Latin American Foreign Area Officer. Her career highlight was serving as the Commander of the US Military Group in Guatemala from 2006–2009, the first female Army officer to command a US Military Group in Latin America.

Since retiring from the U.S. Army and returning home to Sarasota, Linda has been very involved in the Sarasota community through various volunteer roles, including serving as the administrative officer for the annual Sarasota Holiday Parade for the last seven years and is currently a board member for the Play for Life Foundation, which introduces pickleball to our community’s youth, first responders and veterans. Linda was named Sarasota County Female Veteran of the Year for 2015 and is a graduate of Leadership Sarasota County, Class of 2018. Through her consulting business, Gould Solutions, Linda consults in the community on various projects, most notably for the last twelve years with The Patterson Foundation on their Military Initiative and Patriot Plaza, the outdoor amphitheatre at Sarasota National Cemetery.

[To come]

Tom has been in the investment advisory and financial services industry for over 50 years; 35 of those years with Robert W. Baird & Company, during which time he spearheaded a move by the Milwaukee based firm to develop a presence in Florida and the Southeastern U.S. He was also engaged in the expansion of their European subsidiary as Deputy Chairman of Granville-Baird based in London, England. He is currently a Wealth Advisor for SRQ Wealth in Sarasota, FL. Tom has served on various industry committees and continues to advise a select group of financial clients.

Tom served 6 years on the board of The Pops Orchestra as the First Vice President and is an advisory board member for the USF School of Hospitality and Tourism Leadership. He is currently serving as a Trustee for the Players Centre for Performing Arts as Chair of the Development Committee. He was a founding board member and the first chairman of “The Care Club of Collier County,” an Alzheimer’s and dementia day care facility serving Southwest Florida; chaired the Development Committee of the USF Institute on Aging; and served on the Executive Committee for the Lifelong Learning Academy.