LAKELAND, Fla. (April 16, 2009) — Two commencement ceremonies will be held on the campus of Florida Southern College on May 2. Students from the College's day program will receive diplomas during a graduation ceremony taking place at 1:30 p.m. in the Jenkins Field House. Alex Sink, chief financial officer of the state of Florida, will deliver the commencement address. A morning ceremony for students from FSC's evening degree programs in Lakeland, Orlando, and Ocala begins at 10:30 a.m. in Branscomb Auditorium. Dr. Robert R. "Bob" Sharp, chairman of the board at AAA Auto Club South, a member of the FSC Board of Trustees, and a 1961 graduate of the College, will give the commencement address.

Sink was elected in 2006 as Floridas chief financial officer, overseeing nearly 3,000 employees and an annual budget of $300 million in the Department of Financial Services. She manages the states $24 billion in treasury funds, serves as the State Fire Marshal, oversees workers' compensation and the state's risk management programs, licenses all insurance agents, and investigates insurance fraud. She served as chair of the Healthy Kids Board, streamlining the program to help more working families purchase affordable health insurance for their children. In addition, she created the states first Financial Literacy Council to better educate Floridians about important financial issues and the Safeguard Our Seniors Task Force to identify the best ways to protect seniors from financial fraud. Before her election in 2006, Sink served as a business and financial leader in Florida for more than 20 years, including seven years as president of Florida's largest bank, Bank of America.

Her civic and community service includes an appointment by the late Governor Lawton Chiles to the Commission on Government Accountability to the People, serving as vice chair of Florida TaxWatch, and working for Florida's children through her service on the state's Commission on Education, the Hillsborough Education Foundation Board of Directors, and as chair of Take Stock in Children. In addition, she has served with the Florida Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Junior Achievement of West Central Florida, Beth El Farm Workers Ministry, Redlands Christian Migrant Association, and chairman of the board of the United Way of Hillsborough County.

Sharp is the chairman of the board of AAA Auto Club South and past president and CEO of AAA Auto Club South. During his tenure, the organization has grown from 390,000 members to 4.1 million members in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico. Sharp has served on the Florida Southern College Board of Trustees since 1991 and served on the Colleges President's Council before that. The FSC National Alumni Board of Directors presented Sharp with its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 1991. He also received a prestigious Honorary Doctor of Business in 1999 from the College. 

He is a member of the Board of Directors of SunTrust Bank of Tampa, the Board of Directors of Memorial Hospital of Tampa, Board of Directors of The Florida Aquarium, member of the Board of Trustees for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and a member of the Board of Directors of Tampa Bay and Company. Sharp also is a past member of the Governor's Florida Tourism Advisory Council, past president and member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement, a member of the Towing Task Force Committee by appointment of the Florida Speaker of the House, and past president of Sales and Marketing Executives of Tampa.