By Staff
Grant Chaney has joined the staff of Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority as vice president of existing industry.
Chaney, a resident of Jacksonville, Fla., said recently that he looks forward to working with the economic development authority.
Chaney's move to the Coastal Gateway region will be a homecoming. The Auburn University graduate is a native of Monroe County. He attended school in Thomasville, Grove Hill and Monroeville, where he graduated from Monroe County High School.
Chaney's previous work experience includes positions with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and Honours Golf Corporation. For the past five years, he has served as the director of marketing and sales for the Santa Rosa Island Company, a real estate and property management group based in Jacksonville, Fla. He and his wife, Chris, will be moving to the area with their two children in late July.
Chaney will work out of Coastal Gateway's Grove Hill office, located inside Clarke/Mobile Counties Gas on Main Street. The office is furnished and ready for its new occupant, who will begin work the first week of August.
Coastal Gateway President and CEO Wiley Blankenship said he believes Chaney will be a major asset to the organization.
Blankenship said Chaney's job duties will include assisting “any and every industry” within the Coastal Gateway region by helping assess their needs. Chaney will assist companies that might not have a full realization of available incentives for possible expansions.
For Chaney's first 60 days at Coastal Gateway, he will take part in training at Auburn University's Intensive Economic Development Training Course as well as meeting with economic development players across the state. Blankenship said Chaney will meet with representatives from the Alabama Development Office, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, and PowerSouth, as well as all local economic developers and industrial development boards.
Area industry leaders are also enthusiastic about the addition of an existing industry director.
Marty L. Parker, Customer Focus/Governmental Affairs Manager with Boise Paper in Jackson, echoed his sentiment.