{"id":66348,"date":"2026-05-21T18:10:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=66348"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:10:56","slug":"new-succession-plan-at-ledc-and-catapult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/21\/new-succession-plan-at-ledc-and-catapult\/","title":{"rendered":"New Succession Plan at LEDC and Catapult"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christin Strawbridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A changing of the guard is officially underway for two of Lakeland\u2019s primary economic engines.<\/sup> Christin Strawbridge, the current president of the Catapult incubator, has been selected to succeed longtime Lakeland Economic Development Council (LEDC) President Steve Scruggs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Steve Scruggs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Here is how the transition is structured:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LEDC Transition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • The Successor:<\/strong> Strawbridge will initially step in as the LEDC’s executive vice president. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Handover:<\/strong> She will have a period of overlap with Scruggs, who has led the organization since 1987. While there isn’t a firm date for the final switch, Scruggs is expected to move into an advisory role before the end of the year, with his contract running through 2027. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Context:<\/strong> This marks the LEDC’s second recent attempt at succession planning, coming about 14 months after a previous plan involving former senior vice president Katie Worthington Decker fell through. The board is framing this move as a structured, internal transition. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Changes at Catapult<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • The New President:<\/strong> With Strawbridge moving to the LEDC, Catapult Operations Director Brett Chamberlain will take over as president of the incubator starting June 1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Organizational Independence:<\/strong> The LEDC originally established Catapult as a nonprofit in 2014, but they are now an independent organization. Under Strawbridge’s leadership, Catapult expanded from a coworking space into a broader economic driver offering makerspaces, commercial kitchens, and business support. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Strawbridge noted that her move isn’t a philosophical shift, but a matter of scale.<\/sup> While Catapult helps startups hire their first employees or open a storefront, the LEDC focuses on helping companies expand to Lakeland and add hundreds of jobs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A changing of the guard is officially underway for two of Lakeland\u2019s primary economic engines. Christin Strawbridge, the current president of the Catapult incubator, has been selected to succeed longtime… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTMtNi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yMDAlMkMyMDAmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJOZXcgU3VjY2Vzc2lvbiBQbGFuIGF0IExFREMgYW5kIENhdGFwdWx0IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.oIA3VqdlHhSjbPt20hw3jphyM8L-6Gmkr-5jBlGW0HYMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9kb3dubG9hZC0zLTYud2VicCIsInR4dCI6Ik5ldyBTdWNjZXNzaW9uIFBsYW4gYXQgTEVEQyBhbmQgQ2F0YXB1bHQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.6juaEgeMyfoP3N2_U2-IyZlsXj1Knvzxg2s-tCRD7ksMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14674],"class_list":["post-66348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-new-succession-plan-at-ledc-and-catapult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66356,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66348\/revisions\/66356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}