From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
The new leader of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership is promising reforms at the beleaguered agency and an economic growth strategy that won’t leave any region of the state behind.
Stephen Moret made his inaugural speech as president and CEO of the partnership Wednesday to a friendly business audience at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, which he praised for moving aggressively to raise the state’s diminished status in national business rankings.
Moret, the former Louisiana secretary of economic development, said he chose to leave a comfortable job as CEO of the Louisiana State University Foundation because of the opportunity to work “in one of the best places in America to do business.”
“This is much more than a job for me,” he said in a luncheon speech for Chamber Day at the Capitol at the Hilton Richmond Downtown. “This is a mission for me.”
Moret acknowledged that the job will be a challenge, as he works to fix extensive problems identified at the partnership by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission — JLARC — in a withering report in November that documented a dangerous lack of oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial incentives to economic development prospects.
Read the full article at http://www.richmond.com/business/local/article_c0cde2e1-bd3f-57d8-94e9-bfba278ca7f5.html
