DARRYL SHAW
CEO, BLUEPEARL VETERINARY PARTNERS, TAMPA
Shaw has become a player in Tampa Bay. Since 2014, he and various investment partners quietly bought up at least 110 parcels in the historic Ybor City area near downtown Tampa, the Latin district that is undergoing rapid revitalization. They have paid more than $63 million for parcels. “I fell in love with Ybor City, with its history and culture,” Shaw said in the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s all there, and it’s rare.”
Recent real estate forays aside, Shaw has a long history in Tampa Bay business circles. In 1996, he and his brother, Neil Shaw, a veterinarian, co-founded and opened Florida Veterinary Specialists, a veterinary hospital in Tampa. By 2008, they owned three hospitals in Florida and another in Manhattan, and their company then merged with a veterinary hospital in Kansas City and was renamed BluePearl Veterinary Partners. In 2015, Mars Petcare purchased BluePearl. The BluePearl subsidiary, which Shaw still runs as CEO, has grown to 76 hospitals in 24 states, including 10 in Florida, offering specialty and emergency care for pets.
Shaw, who was born in South Africa, has a bachelor’s degree in international commerce from Brown University and an MBA from Northwestern University. In 2017, Shaw invested $1.5 million in the Tampa Bay Times.