Regional Marketing Entity Announces Board Members

MONTGOMERY, Ala., JACKSON, Miss., BATON ROUGE, La., TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  – The Aerospace Alliance, a regional marketing partnership whose purpose is to communicate the aviation and aerospace experience and capabilities of the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and Northwest Florida expressed its support of a dual-source procurement process in the Air Force’s $35 billion dollar tanker contract. If the federal government buys tankers from both bidding entities, replacing the Air Force’s aging tanker fleet would be accomplished much faster with companies building up to 36 tankers per year as opposed to a rate of 12 per year. Dual procurement could also create up to 100,000 jobs throughout all 50 states, including thousands of jobs in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. These high-paying jobs would help stimulate the economy for the next several decades.

In October 2009, Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced the formation of The Aerospace Alliance as a world-class aerospace, space and aviation corridor. Northwest Florida joined the Alliance soon after. In supporting the overall mission of the four-state alliance, Florida Governor Charlie Crist said, “I applaud The Aerospace Alliance’s efforts to showcase the region’s aviation and aerospace assets and its singular focus on accelerating job creation at a time when job creation is job one.  Working together, our states can make the Gulf Coast region a worldwide hub for aviation and aerospace excellence.”

The Aerospace Alliance states are working to seize opportunities to grow the aerospace and defense sector and attract more jobs and suppliers to the region. The Alliance will highlight the region’s assets which include more than 220,000 aerospace and defense employees working in the more than 950 aerospace and defense companies in the Alliance states.  Average earnings per aerospace/defense worker in the Alliance region are just over $87,500 dollars per year.  These earnings have an economic impact of $6.4 billion dollars in the region. With thousands more jobs related to the tanker, that number in the four states could rise significantly. If dual source procurement is followed, jobs would also be created in the U.S. Midwest and the Pacific Northwest also.  The Aerospace Alliance members, who include business leaders, economic development professionals and government officials, will advocate for policies, programs and specific aerospace projects on the local, state and national levels.

The organization recently ratified its Board of Directors, which includes:

• Neal Wade, Alabama Development Office (ADO): Wade is a veteran economic developer who was appointed by Gov. Riley as director of the ADO.
• Gray Swoope, Mississippi Development Authority (MDA): Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Swoope as the executive director of MDA, the state’s leading economic and community development agency.
• Jerry St. Pe’, St. Pe’ and Associates, LLC:  St. Pe’ is former president of Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and retired executive vice-president of the shipyard’s parent company, Litton Industries.
• Gary Smith, PowerSouth: Smith was appointed PowerSouth’s president and chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2000.
• Daniel A. (Dan) Grafton: retired president and CEO of Madison, Miss. – based L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace (L-3 Vertex), previously Raytheon Aerospace Company, one of the largest aerospace and technical services companies in the world.
• Representative George Gregory Cromer, State of Louisiana House of Representatives: Cromer is employed by GeoCent.
• Don Pierson, Louisiana Economic Development (LED): Pierson has served as LED’s assistant secretary and chief business development officer since January 2005.
• Susan Story, Gulf Power: Story serves as president and CEO of the Northwest Florida-based Gulf Power Company.
• Britt Greene, The St. Joe Company:  Greene serves as president and CEO of St. Joe, which is one of the largest private landowners in the State of Florida.
• Al Wenstrand, Florida’s Great Northwest:  Florida’s Great Northwest represents the economic development interests of the 16 county region of northwest Florida; Wenstrand serves as president.

The Aerospace Alliance states are already home to some of the world’s most advanced aerospace installations, a number of key NASA facilities and numerous military installations critical to Department of Defense flight missions and training as well as manufacturers of helicopters, missile defense systems, composite aircraft structures and engine components and many R&D firms. The Alliance states are also home to some of the country’s leading aerospace and defense educational facilities. The Aerospace Alliance states will work together to grow the aerospace, aviation, space and defense industries in the region.