By Rich Pollack
During most of its 32-year history, the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach has had just three leaders, with its founder and first president, Sylvan Jubelirer, serving 16 years and its third leader, Jack Fox, serving 14 years.
Now, with Fox’s decision to step down from the organization that serves as a coordinating council of sorts where condo managers and board leaders come together to exchange ideas, leaders have handed the reins to Emily Gentile, the first woman to hold the position. She will run the organization with the guidance and expertise of Co-President and association veteran Steve Laine.
“I certainly have big shoes to fill,” said Gentile, a community leader and former Boca Raton City Council candidate who previously served as the organization’s secretary. “Jack has been a great mentor and a good friend.”
Working closely with Gentile will be a board consisting of Highland Beach Mayor Carl Feldman and former Mayor Bernard Featherman — both serving as vice presidents — plus Treasurer Russell Edelstein and Secretary Ana Londono.
Fox, who stepped down to spend several months each year with his family in Virginia, said he knows he is leaving the organization in good hands.
“Emily was a good candidate for the position,” Fox said. “She knows how to be a leader and is a take-charge person. She’s an outstanding replacement and she’ll probably do a better job than I did.”
Gentile, an executive business consultant in the financial arena, is active in the community, serving on Boca Raton’s Art in Public Places board and on the executive council of the Resident Physician Community Partnership Program for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
A Boca Raton resident for 12 years in the Yacht & Racquet Club of Boca Raton, Gentile previously lived in Highland Beach for four years, where she served on the town’s cultural board.
She is looking forward to guiding the organization as it continues to provide valuable information to the managers and leaders of 63 condominiums representing an estimated 12,000 residents.
“It’s really exciting to be so well received by this organization,” she said.
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