Darin M. Early | R.I. Commerce Corp., president and chief operating officer
Darin M. Early’s reorganization of the R.I. Commerce Corp. has helped the Ocean State attract new companies and jobs, lending substance to Rhode Island’s effort to rebrand the agency.
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“Darin has helped craft the strategies and direct the initiatives that we are undertaking in order to attract and grow businesses in Rhode Island,” since coming aboard in 2015, said Stefan Pryor, Rhode Island’s secretary of commerce.
Moving the agency in that direction required recruiting new staffers focused on five verticals under what Pryor characterized as a new era for the quasi-public entity.
Commerce RI was known as the R.I. Economic Development Corp. until the General Assembly changed its name in 2014. The change distanced the organization from its participation in the 38 Studios LLC scandal, which saw the EDC approve $75 million in state-backed bonds for Curt Schilling’s venture that had to be paid back by taxpayers when the video game company went bankrupt (subsequent lawsuits recouped nearly two-thirds of the outstanding total).
Under Early’s leadership, the group has bolstered that new label with a string of successes demonstrating that changes run deeper than a name.
And businesses are taking notice.
Virgin Pulse announced plans to expand in Providence in December 2016. Soon thereafter Johnson & Johnson announced plans to open an office locally as well. General Electric capitalized on agency incentives to begin recruiting for 100 jobs to staff a new GE Digital office in Providence in June 2016. And in February, United Natural Foods Inc. announced plans to expand in Providence, hiring up to 100 new full-timers in 2018 and another 150 by 2020.
“I commend him for the important role he is playing in Rhode Island’s economic revival,” Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said.
“What we’re starting to see now are the fruits of our labor,” Early said.
Early said the corporation wasn’t well-organized to foster economic development, with no tools in the toolbox. “We really walked into a situation that was extremely chaotic,” Early said.
Early set up five focus areas: financial services, investment, business development, branding and marketing, and tourism. He recruited staff and assigned them to each, doubling the number of employees at the agency to 60. They started working on their respective strategies, each facing unique hurdles.
The financial-services team faced an unwieldy process for responding to requests for letters of good standing proving businesses have met their tax obligations, which is needed to sell or transfer or sell major assets.
“There was a long backlog,” Early said, which likely had to do with the 250 steps required to qualify for a letter. Whittled down to just 30 steps, business-development efforts gained traction.
Commerce RI also has focused attention on educating the state’s workforce with the Pathways in Technology Early College High School initiative, which provides college-level courses for high schoolers, combined with internships and mentoring, graduating them with a diploma and industry-approved associate degree.
In the same vein, the corporation’s Wavemaker Fellowship provides a financial incentive for graduates pursuing a career or starting a business in Rhode Island in technology and other key sectors.
“From any perspective, the state is now competitive,” Early said. “Rhode Island is now on the map, so to speak. It is in the conversation.”
Raimondo said the state has “made it easier to do business in Rhode Island, and we are experiencing real progress. Rhode Island companies have added thousands of new jobs and private-sector employment is at an all-time high. Our unemployment is the lowest since May 2001 and below the national average for the first time since 2005.”
Early has worked on turnarounds before. Before moving to the R.I. Commerce Corp., he worked with private investors. During part of his time at Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc., he managed investments of the $15 billion redevelopment of the World Trade Center.
Pryor, who recruited Early, credits his leadership at Commerce RI as a reason the state moved into a more-competitive economic position.
“Darin has been critical as we have established and launched our new tools and programs. … [He] has been vital to carrying out the economic-development mission of the agency,” Pryor said.
