(Updated, 3:45 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Local businessman and former political candidate James Bennett will steer the city of Providence’s economic development efforts, Mayor Angel Taveras announced Monday.
Bennett fills the role of economic development director, a position that Taveras, as a candidate, pledged to appoint. Bennett is scheduled to start work on Aug. 29 and collect a $150,000 annual salary.
Bennett is president of electronics distributor Madison Components. From 1994 to 2007, he served as president of Mitkem Corp., an environmental testing company that he founded and sold to Spectrum Analytical in 2007. He also served as chief operating officer of Coast-to-Coast Analytical and as president of Ceimic Corporation, which he also founded.
During a news conference, Taveras said Bennett had the experience necessary to create jobs during a time of economic strife. And he said that Bennett’s long history in Rhode Island would lend him the connections needed to “hit the ground running.”
Bennett will oversee the departments of Arts, Culture and Tourism, Planning and Development, Inspections and Standards, and Zoning and Licensing as well as the Workforce Development Board.
“It’s time to bring [these departments] all together and it’s time to have one person focused on how to create jobs,” Taveras said.
In comments to reporters, Bennett said he wanted to strengthen economic development at the Port of Providence by building the infrastructure to unload containers and ship them to inland locations by train. He also called for the creation of a zoning process easier to navigate.
And he said that the city should reach out to people with Rhode Island roots that hold influence in steering investments and jobs.
“The tentacles from Rhode Island are all over the world,” he said. “It’s up to us to put those puzzle pieces together.”
Bennett knows some of those tentacles well. Earlier this year, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee appointed Bennett chairman of the R.I. Convention Center Authority, a position he has already held from 1999 to 2001. Connections made through that job, which Bennett plans to maintain, will help the city, he said.
He is also no stranger to the political system. He had been rumored to be in the running to lead the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, a job that eventually went to Keith W. Stokes. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in the Republican primary in 2002 where he lost to eventual Gov. Donald L. Carcieri. He also lost a 1998 challenge to Democrat Paul Tavares for state General Treasurer.
Bennett is also well known for his hockey connections. The Brown University graduate played hockey for the Ivy League school and was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. He played for the Atlanta Flames and also was the hockey coach at the University of Rhode Island and Providence Country Day School. His father, Harvey Bennett, played 14 seasons for the Providence Reds.
