New eco-devo chief takes reins
By Dave Yochum
When word got out that Russell Rogerson was leaving GreaterFindlay Inc., the economic development office in a healthy part of Ohio, he told worried associates everything was going to be just fine. The man who was instrumental in closing an average of six new projects a year, with an average investment of $50 million each year, was departing for North Carolina.
Mooresville to be exact. Such was the faith the community had in the 49-year-old economic development official. During Rogerson's tenure, Findlay and Hancock County were consistently in the nation's top 20 in Site Selection magazine's ranking of micropolitan communities, culminating in a sixth-place showing last year.
The new executive director of the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp. says he is more than ready to run an economic development organization in a high growth area.
"What I thought coming in [for job interviews here] is true: Mooresville/South Iredell has had a lot of success in business attraction and that it is poised to have a lot more success," Rogerson said in an interview.
Pointing out that Findlay was an oil boomtown in the late 1800s, Rogerson says the nature of economic development is that it must continually add new jobs and diversify the employment base at the same time.
Findlay was only briefly an oil town. Because of the relatively small size of the deposits, the industry moved on to Texas and California. But Findlay brought in a consultant from Europe who recommended chasing down new businesses. While Marathon Oil retained a large presence in Findlay, the area grew into a powerful distribution center.
"That's the nature of business and economic development. That's why you need to continually add jobs and businesses to the community. Businesses will cycle. They will have ups and downs and make decisions to move people and or their business," Rogerson said.
There are few surprises in his business. While a company may invest millions of dollars to open a facility one year, market conditions may dictate its closing the next year.
It's all in how you deal with events as they're happening, he says.
When Microsoft snapped up a local software company, it was just a matter of time before the software giant wanted to move the operation to Washington State. Rogerson and GreaterFindlay worked with the original owner and Microsoft so that when the company was moved to Washington, 75 of the employees stayed behind, working as sub-contractors for the original owner, who had a contract with Microsoft.
Rogerson grew up in Wheeling, W. Va., in the state's northern panhandle. He majored in communications at Bethany College, and then went to work briefly for the Wheeling Intelligencer, a newspaper.
His father was a district manager for Mountaineer Gas where the young Rogerson went to work in the marketing communications offices of the wholesale division where he was ultimately responsible for communications in five states, supervising 35 people. Rogerson moved on to the Columbia Gas system, where he took on an operational role, eventually running a system with more than 70 employees and a $4 million budget.
By that point, Rogerson was often involved in economic development efforts. When that job ended, Rogerson went back to his marketing roots and became director of marketing and public relations for the Blanchard Valle Health System. He was soon asked to provide some interim health at a predecessor organization for GreaterFindlay, and he stayed on board.
Rogerson is credited with bringing around six projects a year to GreaterFindlay, along with creating a momentum that attracted attention. While business slowed in 2007, he recruited a company with 33 new jobs.
A few months ago, Rogerson decided it was time to think about options, spread his wings beyond Ohio and West Virginia. With family in North Carolina, he decided to apply for the M/SI job. "It's important to grow and stretch yourself and learn and expand your network," Rogerson said, noting that he was with GreaterFindlay seven years.
During interviews, he was impressed with how local officials understood the issues around development and real estate-key to a recruiter's success.
"It was a big positive, because they understood development," Rogerson said. He was looking for a town like Mooresville that had a "lot going for it; that is pro-growth and understands growth; understands that job creation and investment are critical to the health and well-being of a community."
Nowadays, companies do their searches in general terms with large geographic area, Rogerson said, because most decisions are based on proximity to market. Site selection efforts narrow the choices, but sometimes neighbors ending up competing with neighbors. Rogerson doesn't see that as a problem. "The key is to keep that pipeline full so everybody has an opportunity," he said.
He said the whole concept of regions is becoming more and more prevalent because of the sharing of utilities, infrastructure, water and roads. "So whether you like it or not, you have to have a regional conscience," Rogerson said. Mooresville/South Iredell Economic Development falls under the purview of the Greater Charlotte Regional Partnership, the umbrella economic developer that seeks to bring business to the 16-county metro area.
The partnership brands the Charlotte region around business strength, accessibility and quality of life. Mooresville does well in all three categories, which has not gone unrecognized by local officials.
"You have to have this pro-business community that knows how to do development successfully. By that I mean that you deliver what you tell a company you can deliver and they have confidence in that," Rogerson said.
His first meetings in Mooresville were with local politicians, members of the developer's council and Rotary. Down the road is a meeting with Lowe's Home Improvement, the economic development coup of the decade, orchestrated by Rogerson's predecessor, Melanie O'Connell Underwood.
Dismissed by the board, she is starting her own consulting business focusing on economic development.
Rogerson sees economic development opportunities for new business in office, back office and industrial. "We will be picking up our marketing effort and doing so in a number of different ways. We will be a lot more aggressive in the marketing area," Rogerson said.
"My job is to have people want to come."
