Contact: Stuart Doyle
(407) 956-5689
sdoyle@eflorida.com

Enterprise Florida announces Griff Salmon as executive vice president, COO

ORLANDO, Fla. (Nov. 2, 2011) – Griff Salmon will join Enterprise Florida as the corporation’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective December 2, reporting to President & CEO Gray Swoope.

“The newly created role of the EVP/COO will oversee Enterprise Florida’s operations and support me as I fulfill my obligations as Florida’s secretary of commerce as well as chief executive of Enterprise Florida,” President & CEO Gray Swoope.  “Griff’s broad experience will allow us to better serve a state as large and diverse as Florida.”

Salmon, 38, currently is the director of the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA)’s Global Business division, which generates new investment into Mississippi and promotes that state’s products in markets worldwide.  In this position he also has managed both the agency’s Investment Bureau, which markets Mississippi to domestic and international businesses, and its Trade Bureau, which provides international marketing and export development consulting services to the state’s businesses.  Additionally, he has managed MDA’s international offices in Chile, China, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, which support the agency’s global marketing efforts as they pertain to both trade and business recruitment.

Previously, Salmon was a congressional liaison and project manager in the Federal Congressional Liaison Bureau.  In this role he worked closely with the Department of Defense in support of military bases targeted for BRAC closures, helping them to operate more cost-effectively.  The result was cost-savings to the government and continuing operations at those bases.

A Mississippi native, Salmon earned a master’s degree in public policy administration at Mississippi State University and a B.S. from Millsaps College, located in Jackson, Miss. 

He is a member of the Mississippi Economic Development Council, the Industrial Asset Management Council and CoreNet Global.

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Enterprise Florida, Inc. (www.eflorida.com) is a partnership between Florida's business and government leaders and is the principal economic development organization for the state of Florida.  Headquartered in Orlando, Enterprise Florida’s mission is to diversify Florida’s economy and create better paying jobs for its citizens by supporting, attracting and helping to create globally competitive businesses in innovative, high-growth industries. In pursuit of its mission, Enterprise Florida works closely with a statewide network of economic development partners and is funded both by the State of Florida and by private-sector businesses.

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