Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) announce the hiring of Gerry Albert to head up business and economic development efforts for La Pine and the surrounding area in southern Deschutes County.
The program is a partnership of the City of La Pine, Deschutes County, local businesses and EDCO. In this role, he will be managing recruitment efforts to attract new companies, working to help local traded-sector companies grow and coordinating with ongoing industry development efforts within Deschutes county’s borders south of Bend.
BBSI conducted the professional search on behalf of EDCO for the Economic Development Manager position. A local group of business and government leaders in the La Pine area formed the hiring committee for EDCO that reviewed and interviewed finalists. “We are very excited about what Gerry will bring to this position, given his extensive business development background in high technology,” said Eric Strobel, Area Manager for BBSI.
Albert started his career in high technology in the early 1980s with ComputerLand, after which he held leadership positions with SuperMac, Macromedia, Unisys and most recently a decade with Microsoft in Redmond, WA. While at Microsoft, he was an Industry Strategist for Windows Data Center®, managed the global relationship with Sun Microsystems, facilitated development of cross-platform web-services, IP licensing contracts and formed, then led an international vendor consortium (130 firms) to improve Windows technical security. He and his wife recently purchased a home in the Three Rivers area with the intention of relocating to the Central Oregon region from the Seattle area. Albert is a Microsoft certified systems engineer and certified project manager.
“Gerry will bring an entirely different experience and skill set to EDCO that we hope will help jumpstart economic development in the La Pine area and be an asset for the entire organization,” said Roger Lee, executive director for EDCO.
Vic Russell, local business owner and chair of La Pine Economic Development (LED), a newly formed advisory board for the position, noted, “with the economy in the La Pine area recovering but still weaker than we want, we are very eager for Gerry to get started.”
Albert’s employment with EDCO began October 14, 2013.
Economic Development for Central Oregon Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) is a private non-profit corporation founded 32 years ago and dedicated to building a vibrant and thriving regional economy by attracting new investment and traded-sector jobs (manufacturing, professional, headquarters and high technology businesses) through marketing, recruitment and substantive assistance to existing companies.
Learn more about EDCO at www.edcoinfo.com.
