Former High Point Economic Development Corp. President Loren Hill knows a lot about economic development, but he knows absolutely nothing about retirement.
When people retire, they’re supposed to kick back, take it easy, head someplace warm and crack open a beer. Hill, who stepped down from his High Point post earlier this year, is still working and, this week, he was named a new board member of the North Carolina Economic Development Association (NCEDA).
Hill was elected to the 13-member board recently at the association’s annual conference.
The volunteer NCEDA Board of Directors governs the association made up of members who are in all sectors of economic development and in related professions. The board’s purpose is to serve the needs of the members in their effort to promote economic development in the state.
In mid-2020, Hill informed everyone that he would be stepping down from his long-held job heading up High Point economic development efforts – however, at that time he did hint that he would not ride off into the sunset.
Soon after his “retirement,” the Piedmont Triad Partnership named Hill as the regional economic development director for the Carolina Core. The Carolina Core is an effort to bring together and brand megasites, colleges and universities and other resources in central North Carolina. The Carolina Core is being marketed under that singular label to promote the area to business leaders across the world to lure new business to the state.
So, now Hill will have some more responsibilities in the field he’s spent most of his life engaged in.
Hill has served on the board before. He did so from 2013 to 2016. Now, he is coming in to fill a partial term of an NCEDA board member who moved onto the executive committee.
Hill said he was honored to be nominated by the past presidents and to be elected by the membership to serve again after his earlier three-year stint on the NCEDA Board of Directors.
“I will complete the one-year unexpired term of Joanna Helms, who was elected as an officer,” Hill stated.
He added, “For the last year – or more – there has been no NCEDA board member from any of the 17 counties of the Carolina Core.”
After he finished his term on the board in 2016, Hill served repeatedly on the planning committees for all three NCEDA conferences.
From January 2016 until December 2019, Hill represented North Carolina on the Board of Directors of the Southern Economic Development Council. Hill served for a time on the executive committee as Mid-Atlantic regional director.
Loren,
Wanna bring new business to the area? It is not necessary to bribe businesses. Just reduce taxes and regulation. Improve the infrastructure, roads, rail. Encourage a well-staffed and trained police dept. Who wants to live and work in a city with a higher murder rate than Portland, OR?
Teach or children how to make and fix things, not what to think.
That’ll do for openers.
“Encourage a well-staffed and trained police department”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah. They can’t get good applicants. No one wants to be a police officer. You need to rethink how police work. My local police is operating at about 60% their normal workforce because they cannot get people to apply. You need to make the job of being a police officer something people want to do.
That’s hard to do when the powers above know better than the police about handling criminals and 75% of certain people don’t respect the Police