Michael Stephens is the first Black individual to be chosen CEO of Tampa International Airport (TPA) by the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Board. He will become the fourth CEO in TPA history when Joe Lopano departs in April 2025.
Stephens told abcAction News, “This man [Lopano] has incredibly massive shoes that he’s left behind to fill, and so having that opportunity to kind of aspire, to put my stamp on it, building off of what he’s done, it’s starting to hit me. It’s starting to hit me.”
The pioneer has been on TPA’s Executive Team for nine years and is currently Executive Vice President and General Counsel. He has also testified before Congress twice and is regarded as an authority on data privacy and cybersecurity.
He remarked, “I’m digitally fluent in the future. Innovation is my realm. The curiosity that Joe just expressed that I have, whether it’s from cybersecurity, whether it’s people and processes, those are things that I’m passionate about, that I’m excited about, and I’m going to bridge the gap between the things that have been the discipline, the tried and true things with the future.
He’s also excited about building partnerships in the community TPA serves.
He continued, “I’ve been in this community for over 20 years, even before Joe and the rest of the team got to the community. So I’ve seen how we’ve grown as a community, right? And so when you look at all those different experiences from two branches of the military, I used to be an air traffic controller, from higher education at USF to surface transportation to cyber, all those things that I’ve been able to do, it gives you a broad aperture.”
After almost ten years of working with the appointee, Lopano describes Stephens as one of the most intelligent and well-rounded individuals he has ever encountered.
Lopano expressed, “I told him just before we were sitting up in my office, I said, ‘You remind me of me 15 years ago.’ And he’s excited about everything that could happen, and so was I, and I still am, but I can’t make those things happen anymore. It’s time for someone new and younger to take over, and he’s the guy, and I think he’s going to do a wonderful job. I’m proud of him,”
According to a statement, Stephens will be in charge of roughly 670 personnel at TPA, Peter O. Knight, Tampa Executive, and Plant City airports.
Stephens announced his plans going forward.
He declared, “I want to leave this community whenever I pass the torch to whomever else much more connected, much more unified, having still the best airport in the entire country, if not the entire world, and making people say that Tampa is a place where I want to be that connects me to the world, that is connected together and that is unified a place that we can be proud of.”
He is a graduate of Leadership Florida and a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Florida Bar Association. On a national level, he is on the Board of Trustees of the Pace Center for Girls and the Legal Steering Committee of Airport Council International.
Stephens received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Morehouse College. He has a Master of Arts in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service and a Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
