Meet the FFP Executive Committee
TODD HOOPER, CHAIR: Todd has spent his career in management consulting and private equity. He is currently a Partner with Kearney, a global management consulting firm. Prior to Kearney, Todd was a Partner with Kurt Salmon, including roles as North American Strategy Practice Leader and Vice-Chairman of the Partner Board.
Prior to making his home in Florida, Todd was active in the Republican Party in northern California. In 2006, he ran for Congress. With no expectation of unseating the richly-financed, long-term incumbent, he achieved his goal of successfully upgrading the political discourse and debate in the district. Todd wrote a political commentary column for the Marin Independent Journal for more than ten years subsequent to his Congressional campaign.
He earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame and an MBA at the University of Chicago, also studying at the London Business School. Currently, he empty-nests in St. Petersburg with Nancy Chung Hooper, his wife of more than 30 years.
Mr. Hooper embraces Forward's focus on making government work better by valuing ideas over ideology and rejecting hyper-partisanship.
RICHARD BALDOCCHI, VICE CHAIR: Rick is a professional engineer working as a Principal and Owner of AVCON INC., a regional consulting engineering firm headquartered in Orlando. The firm specializes in transportation infrastructure and development projects throughout the Southast United States. Baldocchi also has been active in the at-large community and served as an elected official in the City of Maitland from 1998 to 2004.
Rick was originally from San Francisco and received a Bachelor's of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (1983) and a Master's of Science degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (1985). He moved to Florida in 1985 and received a Master’s of Business degree from Rollins College in 2000.
He has been actively engaged in local politics and volunteer organizations his entire career and supported candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. He believes the current political climate lends itself to rewarding the extremist elements of the two main political parties and has always thought a third party closer to the center could improve the dialogue and work toward better solutions to the nation’s needs.
RON GRANITE, TREASURER: Ron is a business professional with more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, in the public and private markets, and is self-employed as a capital markets advisor at a globally recognized firm. He has lived in Fort Lauderdale for five years after moving from the Chicago in early 2020. He originally hails from New York City but holds his cultural Nordic heritage and values in high regard. Granite holds a Master’s degree from New York University with a major in Real Estate Finance, and also attended the University of Buffalo and Baruch College, earning a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Mathematics.
CARRIE ANNE, SECRETARY: Carrie Anne is a dedicated organizer, mother of three daughters, and a fierce advocate for universal basic income, committed to building a more equitable and accessible democracy. She earned her degree in Criminal Justice and Public Policy from Georgia Southern University, grounding her political work in a strong understanding of law, systems, and reform. In 2020 in Atlanta, she co-founded a 501(c)4 organization focused on supporting candidates who championed universal basic income, helping elevate bold, people-centered economic ideas into the political mainstream. When she moved to Florida in 2021, the organization disbanded and Carrie Anne spent three years with Contest Every Race as an election researcher and Campaign Coach, supporting local candidates and helping lower the barriers to running for office. In that role, she provided hands-on guidance, practical resources, and encouragement to first-time and down-ballot candidates. Today, she serves as Head of Volunteer Programs at the national Forward Party, where she designs and leads engaging ways for people across the country to get involved in political change. She draws on a lifetime of experience as a Girl Scout to make volunteering welcoming, fun, and community-oriented, helping people see themselves as leaders in their own neighborhoods. Carrie Anne has a deep appreciation for local politics and the power of community-level organizing. She helps bring people together across differences, working to build a durable, bottom-up infrastructure for a new kind of politics in the state.
SCOTT LONG: After a long career in media, from newspapers to owning his own company, Scott now owns his second business, Quoz Creative LLC, a strategy firm for small businesses and non-profit organizations that focuses on event planning and content creation. He also is extremely active with numerous non-profit organizations and community organizations in his home of more than two decades, Safety Harbor in the Tampa Bay area, that he shares with his wife, Laura, and two cats. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Journalism from Marietta College in his native Ohio, and has been active with political campaigns of all sizes since he was a teenager. He saw the power of omitting political labels when he successfully ran for Safety Harbor City Commission, a non-partisan elected role, with a coalition of supporters from all political spheres. Since then, he has remained a moderate, pragmatic voice, and was drawn to the Forward Party, where he leads Communications operations, by its core tenets of grace, tolerance and humility after becoming convinced that the two-party system is irretrievably broken and there is a better way.