New development authority director seeks to bring new jobs to area

Rob Hooper is on a mission to bring jobs to Northern Nevada.

Hooper was recently confirmed as the new executive director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority, and he has been busy trying to refocus the organization on bringing companies to the area as soon as possible.

"Where we sit right now is not the time for long-term strategy," Hooper said. "It's all about one thing " creating jobs, the right kind of jobs, the kind of jobs that pay well, that a young family can live on and have a future with."

Hooper cited the latest figures showing 11 percent unemployment in Carson City and 15 percent in Lyon County as an urgent call to action.

"I think the need for NNDA is greater now than it was before, because of the economic times were are in," he said. "We have to do a better job, we've got to make more jobs because we are losing them too fast right now."

Hooper came to Carson City four years ago at chief operations officer for Vitamin Research Products, Inc. In that position, he had his first exposure to NNDA as he worked with the organization to help with the company's expansion. He was asked to join the board, and then moved up to the executive board where he served as secretary.

"The fact that I participated in senior management of a manufacturing company here in Carson City gives me a completely different perspective," he said. "I didn't come up through the ranks of a lot of executive directors for organizations like this. They have a really different perspective than I do. I've taken head on the workforce issues, the shipping issues, the power issues, and the issues that have to do with running a company in this area. That puts me in a better position to relate to the companies thinking of relocating to this area."

Hooper's background is also a good fit for his new job. He spent 15 years as marketing director for Purgatory Ski Resort in Colorado, before moving on to handle marketing for a consumer products company in Southern California. He then ran his own marketing firm, where he said he handled accounts ranging from PepsiCo to Quantas Airlines to Baywatch.

Like a lot of the companies NNDA deals with, he came to Carson City to escape Southern California.

NNDA is the official economic development agency for Carson City, Lyon, Storey and Douglas counties. It is also an extension of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, and goes before the commission to present companies that are requesting incentives to move here, or expand their current operations.

Besides refocusing the organization on programs that bring quick results, Hooper is also working to create closer relationships between the different economic development agencies, to make sure they are all working towards the same goal.

Hooper is also reaching out to the business community to enlist their help to bring more companies to the area.

"I believe in Tom Sawyer-sim, in getting everyone else to help you paint the fence," he said. "There is no way one organization can do this by themselves. It takes a community getting involved in this process."

Part of this change is to create advisory committees representing different area industries, which can not only inform the organization on issues of importance to them, but they also get to select among themselves members to sit on the NNDA board.

"In the past, the board was comprised of people picked by the executive director," Hooper said.

These committees will help create target lists of companies to approach, and work with those companies to urge them to relocate.

"NNDA has in the past been working kind of in a vacuum, slugging away without that kind of help," Hooper said. "And we are reaching back to the community and soliciting their help. It gives us a big network, a big team to help us bring these companies in."

A lot of what NNDA does is to help guide companies through the process of relocating, which can be a daunting challenge working with all of the different agencies.

"I like to call what we do as being a hand-holding concierge," Hooper said. "We don't just point companies in the right direction, we hold their hands and go with them. Not only in the beginning, but for a long time. We are there for them in the future. There are companies that NNDA helped bring to the area years ago they are now working with to help with their expansions. It's a long, ongoing relationship."

- Contact reporter Kirk Caraway at kcaraway@nevadaappeal.com or (775) 881-1261.

At a glance

Next month, the Northern Nevada Development Authority will be hosting a tax day breakfast meeting featuring Sen. John Ensign, who contacted the group about putting the event together in order to communicate to the business community what is happening in Washington D.C. The event is April 15 at the Carson Nugget, with registration beginning at 7 a.m. and breakfast served at 7:30 a.m.

Call the NNDA office for details, 883-4413.