Leadership Team "a go" at Greenlight Greater Portland.

Local and National Talent Named VPs of Marketing, Research and Business Development

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Tim Priest, CEO of Greenlight Greater Portland, today announced two major appointments to the organization's executive leadership team. Gillian Floren will become vice president

Floren comes to Greenlight Greater Portland from Oregon Business magazine, where she served as editor for six years and most recently as publisher for the past three and a half. There, she was responsible for leading the magazine's growth both in stature and in revenues over the past decade. Floren's most recent accomplishment as head of the statewide business magazine was orchestrating a three-week tour of the state, bringing together hundreds of business and government leaders in 18 Oregon communities to generate a cross-state dialogue about Oregon's economic future.

"The greater Portland-Vancouver region is going to continue to grow," Floren says. "The more thoughtful and directive we can be in facilitating that growth by building on our strengths, the more successful the region will be. I look forward to collaborating with existing businesses and organizations to strengthen the region's identity and promote that within and outside the Portland-Vancouver area."

Priest also successfully recruited Pedigo, his former colleague from Washington, D.C., to lead Greenlight Greater Portland's research and business attraction efforts. Pedigo was formerly the research director at the Greater Washington Initiative, where Priest was most recently executive director. He will now develop the research that will focus the organization's work to bring businesses to the Portland-Vancouver area.

Pedigo brings a wealth of experience about the new knowledge economy. While at Carnegie Mellon University, he trained with economist Richard Florida, who developed the creative class theory and wrote the best-selling book The Rise of the Creative Class. The creative class theory states that regions with high concentrations of creative and knowledge professionals -- those engaged in arts, design, innovation, etc. -- have an economic advantage over other metropolitan areas. The greater Portland-Vancouver metro area is considered by many to have a vibrant and growing creative class.

"In greater Washington, Tim and I emphasized research on the region's knowledge workforce, as well as international commerce and culture," said Pedigo. "These studies earned prominent media coverage and contributed to the successful attraction of more than 40 companies to the region in two years. I'm eager to begin exploring similar subjects in the area, to highlight greater Portland's many distinctive selling points."

With the benefit of solid research and dedicated communications efforts, Greenlight Greater Portland's first-class leadership team will devote itself to marketing the greater Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area to businesses nationally and internationally.

"We're proud to be able to attract leaders of Gillian's and Steven's caliber," said Priest. "Their professional stature will be a great advantage as we identify and appeal to exactly the types of businesses that will help this area build a strong base of high-wage, sustainable businesses."

Greenlight Greater Portland is a predominately private-sector group devoted to fostering the sustained economic vitality of the four-county region of Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington counties in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington. Led by the area's top business leaders, Greenlight Greater Portland introduces new businesses to the wide range of enviable resources here: industrial, human, natural, financial and technological. Visit us online at www.greenlightgreaterportland.com.