Edward (Ed) Gray, III, Capital Trust Agency

Ed Gray has been a resident of Gulf Breeze, Florida since 1963. His educational background includes having graduated in 1974 from Florida State University with major studies in finance. Most of his professional career has been in the field of commercial banking. For over 25 years he managed offices and departments of regional banks serving Florida delivering retail, commercial, trust, and mortgage banking services to customers.

As a community service, Ed Gray began serving on the Gulf Breeze City Council in 1980. In 1984 he was elected Mayor of Gulf Breeze and served in that capacity before retiring from office in 1992. Over the terms of his mayoral administration, Gulf Breeze embarked to establish municipal lending programs designed to facilitate governmental project financings at lower costs to governments throughout Florida. These programs grew and remain successful today. Over 90 financings exceeding $740 million have been closed to governments in the state ranging from Pensacola to Miami Beach. Purposes for the financings have included municipal owned hotels, marinas, recreation facilities, wastewater systems, motor sports facilities, and road surfacing to name but a few.

In 1999, Gulf Breeze and the town of Century, Florida exercised powers granted under the Florida statutes to create a financing agency called Capital Trust Agency (CTA). The activities of this agency center around issuing tax exempt and taxable bonds that meet a public need. CTA operates as a conduit issuer and has facilitated over $ 1 billion in financings for qualifying projects in Florida and neighboring states. CTA became a CDE in 2007 and received an allocation of $75 million in tax credits in 2009. These credits are being applied to worthwhile projects throughout Florida, with the Vince Whibbs Community Maritime Park development in Pensacola being the first project funded and the first project to receive the newly authorized Florida new market tax credits.

 Ed currently also serves as an elected School Board member for the Santa Rosa County School District. This district has achieved the distinction of being in the top 5 Florida counties for academic achievement each of the past 8 years. Ed also serves and is past chair of the board of the Santa Rosa County economic development council, known as TEAM Santa Rosa.