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Isle economic
panel to recruit
high-salary boss

A top Florida exec is expected
to get as much as $300,000 to
create quality jobs on Oahu

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The nonprofit Oahu Economic Development Board is preparing to hire a top-notch business development professional, likely at a six-figure salary, to lead a new push to create well-paying, high-quality jobs on Oahu.

The prime candidate is Mike Fitzgerald, president and chief executive officer of the business development division of Enterprise Florida Inc., a government and private sector organization aimed at boosting Florida's economy, the Star-Bulletin has learned.

Robert F. Mougeot, the Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. financial vice president who is volunteer chairman of the OEDB, confirmed that the board is seeking to hire Fitzgerald. Sources close to the OEDB said his annual pay could be in the $200,000-$300,000 a year.

Mougeot declined to comment on that or discuss any salary figure, but he said the OEDB is in the process of talking to businesses to boost financial support for the hiring.

"He's a quality guy with 30 years experience and we're willing to pay for that," Mougeot said. "We're confident that we can raise the money."

Mougeot said the OEDB has strong support from businesses such as HEI, the Bank of Hawaii and GTE Hawaiian Tel as well as others involved in Oahu's progress, such as the Harold K. L. Castle Foundation and the Atherton Foundation.

GTE Hawaiian Tel spokesman Keith Kamisugi said his company is "very supportive of somebody of Mike Fitzgerald's caliber" and hopes that if he is hired, one of the things he might do is push for more viewing of a Hawaiian-Tel sponsored video, "Hawaii, the High-Tech Paradise."

Manuel C. "Manny" Menendez III, recently hired as executive director of the city's Office of Economic Development, said he welcomes such a hiring and has met Fitzgerald and discussed ways of working together.

"We discussed how we can work toward a common vision," given the limited local economic resources, Menendez said. Economic development efforts by the state, the city, other agencies and the private sector should be coordinated and have "a seamless look," Menendez said.

Mougeot said the OEDB anticpates "strong collaboration" from government agencies. "We're looking for this executive to drive the private-sector agenda, to coalesce the private sector and bring them together to do what we really need to do here on Oahu."

That, said Mougeot, is to make Oahu really competitive in the 21st century, to make it economically strong enough so its fortunes are no longer directed by outside forces. "We've identified a leader who can coalesce the different groups," and hope to have the funding in place within 30 days, Mougeot said.

"Ten years ago, when Hawaii was in its boom, we probably could not have mounted this effort," Mougeot said. The need for it wasn't recognized then, he said.

"Now, after eight or nine years of economic doldrums, we haven't seen any growth. There is a real recognition from both the private and public sectors that we have to take our destiny in our own hands," Mougeot said.

Fitzgerald, who could not be reached for comment, was in Honolulu this week and was introduced to legislators and others as the OEDB's "president-designate." Mougeot said "prime candidate" would be a better description, and while Fitzgerald is "a very strong candidate, we still have to reach agreement as to salary."

In his resume, Fitzgerald says that since he took the Florida job in July 1997, Enterprise Florida has retained and created 60,000 jobs, assisted in the development of $700 million in export business, attracted $3 billion in new investment and assisted 24,000 companies. His office is contracted to the State of Florida, employs 50 professionals, an $8 million annual budget and 12 international offices.

Before joining Enterprise Florida, he was director of the community, trade and economic development department of the State of Washington for three years and he spent many years in private and government economic-development consulting jobs before that in Seattle and in Montana.

The OEDB was formed in 1984, when Eileen Anderson was mayor of Honolulu, as a public-private partnership backed by such organizations as the Hawaii Business Roundtable. Mougeot, chairman since May 1 of last year, had served as OEDB chairman before and has a total of nearly four years in the post. In the spring of 1998, he successfully brought in the nonprofit foundations to back the effort. Mougeot convinced them that economic development was important because it boosts tax revenues and incomes, producing money to aid community efforts and build a better life for Hawaii's people.