On Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret’s last day on the job, Gov. Bobby Jindal has announced the agency’s second-in-command will take over as the new secretary.
Steven Grissom has served as LED deputy secretary since 2008. He’ll take over as secretary on Monday, the same day Moret begins his new job as president and CEO of the LSU Foundation.
“It is a privilege to be entrusted with the duties and responsibilities of leading the highly skilled LED team,” says Grissom in a prepared statement. “I am excited to continue my involvement in LED’s important work of positioning Louisiana for continued economic momentum, and I am grateful for the governor’s confidence in my abilities to lead the department.”
Jindal says that since his administration took office in January 2008, Moret and Grissom have been key in making the state’s economic development agency a growing success.
“LED has become one of America’s most respected state economic development agencies. We have been able to attract a wide variety of high-quality economic development projects, many of which would have seemed like remote possibilities only a few years ago,” Jindal says in a prepared statement. “As a key part of LED’s leadership team, Steven Grissom has prepared himself to lead the agency. His in-depth knowledge of Louisiana’s growth potential and the leadership he has demonstrated in his role as deputy secretary have uniquely positioned him to take on the duties and challenges of secretary.”
Moret says he has no doubt Grissom—who served as executive vice president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber prior to joining LED—will continue to build upon the successes LED has achieved over the past seven years.
“Steven has played a pivotal role in the transformation of LED and in nearly all our top business development wins. He is widely respected inside and outside the department for his intelligence, judgment, business savvy, and management abilities,” Moret says. “Gov. Jindal could not have made a better choice to continue the important work of LED.”
Prior to his work at BRAC, Grissom was director of corporate development for The Shaw Group and a management consultant with the Houston office of McKinsey & Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from LSU and an MBA from Rice University.
