THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090243
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Richard Glen ``Rick'' Watson, a 44-year-old management expert from Bladen County, was named Monday as the executive director of the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission.
Watson will go to work Feb. 1 in the commission's headquarters in Hertford at $75,000 a year, said Pasquotank County Commissioner Jimmy Dixon, chairman of the Albemarle pump-priming organization.
``We spent a lot of time looking for Rick Watson, and we believe we found the right man,'' Dixon said.
Watson said he would resign this week as the director of the Bladen County Economic Development Commission at Elizabethtown, the county seat.
``I notified the county manager of my plans several days ago,'' Watson said.
The northeast commission has been without a director since August, when the panel abruptly fired James Lancaster Jr., the executive director, and Estelle ``Bunny'' Sanders, who ran the group's tourist division.
Lancaster and Sanders were let go after months of squabbling over territorial authority between the two managers and the commissioners themselves. Each director was paid $59,000 annually.
Watson has a degree in business administration from Barton College in Wilson - where he was born - and has spent most of his adult life in management positions and as an economic developer with the North Carolina Department of Commerce. He also studied economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Watson was one of three finalists for the position, Dixon said.
``The full board of commissioners and the executive committee decided on Rick Watson this month, and we made him an offer last week,'' he said. In addition to the $75,000 salary, Watson will receive ``a full package of benefits.''
Watson became head of the Bladen County Economic Development Commission in July 1994 and produced a 15-point list of goals designed to bring more business to the area. Several members of the northeast commission suggested that at least some of the goals could apply to the Albemarle.
Bladen County has a population of about 30,000, said Watson, and during his tenure with the Bladen development commission the number of diversified industries that were located in the community reached 50.
``Bladen has DuPont and also the state's largest food-processing plant under one roof,'' Watson said.
Bladen is bounded by Sampson, Robeson, Cumberland, Pender and Columbus counties in southeastern North Carolina, and is split between the 1st and the 7th congressional districts. Most of the counties served by the northeast economic commission are in the 1st or the 3rd districts.
Watson describes himself as ``single with a 20-year-old son.'' For now, he said, he will probably rent a home in the Hertford area. by CNB