Baton Rouge Area Chamber executive Jared Smith, who also serves as chairman of the Baton Rouge Metro Airport Commission, is leaving his native Louisiana for a top position with the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, an economic development organization in southeast Nevada.
Smith, who has been BRAC’s director of economic development for East Baton Rouge Parish since 2011, says he didn’t want to leave Baton Rouge but was approached about the position earlier this year and the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“It’s a great opportunity and a chance to move forward in my career,” says Smith. “I love Baton Rouge. This was just a career decision.”
In his new role, Smith will serve as Chief Operating Officer for the LVGEA, a private, nonprofit organization focused on economic development in the region.
Though many associate Las Vegas exclusively with tourism and the casino industry, the region has a growing and increasingly diversified economy, which Smith says he will be working to cultivate.
“They are very much focused on their own target industries—some of which mirror what we do here, like digital media,” Smith says. “They also have a growing number of tech companies like Zappos and Tesla, both headquartered there. There are exciting new things going on all the time.”
Smith says he and his wife, a Baton Rouge native, have never lived out of state so he is looking forward to the new experience. But he is sad to leave his position at BRAC and his work as chairman of the airport commission.
During Smith’s tenure as chairman, the airport commissioned a study to try to determine how to stem passenger leakage to New Orleans and other airports, and how to increase utilization of the existing facility.
“They’re really working hard,” he says of the airport board and executives. “People don’t realize how hard they are trying.”
—Stephanie Riegel
