For the Washington County Economic Alliance, a new year alone isn’t the only thing that looks to be in store, but a new executive director as well.
Parker England, vice president of the WCEA board, announced Monday to the Washington County Board of Supervisors the search has been narrowed and an interview has been conducted with the leading candidate.
Former executive director Will Coppage tendered his resignation on Oct. 16 and on Oct. 26, the WCEA accepted Coppage’s resignation.
“The board had a good conversation with him and it just felt like both parties needed to go in a different direction, so we accepted his resignation on the 26th and immediately started putting in a plan on how we’re going to move forward without an executive director,” said England. “We met with our team who is Hillary Boggs, controller, Carolyn Baker, the office manager, Angelica Motton is our workforce development coordinator and Kay Sipes is our chamber of commerce director. We feel very confident in them and the job they do to continue to operate our facility and our organization until we can make the right hire.”
England noted the University of Southern Mississippi assisted in the executive director candidate outreach process by “broadcasting” it on behalf of the WCEA.
The opening yielded the interest of four candidates.
“We brought one in for an interview last week and we had a good visit with him and his wife and then we’re going to meet again,” England told the BOS.
He also highlighted the candidate seems to be an “Ark-La-Miss” Delta guy and has worked in economic development in Oklahoma as well as Arkansas.
England is hopeful the mutual interest continues to grow to the point of the WCEA making an offer in the coming weeks.
“His community is a little smaller than ours, but he’s been very successful in what he’s done so I’m excited about that. Hopefully we’ll continue that conversation,” he added.
In addition, England will begin Jan. 1, 2023 serving as the chairman of the WCEA board, succeeding Brad Hathaway.
“It’s been my honor to serve as chair of the Washington County Economic Alliance for the last two years,” Hathaway told the Greenville City Council during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
