(Corrected, Dec. 9)
PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday morning to appoint Ioanna T. Morfessis, a consultant from Phoenix with a Ph.D. in economic-development policy, as the agency’s next executive director.
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Morfessis also was the unanimous choice of a search committee, which recommended her to the board last month. While technically a gubernatorial appointee, her proposed compensation package had to be approved by the EDC board.
Morfessis is expected to start work in January, and will serve as acting director until the Senate votes on whether to approve her appointment.
“She has a big personality, there isn’t any question about that,” said Hasbro Inc. Chairman Alfred J. Verrecchia, who chaired the search committee. He added: “We wanted someone who is going to be the individual that is going to energize the economic environment here.”
The board voted to give Morfessis a three-year contract that will pay her $250,000 a year plus benefits. The state also will cover her relocation costs and provide her with an automobile.
Morfessis’ compensation would be more than double that of the EDC’s last executive director, Saul Kaplan, who made just under $100,000 a year before he resigned in December 2008.
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri acknowledged that Morfessis’ pay package was high, but argued it was necessary to attract the best candidate.
Her appointment follows a national search that narrowed the field of candidates from about a dozen to five and then two. Carcieri selected Morfessis.
“My judgment was she was much stronger [than other candidates] and, I thought, met all the criteria we set,” Carcieri told the board.
Board members said they were impressed by Morfessis’ collaborative skills and her past success in building public-private partnerships.
“She’s very team-oriented,” Verrecchia said. “She demands a lot and gives a lot.”
Carcieri said he expected the Senate to support the selection. He also praised interim Executive Director J. Michael Saul for keeping the agency on track for the last year as the state searched for a new director.
Saul did not apply for the permanent position, but the governor said he was “convinced there will be an important role for [Saul] to continue to play here.”
Carcieri plans to hold a press conference on Friday to introduce Morfessis to Rhode Islanders.
In an October opinion piece published in The Arizona Republic, Morfessis provided some insight into her vision for economic development. She said states must entice businesses with incentives, and pointed to Texas as a model to emulate, citing its diverse industry base and its $185 million investment in emerging technologies.
Morfessis also praised Florida’s economy for its emphasis on supporting nascent industries and its lack of a corporate-income tax on limited partnerships and subchapter S corporations.
“Without an economic-development vision, aggressive incentive arsenal and the will to wage battle and win important economic-development opportunities, Arizona will remain vulnerable to economic cycles,” she wrote.
Additional information is available at riedc.com.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Ioanna Morfessis’ opinion piece appeared in The Arizona Republic on Monday; the article was published in October.
2 quick thoughts:
1) You get what you pay for! I wish her good fortune. There is no acceptable reason why our beautiful state can’t outperform others.
2) I am so glad she is an outsider! I have been here long enough to consider myself an insider, and I have to constantly fight the inclination to mentally thrown in the towel and leave the state to the unions and to our dyfunctional self-interested legislature so they can pick over the remaining bones on the carcass. I hope she can inspire me to think otherwise!
I’m also of the opinion that anyone who comes to Rhode Island from Phoenix should be carefully monitored and checked. Having lived and worked in Phoenix before, I can say personally that its ridiculous growth over the last 15-20 years was built purely on economic principles that would ruin Rhode Island: sprawling, speculative, car-centered development based on cheap construction and an abundance of useless desert land that costs nothing to buy, and fueled by the domination of big box corporate businesses that have left the small business community all but extinct. The entire city, about 70 miles of oppressive suburban development from end to end, is uniformly developed in the style of Bald Hill Road in Warwick. Things like smart growth, historic preservation, and open space preservation mean absolutely nothing there, and the icing on the cake is that even after giving away the store, they’re one of the only states in worse shape than Rhode Island anyway. Most of the patterns that allowed this to happen in Phoenix were designed on this woman’s watch, and now she’ll be running the economic show in Rhode Island. Keep a close eye on her.