Nathan M. Bisk College of Business Selects Claudia Haines Jones as Outstanding Business Leader

MELBOURNE, FLA.—At its Spring Awards Banquet on April 12, the Florida Institute of Technology Nathan M. Bisk College of Business named Claudia Haines Jones, corporate attorney with Dean Mead in Viera, Melbourne, its Outstanding Business Leader of the Year.

Haines Jones, a longtime supporter of the College of Business and the university, joined the business law firm of Dean Mead in 2009. Today she represents local businesses and physician practices, advising her clients on corporate governance, business law, relationships among business partners and other stakeholders, and on acquisitions, financing and commercial transactions. She is also counsel to the Holmes Regional Medical Center Medical Executive Committee, the committee that manages the medical staff’s affairs.

Haines Jones previously practiced in Melbourne when she was recruited in 2000 to serve as General Counsel to XL Vision, Inc., a technology incubator. There she worked with the company’s engineers, physicists, technologists and scientists to secure patents for proprietary research and inventions and investor funding. She served the company’s board of directors and its spin-off companies advising on corporate, securities and business law issues. Later, she was recruited to South Florida to serve as General Counsel of Levitt Corp. a publicly traded real estate development company.

“Claudia Haines Jones is a strong supporter ofentrepreneurship education at the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business and is currently amember of our Technology Innovation and Venture Development Executive Council,” said Annie Becker, dean of the college. Haines Jonesis aguest lecturer ingraduate classes, providing her expertise in business planning, intellectual property and managing innovation. She has also served as a guest speaker in the college’s Entrepreneurial Training Services program sharing her technical knowledge with those exploring entrepreneurship as a career path.