J. Michael Saul, executive director of the Urban Revitalization Fund (TURF), has been named the managing director of finance programs for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. His first order of business will be a comprehensive review of the state’s financing tools, with an eye to updating them.
“Many of Rhode Island’s current financing programs are outdated and reflect old assumptions about what a business needs to grow,” said Saul in a statement released by the RIEDC. “We have an important opportunity to take stock of what is working and what’s not, and to design and implement a set of financing programs that will create a stronger economy and better job opportunities for all Rhode Islanders.”
Saul was the founder and director of the Minority Investment Development Corporation, chair of the Rhode Island Urban Project, and Trustee and Development Committee chair of the Providence Performing Arts Center.
In January, TURF formed an alliance with the RIEDC designed to make their respective financing programs support one another (READ MORE.
“Creating a set of financing tools that optimally address Rhode Island’s economic challenges and opportunities is critical to growing a 21st century innovation economy that produces higher wage jobs at every wage level,” said RIEDC Executive Director Saul Kaplan in a statement.
