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Chamber official takes development job with Team NEO
By Karl Henkel
YOUNGSTOWN
Just as the city lost Mayor Jay Williams to Washington, a higher authority once again has taken a Mahoning Valley leader.
Walt Good, vice president of economic development, retention and expansion at the Youngstown/ Warren Regional Chamber, has accepted a position as a business-development director with Team Northeast Ohio in the newly established JobsOhio Regional Office in Northeast Ohio.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Good told The Vindicator. “It’s a good time for Northeast Ohio. We’ve seen a lot of activity related to the shale play. Manufacturing is seeing an uptick, not just here, but across the region.”
The shale reference is to expanded drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shales for natural gas in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Team NEO is one of six JobsOhio Network Regional Partners across the state. The regional office assists companies and communities in 18 counties, including Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull, that seek support from JobsOhio for growth and job creation.
Good, who will continue working in the region in his new position, spent 17 years at the chamber.
From 2004 through 2011, his office completed 156 projects, resulting in nearly $2 billion in new investments, 9,200 new jobs and 15,600 retained or maintained positions, according to Team NEO.
The most-prominent project is the $650 million V&M Star mill that is scheduled to be completed next year and create about 350 jobs.
“That project will be remembered as the beginning of a new growth era for the Mahoning Valley,” said Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the chamber, in a statement.
The chamber gave no immediate indication as to who would replace Good.