Research Foundation Directors and Officers

Joseph W. Landers, Jr. (Jay)

Jay Landers is chairman and CEO of Unicorn Financial Services, a national patient finance company headquartered in Tallahassee with offices in Chicago and Mesa, Arizona. Unicorn provides financing to individuals for elective medical and dental procedures, with over 4000 doctors and dentists enrolled nationwide to offer Unicorn financing.

Mr. Landers is a graduate of Stetson University, where he was president of the student body and names outstanding senior man, and Stetson College of Law which he attended on the President's Award scholarship. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Landers joined the staff of the Secretary of State Tom Adams, and the following year became an aide to Governor Reubin Askew. Mr. Landers was environmental advisor and chief cabinet aide to Governor Askew, who subsequently names Mr. Landers Executive Director of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, the agency responsible for managing all state owned lands. The following year, Mr. Landers was appointed Secretary of the newly created Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. Askew's successor, Governor Bob Graham appointed Mr. Landers Executive Director of the Florida Department of Natural Resources.

In 1979, Mr. Landers left government to begin a successful environmental and land use law practice, where he represented major clients such as Walt Disney World, General Development Corporation, U.S. Sugar, Arvida, Westinghouse, and numerous public bodies including the cities of Orlando and St. Petersburg and Dade and Sarasota counties. Mr. Landers was repeatedly selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America. Then Florida Senator Lawton Chiles asked Mr. Landers to personally represent him in federal court to oppose strip mining in the Osceola National Forest. In 1996, Mr. Landers resigned his law practice to enter private business.

Mr. Landers has been active in civic and chartable organizations, including serving on the board of the Florida Nature Conservancy, the national advisory board of the Trust for Public Land, chairman of the Tallahassee Urban League, and chairman of the Southern Scholarship Foundation. He current chairs the Stetson University board of trustees.

Mr. Landers is married to Pam Forrester, and they have two children, Elizabeth 13 and Wheeler 9.