Kyle D. Hooker is the Managing Director and Owner of Tibbetts Logistics Ltd. and the Executive Chairman of Tibbetts Lumber Co. LLC, both based in Clearwater, Florida. He oversees the family’s real estate, investment, and development projects, as well as government and industry relations and various operating entities in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands. Kyle and his family have been shipping with Tropical Shipping for almost 50 years to the Cayman Islands and Caribbean.
Kyle joined the family lumber business in 2003 after working as a pilot for Island Air in the Cayman Islands. Before the sale of Cox Lumber Co., his grandfather Linton N. Tibbetts, OBE, founded the St. Petersburg-based company, which was sold to The Home Depot in 2006. Kyle served as the General Manager for three locations in the Orlando/Central Florida region prior to the sale.
He played collegiate baseball at the University of Kentucky and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Maryville College in Tennessee. In 2017, he completed his Master of Business Administration at the Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee. Additionally, he holds a FAA commercial pilot’s license.
Kyle has previously served as a Director of Cayman Brac Power and Light Utility Company for four years and as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Episcopal School of Knoxville. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board for Business and Entrepreneurship at the Haslam College of Business.
Although Kyle spends much of his work life in Florida and the Cayman Islands, he and his wife, Adrienne, reside in Knoxville, Tennessee, with their three children. Originally from Atlanta, GA, Kyle holds dual citizenship in the Cayman Islands, where his family has lived for generations. In his free time, he enjoys boating, jet skiing, scuba diving, flying, and cheering on his children at their sporting events.
