Business Hall of Fame laureates
Junior Achievement honors entrepreneur, marine biologist
SPRING 2022: 49
By Maria Sonnenberg For nearly four decades, Junior
Achievement of the Space Coast
has been working with Brevard
County youth to help them shape
their economic futures. Through the Junior
Achievement cores of financial literacy,
entrepreneurship and work-readiness,
volunteers bring Junior Achievement
programs to K-12 classrooms in Brevard
County at no cost to the schools.
The Business Hall of Fame induction is
Junior Achievement’s biggest annual
event. Since 1984, Junior Achievement of
the Space Coast has inducted members
such as college president Maxwell King,
BlockBuster owner Wayne Huizenga and
USA Today founder Al Neuharth into its
Business Hall of Fame.
Duane De Freese and Travis Proctor are
the newest Hall of Fame members and will
be inducted March 5.
TRAVIS PROCTOR
In the Republic, Plato noted that “our need
will be the real creator,” a phrase that has
since evolved into the familiar “necessity
is the mother of invention.” For a teenage
boy, there is probably no necessity more
critical than a set of wheels. Travis Proctor,
CEO of Artemis IT, used the urgency for
a vehicle to lead him down the path
of entrepreneurship.
At 16, Proctor needed a job to pay for
a car. He and two friends tackled the
problem by starting a computer support
and desktop publishing business from his
parents’ garage.
“Necessity forced me,” said Proctor, who
could well serve as poster boy for Junior
Achievement, the global nonprofit that
inspires and empowers young people to
succeed in business and life.
“I had been bit by the entrepreneurial bug.”
From the humble homegrown technology
enterprise he helped birth, Proctor graduated
to founding Artemis IT, a technology
company that is one of the brightest stars
in the high tech firmament known as the
Space Coast.
Even more remarkable is the fact that
Proctor launched Artemis while a sophomore
at Florida Institute of Technology.
Artemis IT was selected a 2020 GrowFL
Florida Companies to Watch honoree from
among hundreds of nominees in a competition
that identifies businesses expected
to experience major growth. Last year, the
company celebrated its first quarter-century
in business with an office relocation and
expansion of the Artemis Corporate Center
in Melbourne.
Necessity may have fueled Proctor’s entrepreneurial
spirit, but his family prepared
him well for the job. Growing up in Paradox,
Colorado population: 85, Proctor
developed the work ethic essential to prosper
in business. He gained this knowledge
working on the family farm where wheat,
alfalfa, corn and cattle were raised.
“It was not an 8-to-5 job,” Proctor said.
“You worked sunup to sundown. I didn’t
realize it at the time, but it showed me
what it was like to run a small business.”
While some may have shied away from the
hard work, Proctor welcomed it.
“As soon as I could, I wanted to be out
there working,” he said. “The work ethic
became ingrained in me.”
Indeed it did, since he graduated first in
his class at FIT, where he earned his bachelor’s
degree in computer science information
systems while concurrently nurturing
his fledgling business.
Serving the community is also part of
Proctor’s DNA.
“He serves on an amazing number of community
boards,” said Anne Conroy-Baiter,
president of Junior Achievement.
Proctor was named to the board of his
alma mater in 2012 and was elected
chairman of the board of trustees last year.
Among his civic efforts is serving as treasurer
of the Economic Development Commission
of Florida’s Space Coast. Through
the years he has served an impressive
number of wide-ranging organizations,
including Brevard Zoo, Brevard Symphony
Orchestra, Brevard Achievement Center,
Junior Achievement of the Space Coast,
Melbourne Regional Chamber and the Brevard
Heart Foundation, among others.
He bases his success on the fact that he
treats customers and employees as he
himself would like to be treated, with
transparency, honesty, empathy and the
expectation to do the best job.
“We deliver what we promise while provid-
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Travis Proctor
“As soon as I could, I
wanted to be out there
working. The work
ethic became ingrained
in me.”
— Travis Proctor