State Government
News
NCCBI figures
dominate Economic Development Board
Reaching
out to the business community for ideas on jump-starting North
Carolina’s flagging industrial expansion efforts, Gov. Mike Easley
has tapped several prominent figures in NCCBI as members of a more
influential N.C. Economic Development Board. Easley also gave the
board, which traditionally has informally advised the state Department
of Commerce on business expansion issues, an even greater role, saying
he wanted it to now serve “as a board of directors for economic
development in the state.”
Significantly, the governor appointed association Chair Gordon Myers
of Asheville, the Ingles Markets executive and longtime chairman of
the Ad-vantageWest regional economic development organization, as
chairman of the state board. Also on the appointments list are NCCBI
President Phil Kirk; past NCCBI chairman Mac Everett of Charlotte, the
Wachovia Bank executive; and two NCCBI Executive Committee members,
Duke Power Co. President Bill Coley of Charlotte and BB&T
President and CEO Kelly King of Winston-Salem. In fact, 19 of the
governor’s 23 appointments to the board, including ex-officio
representatives, are NCCBI members. The leaders of the state House and
Senate will appoint the remaining eight members of the board.
A spokesman said the governor sensed that the state’s sagging
economy, with unemployment rates above the national average for eight
straight months, needed a quick jolt that he believed could be
delivered most rapidly by individuals already seasoned in economic
policy issues. “North Carolina’s economy is in rapid
transition,” Easley said. “It is critical that we have a strategic
plan in place to guide our economic development investments. We need
more than a vision of how we want our economy to grow. We must also
have implementation steps to ensure its success.”
Myers said the board has a difficult job. “North Carolina is facing
an unprecedented challenge in the economic development arena due to
the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and a general downturn in
the state’s economic indicators,” he said.
But the new board is up to the task, Myers added. “I feel the
governor has assembled an excellent group of individuals who represent
a cross section of business, civic, governmental and geographic
interests across North Carolina to address these pressing needs in our
state.”
Myers succeeds Mark Bernstein of Charlotte, a past chairman of the
Parker, Poe, Adams & Bernstein law firm, as chairman of the
Economic Development Board.
Easley said he wanted he board to develop a comprehensive economic
development plan for the state that addresses a host of issues
critical to recruitment strategies. He specifically mentioned tax
incentives, economic development investments, workforce development,
collaboration with education and research institutions; coordination
of efforts by state and nonprofit agencies, and development of future
technologies.
Easley also said he also wants the new board to have a key role in
implementing the plan it devises through lobbying and through what he
called “ongoing accountability reviews with the state’s economic
development agencies.”
In his remarks at NCCBI’s Fall Area Meetings, Myers said he believes
the state’s economic development policies need reinvigorating. “As
business people, we do what we need to do each day to stay
competitive. The same must apply to our economic development programs,
many of which have remained unchanged for the past 20 years.”
Other states are trying new approaches, Myers added in his Area
Meeting remarks. “In fact, Virginia and South Carolina, two states
we compete directly against for new jobs and investment, have moved
toward privatizing their economic development operations. An outdated
approach to economic development doesn’t match up for long when
going head-to-head with these competing states.”
The governor’s other appointments include: Mike Fulenwider of
Morganton, owner and president of Fulenwider Enterprise; Watts Carr of
Greensboro, vice chairman of the Piedmont Triad Partnership; Randall
Kaplan of Greensboro with the Capsule Group; Robert Stolz of
Charlotte, president of The Hardwood Group; Margaret Dardess of
Durham, vice president of corporate affairs at GlaxoSmithKline; John
Crumpler of Raleigh, founder and general partner of Catalysta
Partners; Pat Corso of Pinehurst, CEO of Pinehurst Corp.; Bill
Batchelor of Rocky Mount, executive vice president of Tuscarora Corp;
Jordy Whichard of Greenville, publisher of the Greenville Daily
Reflector; Roger Crowe of Beaufort, an attorney; Michael Wray of
Gaston, part owner and an officer of W.J. Wray; Andrea Harris of
Durham, president of the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic
Development; David Gore of White-ville, of Gore Music Co.; Bob Winston
of Raleigh, chairman of Winston Hotels; Bill Forsyth of Murphy, with
the Murphy Electric Power Board; and Matthew Szulick of Durham, CEO of
Red Hat.
Ex-officio members appointed include: Commerce Secretary Jim Fain
Fain; UNC System President Molly Broad; Community College System
President Martin Lancaster; Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue; and Secretary of
State Elaine Marshall. Rep. Bill Owens of Elizabeth City, an executive
with W.W. Owens & Sons Moving and Storage Co., was appointed vice
chair of the board and Stolz was named chair-elect.
Chaffee, King, Carr, Stolz, Coley, Everett, Dardess, Corso, Whichard,
Harris, Forsyth, Winston, Broad, Fain, Lancaster and Perdue are
members of NCCBI.
“I look forward to working with Commerce Secretary Jim Fain and the
other Cabinet secretaries in developing a comprehensive economic
development plan that will move this state forward and insure all of
our citizens the opportunity for a good job at competitive wages,”
Myers concluded. -- Steve Tuttle
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