Paulette Hicks (image submittedz)
The new Regional Economic Development Agency for Greater Saint John has found its new CEO. The agency announced Tuesday that Paulette Hicks will be its first Chief Executive Officer. She will begin her new role on February 8.
Hicks is well known in the city’s business community through her work as general manager of the Delta Hotel in Saint John and as a community volunteer. She has served on boards for groups like the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI), Living Saint John, Discover Saint John, and the Saint John Airport.
She says her passion for seeing the region grow is what drove her to apply for the job.
“I have always worked in this space as part of my role at the hotel on economic development, on social files, cultural files. Anything that is about making our community better and finding growth, I’ve always been very attracted to that,” said Hicks in an interview with Huddle. “When this new position and this new agency came together under the collaboration under the entire region, I just felt the timing was right and I’m pretty excited about it.”
The agency’s board chair, Cynthia Goodwin, said Hicks was an “outstanding choice” for the position.
“She is a bold thinker who knows this community well from her many years in business and as a leading volunteer with many groups including the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI), Living Saint John and the Saint John Airport,” said Goodwin in a news release. “Her work as President of the Saint John Hotel Association and on the boards of both Discover Saint John and Enterprise Saint John make her uniquely qualified to lead this new agency.”
At the City of Saint John’s Growth Committee meeting on Tuesday, Saint John Mayor Don Darling said expressed his excitement for the new agency and Hick’s appointment.
“I’m excited by the appointment of the new CEO and recognizing that it was a national search I’m sure the committee and the board went through an exhaustive approach to ultimately select someone who I think is the epitome of the type of leader we need to lead this organization,” said Darling.
The new Regional Economic Development Agency for Greater Saint John, which was announced over the summer, brings together the former Discover Saint John, Develop Saint John and Economic Development Greater Saint John, and population growth, into one coordinated and collaborative agency. This means having one team, one board, one mandate, and one budget.
“The reality is it’s still going to be about growth. It’s about attracting new people to live here to live in our region and new businesses. It’s about attracting a workforce that supports our current businesses, it’s about attracting visitors. All those fundamentals are still there,” said Hicks.
“What’s different is it’s all coming under one umbrella and it’s not going to be three separate entities and three separate teams … And it’s about multiple partners, not just the City of Saint John. It’s about the entire region. I think what makes it different is that we’re competing against the world and we’re stronger together.”
As CEO, Hicks will lead a team of professionals in the new agency, which has support and funding from St. Martins, Hampton, Quispamsis, Rothesay, Grand-Bay Westfield, and Saint John, along with private-sector stakeholders and the provincial government.
This means organizations like Develop Saint John and Discover Saint John, which typically had focused just on Saint John, will broaden their mandates to include everywhere from Grand-Bay Westfield to Hampton.
“I think when we go out and we’re marketing, whether it’s new businesses, whether it’s new investment, whether it’s to attract more visitors as we recover from Covid-19, I think this is a great opportunity to have this united front and this really strong approach to building a strategy that is for the entire region,” said Hicks.
The agency officially launched on January 1 and the transition into the new organization will take place over the coming months, including a new organizational structure and new brand. Though the organizations are still in separate offices around the city, the plan is to eventually have everyone located in one place.
“There are lots to do as it related to the transition process, and all of that is certainly something we’re looking at. From what the co-location will be, building the strategic plan as it relates to the priorities in the entire region,” said Hicks. “But our commitment is to keep people up to date and share our key milestones as we achieve them.”
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
