It’s the end of an era at EDCUtah. President and CEO Jeff Edwards will retire Nov. 1 after spending 15 years of service to the organizaion, 11 of those years as CEO. A national search is on for his replacement.
Jeff joined EDCUtah in 2001 as the vice president of client services, coming from a background that involved IT, education, technical marketing and aerospace. At EDCUtah, his job entailed working on the business development side of the organization. That experience was his introduction to the site selection community, which is a small group of people in the U.S. that assist businesses with their relocation and expansion efforts.
“Getting to know the site selectors proved to be a rewarding and invaluable experience,” he recalls. “Over the years we have come to understand the power and influence of this important group and we have designed our business model to grow and enhance EDCUtah’s relationships with them.”
In building relationships with the site selectors, EDCUtah developed its highly successful annual Sundance Film Festival site selection event and recently added a portfolio of regional site selection events to build and enhance more relationships. Edwards also became involved in the Industrial Asset Management Council, a leading trade association for site selectors and corporate real estate executives.
Edwards became president and CEO of EDCUtah in January 2005 and proceeded to build a foundation for the organization by recruiting an exceptional staff and the support of dedicated business and government leaders that want to carry economic development forward in the state.
Referring to his staff, he says working for a nonprofit organization like EDCUtah takes a high degree of committment. “You have to do it for a larger reason than just collecting a paycheck. Our staff is involved in this because they know it makes a difference for their fellow Utahns, which is very gratifying and I have loved working with them.”
When Edwards joined the organization the membership base was small and not very diverse. Today, EDCUtah enjoys a diversified base of support from more than 300 public and private investors that are committed to economic development. The membership base includes more than 60 cities and counties, a number than continues to grow as they recognize the state is more successful in economic development with one unified voice.
“I firmly believe the public-private, nonprofit model is the right way to do economic development,” he continues. “It brings the public and private sectors together on the important ideas that will carry the state forward. It’s a tremendously good idea that EDCUtah’s founders put together more than 30 years ago and now stands out as a model across the country. I am grateful we have the support of people who believe in that structure.”
EDCUtah was averaging about 12 project site selector visits per year when Edwards joined the organization. Now it averages about 52 project site selector visits annually, or about one every week, and the project pipeline remains at a high level with more than 135 active projects. What’s more, the projects are more diversified and of a higher quality than ever before. In 2001, EDCUtah business recruitment largely targeted manufacturing businesses. Manufacturing companies still take up the largest portion of the project load, but even that is more diversified as the manufacturing projects involve companies in food, electronics, outdoor, aerospace and many other types of manufacturing. Moreover, EDCUtah has proven it can handle major projects that involve large capital investments and thousands of jobs.
Under Edwards’ leadership EDCUtah has grown into a finely tuned economic development organization with a strong reputation across the country. Chief Marketing Officer Michael Flynn says it is rare anymore to find someone at a trade show or site selector event that hasn’t heard of Utah and its proactive business climate. Moreover, the marketing and business development teams are stronger than they have ever been. About two years ago, EDCUtah added a Global Strategy and Outreach team, which has been highly successful in adding top quality projects to the pipeline. To date, the team has added more than 100 new projects to the pipeline using proprietary research tools developed in-house.
Of course, no organization flourishes without escaping adversity. EDCUtah’s greatest adversity came when it was realized that the organization hadn’t filed taxes for five years. The ensuing legislative audit was lengthy and exhaustive, but completely necessary, says Edwards. As the audit eveloved, EDCUtah rolled out a new governance structure, adding a finance committee comprised of leaders from the public and private sectors and hiring a chief financial officer.
“I am happy with the new structure and believe EDCUtah is on strong financial footing,” he continues. “Governance of an organization that handles both public and private money isn’t easy, but with the new structure in place I believe EDCUtah is stronger and it has been my goal to ensure the organization continues.”
The organizational and governance restructuring has taken place over the course of the year and with that mostly in place, Edwards says he is ready for a new chapter. He’s loved being an active leader in helping to create a diverse and strong economy in Utah and finds great satisfaction in the relationships developed with EDCUtah’s membeship base. “It has been so much fun to get to know the people and businesses that make Utah so great,” he continues.
