Roy Speer

Roy Merrill Speer Jr. (June 23, 1932 – August 21, 2012) was an American attorney, entrepreneur and the former CEO, co-founder and chairman of the Home Shopping Network.

Speer was born in Key West, Florida and graduated from Stetson University in Deland, Florida and from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.

Speer left his job as an assistant state attorney two years after being hired in 1965.

Early in his legal career, Speer worked for the State of Florida in Tallahassee as a Special Assistant Attorney General. He also worked as Assistant Trial Staff Counsel for the U.S. Labor Relations Board. During this period, Speer developed a working relationship with A. Jay Cristol who is now Senior Federal Judge of the Southern Federal Bankruptcy Court. After leaving Tallahassee, he became a chief lobbyist for the City of St. Petersburg, specializing in water rights and laws. Later, Speer was appointed Assistant State Attorney for Pinellas County by Governor Haydon Burns. He then practiced law with John DeVito and Elizabeth A. Kovachevich, who is now a Senior Federal Judge. He dated Elizabeth A. Kovachevich in law school.

Speer established his first of many business partnerships with Estlon and JoAnn Pippin, experienced single-family homebuilders in Pasco County, Florida. They formed Tahitian Homes, Inc. and proceeded to build homes in western Pasco County. Later, Speer expanded his real estate development activities into a large multi-corporation company called Lanbanque, Inc. In order to supply utilities to his ever-expanding real estate projects, Speer and the Pippins established Aloha Utilities, Inc. which was the largest private water and sewer utility in Pasco County. During a slow-down in the real estate business, Speer spent three years in Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait formulating TACET (Technology and Capital Exchange Trust).

Speer was also involved in growing vegetables in Puerto Rico; he owned a beautician school, restaurants, lounges, a marina, marine dredging, data processing services, multi-level marketing of vitamins and cosmetics, cement block manufacturing, country-western music publishing and recording studios, telecommunications companies, a high-end boutique shop, general insurance agency, internet connection and data center, a walk-in medical clinic, wholesale gasoline and diesel fuel distribution operation, a travel agency, home security monitoring, mail order medical and diabetic supply company, a Big & Tall men's clothing store, an AM radio station, a mobile medical screening company, a book publishing company, a warehouse fulfillment and distribution company, an advertising media consulting firm, television stations, mobile home parks, a 225 room hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, a 500,000 square foot commercial warehouse complex in Las Vegas, and a five-star 23 story resort hotel and residences on Ft. Lauderdale Beach.

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