At age 32, Tiffanie Robinson has already helped in the start up of a half dozen business or civic ventures in Chattanooga and last year became the youngest woman ever elected in Hamilton County when she won a seat on the county school board for District 4.
That's especially remarkable since Robinson grew up on Plant City, Florida, and only moved to Southeast Tennessee in 2003 to attend Lee University in Cleveland. She quickly fell in love with the region, especially downtown Chattanooga where she has worked for most of the past decade since graduating with communications degree in 2007.
Robinson is passionate about developing talent and space for 21st century jobs. She calls herself a "professional connector," bringing people to jobs when she headed Waypaver, connecting parents to their school board in her elected job, finding investors for women entrepreneurs at the female-headed Jump Fund and, in her newest role, bringing businesses to properties in creatifve new ways.
As president of Lamp Post Properties for the past couple of years, Robinson has been working to develop creative spaces to live, work and play downtown around where Lamp Post Group continues to nurture and incubate new businesses. Robinson said Lamp Post Properties takes a long-term approach to reviving older buildings downtown, giving them new life for a new type of economy.
About Robinson
Age: 32Title: President of Lamp Post Properties and Second Story Real Estate ManagementEducation: Graduate of Lee UniversityCivic involvement: Elected member of the Hamilton County Board of Education and founding member of The Jump FundPersonal: She and her husband, Mike, have two sons and reside in Chattanooga
"We have a very thoughtful approach to space, building renovation, branding and our customers," she says. "Space is so essential to our lives and every building has a story."
That led Lamp Post ;ast fall to quietly create Second Story Real Estate Management. Second Story will soon open its permanent home in the Co-Op on Cherry Street, one of a handful of buildings Lamp Post has bought and renovated over the past five years. Robinson's newest venture serves both owners and tenants of buildings through buying, branding, selling and leasing of properties, plus property management, technology upgrades and upkeep for the buildings. Already, the new firm is managing nearly a million square feet of building space.
An entrepreneur at heart and in practice, Robinson already sold two companies and helped start another, the talent recruitment firm WayPaver. She also successfully advocated for Chattanooga to join the global entrepreneurship network known as Sandbox and in 2015, she completed the prestigious Young American Leaders program at Harvard University.