For the first time in more than 15 years, the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County is looking for a new president.
Longtime EDC President Larry Sassano resigned at the end of November to become the interim president of the regional economic development organization Florida’s Great Northwest, which covers 13 counties. Kay Rasmussen, who has been with the organization for 14 years and is its vice president, took over as the interim president Monday.
“The EDC is up and running and will continue to operate at full power with Kay in the leadership position,” said Jim Heald, general manager of InDyne on Eglin Air Force Base and the chairman of the EDC.
“Everybody has stepped up. We’ve made sure that none of the jobs or projects have dropped through the cracks. I feel very blessed that we have such a good staff that we don’t have to rush to find a replacement for Larry.
“With every transition comes opportunities,” he added. “So even though Larry is leaving, we have a lot of opportunities to strengthen the EDC, the ties with the community, with the chambers, the cities. We have an opportunity to let Kay show us how well she can lead. There are just so many opportunities that are out there.”
Late last month the EDC formed a five-member search committee headed by Ed Taylor of Gulf Power to oversee the search for a new president.
The committee is reviewing the job description and comparing it to similar positions in other counties. Heald said the job description will be updated before the next president is hired.
The EDC also has looked at what other communities have done recently to hire new economic development directors. Santa Rosa County is going through the process now and Bay County recently hired a new director.
Heald said what he liked about Bay County’s process is that it went through a number of filtering processes: advertising the position, scoring applicants based on their experience and having an initial round of questions to further narrow down a list of finalists to bring in for interviews.
“We’re taking a measured approach,” Heald said. “I would think it would take us three to six months to get everything into place. But I want to stress that we have the luxury of not needing to rush because we have a good staff.
“A perfect candidate will have a track record that shows they can nurture and bring new businesses into an area,” he added.
The EDC has not decided whether to conduct the search internally or hire an outside agency to oversee it. Heald said a decision on that would likely be made in the next few weeks.
Sassano’s departure from the EDC has led to some changes in operations. Before Sassano joined the organization in February 1997, the EDC would put together a team of local business, utility and government officials to meet with prospective businesses about their needs and the community. David Goetsch, a lifetime honorary member of the EDC and former two-time chairman of the organization, called this the A-Team.
After Sassano was hired, because his background was in marketing, he visited with most of the prospective businesses himself to sell them on the area.
“What we’re doing is going back to the A-Team approach, which is probably a better approach, anyway, because that way you have real business people talking to business people who want to come here instead of EDC folks,” Goetsch said.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.