Friday will be Stephen Moret’s last day on the job as secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, a position he’s held for the last seven years.
As he prepares to take on new challenges as the next president and CEO of the LSU Foundation, Moret is providing Daily Report with an exclusive three-part series of columns. In the first, Moret says his team at LED began its work in 2008 with a single goal: positioning Louisiana for a brighter economic future.
“We have worked to transform LED into a fast, creative, and solution-oriented partner for corporate executives and site-selection consultants, as well as a champion for existing Louisiana employers,” Moret writes. “Since 2008, LED has worked collaboratively with local and regional partners to secure economic development projects that are yielding more than 91,000 new direct and indirect jobs, $62 billion in capital investment, and billions of dollars in new sales for small businesses statewide.”
Citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Moret says Louisiana’s private-sector employment growth since January 2008 ranks second best in the South and seventh best in the U.S.
“One of our early actions at LED was creating our state’s first dedicated business expansion and retention group, which focuses exclusively on supporting the health, competitiveness, retention, and growth of Louisiana’s existing companies,” Moret says. “Proactively meeting with hundreds of companies every year, this team has helped secure more than 175 expansion projects since 2008, such as those with Cheniere, Crest Industries, Folgers, Gardner Denver, Hayes Manufacturing, P&G, Metal Shark Boats, and TCI.”
While LED successfully has competed for a variety of manufacturing projects that are helping spur the biggest manufacturing investment boom in Louisiana history, Moret says his team’s most notable work has been successful efforts to diversify Louisiana’s economy.
“For example, LED has secured major aerospace industry projects, such as the new Bell Helicopter Jet Ranger X manufacturing facility in Lafayette and the AAR aircraft MRO project in Lake Charles. LED also has secured a wide array of agribusiness and bio-energy projects, such as ConAgra Foods and Drax Biomass,” he writes. “The software development industry, a top LED target, has become the fastest-growing industry sector in Louisiana. Leading technology companies have announced major job-creating projects in Louisiana, such as CGI in Lafayette, CenturyLink in Monroe, CSC in Bossier, EA in Baton Rouge, GE Capital in New Orleans, IBM in Baton Rouge and Monroe, and others that collectively are creating more than 4,500 new, direct tech jobs in our state. In our entire state’s history, there has never been a better time than today for our college graduates to secure technology jobs right here at home.”
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Editor’s note: Stephen Moret is wrapping up his last week as secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, a position he’s held since 2008. In an exclusive, three-column series for Daily Report, Moret reflects on his tenure at LED (Part 1); makes the case for robust, diversified economic growth to be Louisiana’s top goal (Part 2); and offers a roadmap for how to accomplish that goal (Part 3).
