our team
John L. Daly, Ph.D.
President and Owner
John L. Daly, Ph.D., serves as President and Owner of Creative Insights Corporation, which he co-founded in June 1996. John joined the University of South Florida in August 1986 and is an Associate Professor of Public Administration. He served as USF's Founding Director of the School of Public Affairs (2013 - 2014) and remains active as part of its faculty.
John's research interests include human resource management, public management and leadership, and public policy development and implementation in local government. He also is a specialist in governance and public policy challenges facing southern African nations.
John has received three Fulbright scholar grants to the Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland). He first served as a consultant to the Kingdom of Swaziland's government (1998 - 1999). His second and third Fulbright grants allowed him to join the University of Swaziland's faculty (2005 - 2006 and 2016). In 2019, John also served as a Visiting Research Scholar within Indiana University's Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Affairs in Bloomington, Indiana.
John remains active in local community governmental service. Honors for his service include being selected as the 2014 recipient of the Florida City and County Management Association (FCCMA) Presidents Award. He is also the recipient of the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) Academic Award in Memory of Stephen B. Sweeney. This honor was presented to him at the 100th ICMA Conference in Charlotte, NC in September 2014.
Twice, John served as President for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) - Suncoast Chapter (1995 - 1996 and 2006 - 2007), as well as having served on its Board of Directors for a number of years. He also was inducted as a "Hall of Fame" recipient for his lifelong service to ASPA and its Suncoast Chapter in 2016.
He is the author of two books, Training in Developing Nations (2005, Routledge) and Human Resource Management in the Public Sector: Policies and Practices (2012, Routledge).
He and his wife, Debra Liebenow Daly, have lived in the Tampa Bay area since joining USF in August 1986.
Beverly Daly Daniel, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Vice President
As a child, Beverly heard a lot of HR discussions over the dinner table from her father (and now business partner, John) and vowed she would never go into such a "boring" field of work. She discovered her passion for HR shortly after graduating from UF, when, while working as a management trainee for Cintas, the entire sales team resigned on the same day. She asked if she could recruit the new sales team and was given the opportunity. Discovering a love for recruiting, she went on to serve as a Branch Manager for Spherion, a staffing firm, and then spent seven years with Creative Insights as a consultant. She left Creative Insights and spent 13 years growing her HR career at the University of South Florida, where she had many roles of increasing responsibility, including Director of Human Resources and Director of Environmental Health & Safety. She led many successful strategic initiatives, including USF's Smoke Free Campus, the redesign of the New Hire Experience, and numerous HR process transformations and compliance improvements.
Beverly has over 20 years of human resources leadership experience. In addition to her senior HR certifications (SPHR and SHRM-SCP), Beverly is a Certified Professional Coach with training and experience in career, leadership and life coaching. She holds a Master of Business Degree from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from the University of Florida.
