A consulting firm will be hired to find an executive director for the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Board if the position is not filled in the next two months.
The executive director's job has been vacant since July 2001, when Cliff Brumfield resigned to open Performance Tire.
Donnie Brock, chairman of the industrial board, said not much progress had been made in finding Brumfield's successor. "We've interviewed one person, and that was some time back," Brock said.
He said he had spoken to some potential candidates in other places who had expressed an interest in moving, but they went elsewhere.
The board has kept in contact with the Mississippi Development Authority to find people who might be interested in such a job, but that hasn't been successful either, he said.
Plans are to advertise the job opening in the next two issues of the Mississippi Business Journal and possibly buy ads in a regional publication as well, Brock said. He added that the next issue of the Mississippi Business Journal will be spotlighting the Delta.
Brock said if no replacement is found in the next 60 days, a professional service will be hired to conduct the search. He said the most likely choice would be the Pace Group of Tupelo.
The board used Pace about 12 years ago to fill another position. Pace normally conducts nationwide searches, finds candidates that might be a good fit and then narrows them down to a list of about five people for interviewing, Brock said.
John Lovorn, the president and chief executive officer of Pace, also knows Greenwood. As a former executive director of the Industrial Board, he helped bring in several industries that are still here, Brock said.
Lovorn then went to Tupelo to open a private construction business and later formed his search company.
Brock said he wants to do the search right and use the taxpayers' money wisely. "We want to be pretty selective in this process and get the right person," he said.
Hiring consultants can be expensive. If a person is hired from a consulting firm's pool of candidates, that firm typically charges about 30 percent of the new employee's first-year salary.
More experienced economic developers can demand more money. However, Brock said, Brumfield had little experience in economic development when he was hired and he became one of the state's best in his field.
