Profile: Barbara Moore

Name: Barbara Moore
Position/Title: ?Division President
Company: ?Lennar
Family: ?Large extended family in Jacksonville, including both parents, daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Jerry, son Jonathan, sisters Joan and Linda and grandkids Chris, Riley and Jack. And yes, Bob Brown and I are still together. ?
Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, FSU; Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning, FSU
Hobbies/Interests: ?Spending time with family, golf, the beach, traveling and exploring foreign countries.

Q. There aren’t too many female division presidents for large builders. Do you see that changing? ?
A. Yes, definitely. I expect this to evolve significantly over the next 10 years. The building business allows you to be both analytical and creative, and we all know that women make most of the decisions regarding housing purchases.

Q. Your educational background is in regional planning and business management. Is building and development what you originally intended to do as a career? ?
A. I always planned to be involved in large developments. My interests evolved more toward residen-tial from my original vision of retail/commercial. ?

Q. What’s your assessment of the Northeast Florida market? Do you see improvement in 2010? ?
A. The Northeast Florida market is showing signs of improvement, but there are two wild cards: ?the potential extension of the tax cred-
it and the current difficult foreclosure situation. The benefits to our industry of extending the tax credit are obvious. In addition, if the area’s lenders would implement plans to manage their foreclosed or abandoned properties by not allowing them to deteriorate, our entire market would improve. ?

Q. Lennar, like many companies building in Northeast Florida, is a large national company. Yet it’s involved in many local charitable endeavors. How important is that kind of involvement to the company’s corporate mission? ?
A. Lennar is very involved corporately with charitable endeavors, both financially and by encouraging each division to get involved in their community. In Northeast Florida, we elected to focus our efforts on charities benefiting child-ren at risk. This is an issue that has touched all of our hearts. ?

Q. You have a tremendous amount of experience working for large national builders prior to Lennar. What has impressed you most about this company? ?
A. Lennar is a perfect blend of an entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the standards and discipline of a large national company. I re-main very impressed by Lennar’s top leadership, aggressive approach to our markets, innovative style, dedication to our customers and commitment to “do the right thing.” ?

Q. You graduated from our mutual alma mater, Florida State. Stepping outside your primary area of expertise, how can the football program be fixed? ?
A. I will not pretend to be the expert on Florida State football, and confess to seeing football mainly as a great game to watch. But with any organization, the problems will primarily result from ineffective recruiting, training or motivating. I think FSU’s vision for their future is not as clear as it needs to be to maximize the re-cruiting efforts. ?

Q. What are you reading right now? ?
A. Along with my 96-year-old father, I’m reading The Secret of the Ages written in 1925 by Robert Collier as well as about four internet marketing books I’m trying to decipher.

Q. Do you have a personal philosophy of life? If so, would you share it with us? ?
A. Yes, one that evolved over time. It’s relatively simple: we each create our lives from the decisions and actions that we take; we’re in control of our life’s results whether we consciously accept that control or not; our goals, thoughts and beliefs will determine our outcomes, so we need to be deliberate regarding what we think about and ask for; and it’s not so much what happens in our life, but what we do about it that counts. We have to ask ourselves every day if we’re creating the life we’re happy with and proud of, are we contributing, are we helping our families reach their potential.