Four laureates were honored Tuesday night as this year’s additions to the Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida’s Business Hall of Fame.
The 2022 honorees are Ingrid and Chef Fabrizio Aielli of Aielli Restaurant Group, Larry Lipman of Lipman Family Farms and Brian Rist of Rist Family Foundation. A fundraising banquet at Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples celebrated the new laureates and raised $276,500 for Junior Achievement, a nonprofit organization that provides local youth with programs for work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills.
Junior Achievement’s Business Hall of Fame, which started locally in 1988, recognizes influential, visionary leaders from the business community who have made a significant impact and created new educational opportunities to prepare students for financial success. The two to five laureates who have been inducted each year during the last three decades practically represent a who’s who of the local business community.
The Aiellis co-own four notable local restaurants—Barbatella, Dorona, Grappino and Sea Salt— in the city of Naples. Born and raised in Slovakia, Ingrid met Fabrizio Aielli in Venice, Italy, where the chef got his culinary start in his mother’s kitchen. After eventually establishing three acclaimed restaurants in Washington, D.C., the Aiellis permanently relocated to Naples, where they opened Sea Salt in 2008. Within the next decade, they launched four more dining spots, including a second Sea Salt in St. Petersburg.
The husband-and-wife team also is known for individual and joint philanthropic volunteer commitments and support of local organizations such as Champions of Learning, Naples Children and Education Foundation, United Arts Council and Youth Haven.
Lipman is chairman of the board and the former CEO of Lipman Family Farms, an Immokalee-based operation that is a nationwide source of tomatoes and vegetables. He grew the local agriculture business from a regional grower to the largest open-field tomato growing organization in the nation. The largest produce repacker in the nation, Lipman has more than 4,000 employees in 13 states and grows more than 80% of its own proprietary tomato varieties.
Rist is co-founder and former executive chairman of The Smart Companies, which includes the Storm Smart subsidiary based in Southwest Florida. His leadership is behind the growth of Storm Smart into Florida’s largest manufacturer and installer of hurricane protection products. After receiving many personal and professional accolades over the years, Rist gives back as a local philanthropist and community leader giving his time and millions of dollars to universities, food banks, veteran organizations and sponsored events through the Rist Family Foundation.
