After serving as executive director of business development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber for the past five years, Iain Vasey is moving on to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he will lead the city’s Regional Economic Development Corporation as president and CEO.
Vasey will wrap us his work with BRAC at the end of this month and start in his new role early next month. The move is “bittersweet,” Vasey says, as he wasn’t looking to leave Baton Rouge but was approached with an offer he ultimately could not refuse.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity. There’s not many CEO level positions open in places with this type of potential,” he says.
Over Vasey’s tenure in Baton Rouge, the area has landed a great many economic development wins. But he says he’s more proud of the development of the BRAC team over the past five years than any particular project he helped secure.
“The biggest accomplishment has been building and working with the economic development team,” he says. “Without doubt, I can say the team we have now is the best in the South. So, it’s the people that really stand out versus any of the deals we’ve been able to land.”
In a prepared statement, BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp congratulates Vasey and says he was instrumental to the organization’s success over the past five years.
“He possesses great instincts for the work—particularly in assessing viability of prospective deals. During his tenure at BRAC, he contributed significantly to the Capital Region’s growth and we’ve enjoyed some very successful years while he has been with us,” Knapp says. “It’s been a team approach too, and he has helped us build our bench depth among BRAC’s business development team, so we foresee continued success from the team who have been making it happen for years.”
—Steve Sanoski
