by SC Features Writer Reanna Haase
After 30 years in hospitality, John Lai’s career came full circle when he was appointed SanCap Chamber President and CEO just a year after coming aboard as member service manager. More than just dedication to his position, Lai’s connection to Sanibel runs deeper than his commitment to community involvement and resilience.
He grew up in Fort Myers, with both parents working on Sanibel while he was in high school. Nearly all his core memories, he said, can be traced back to the island. From proposing to and marrying his wife to their first family vacation, Sanibel has always been an integral part of his life.
“There’s nothing like spending time working for a place that you have a personal connection to,” Lai said. “This entire job that I have is the career highlight for me. I feel very fortunate and blessed.”
Since assuming this position in 2018, Lai has continued to adapt the chamber’s strategies and functions to meet the evolving needs of its community. Through the water quality crisis in 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the aftermath of Hurricanes Ian, Helene, and Milton, Lai has always seen these challenges as opportunities for adjustment and improvement.
Now, the SanCap Chamber is ready to take on its next opportunity: a 6-month management agreement with the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce, while they search for their new CEO. Out of the eight chambers in Southwest Florida, Lai said being selected to aid in the leadership transfer for the neighboring chamber could lead to lasting changes.
“We see it as a huge honor that, of the other seven chambers, they chose to reach out to us,” Lai said. “I think that it can have some long-lasting implications in terms of streamlining and synergies that help us both save money in the long run and help serve both of our members better.”
This contract will enable the SanCap Chamber to provide organizational oversight, giving the Greater Fort Myers Chamber the time it needs to find its new chamber head.
“For us, it’s a great opportunity to explore not only some operational synergies that might exist long term, but also it gives us an opportunity to reach across the bridge and continue to market deeper to our regional citizens,” Lai said.
Since the start of the island’s restoration efforts following Ian in September 2022, the chamber has focused its marketing on its neighbors: those who live close by but may have never made the trip over the causeway. Now, with this contract, they will have the chance to further develop this relationship with the surrounding community.
“So going from the water quality crisis to then recovering from that, then to COVID, and then from there dealing with the hurricanes, it has given our staff and our board and our community resilience that you won’t find in any other community,” he said. “It’s been very rewarding for us as a team and as a board to see the ways that we can help our community.”
The chamber holds a unique position in the community, one in which it can change its role as the needs of the community change. This is something they have chosen to lean into more since Lai has held his position, and which they will continue to foster through the Greater Fort Myers Chamber contract.
“Now we find that we make a bigger impact on our local community when we do our advocacy work,” Lai said. “Connecting our members to resources and connecting our community to resources and exposure that they wouldn’t typically have, if not for us stepping into a gap.”
He said his favorite part of the islands is how the community always comes together in times of need and has everyone’s best interests in mind. This is one of the many reasons why he and his family have always been drawn to Sanibel.
“It’s my wife’s happy place,” Lai said. “I don’t need to get buy-in for spending a lot of time at work. She buys into the fact that we’re doing something meaningful for a place that means so much to us.”
His wife, Amy, also grew up coming to Sanibel with her family. She has memories from when she was a kid of going to the island for the 4th of July with her mom’s extended family. Though there have been changes, the core values have remained the same as she remembers from her younger years.
“[When I was a kid] we would go stay out there and then now, watching how the island has changed, but the same community of people keeping it at its core, what I remember as a child,” Amy said.
Together, John and Amy have made sure to give their two children, Zachary and Emma, the experience of Sanibel that they had growing up. Now both of their children are in their 20s and live in St. Petersburg, but they still enjoy visiting their parents and even bring their friends to experience the island, which is so important to their family.
“Our kids do have a love for the island as we do, and enjoy coming back and staying,” Amy said. “They have the best memories of being on the island.”
The family has done it all on the island, but their new favorite activity is taking their boat out to experience Sanibel from the water.
“It really makes you fall in love all over again,” John said. “When you get on the water, and you connect with it in a way that you’ve not connected with the island before, it just makes you all so much more passionate about where we live, where we work, and where we play.”
On top of all the excitement already in their life, the family is about to start their next chapter. The pair, who have been married for almost 30 years, are about to welcome their first grandchild, Tillie, in January.
“We’re excited for what’s happening in our family and for our son. We can’t wait to bring her down here,” Amy said.
2026 is gearing up to be an exciting year for the Lai family, and through it all, John’s passion continues to shine through in everything he does.
“To have this come to this full circle moment where I grew up on the island and now I get to spend my career serving an island that has meant so much to me,” John said. “Both as a child and as a parent and as a husband, it feels not only serendipitous but rewarding.”