PAT FORD

DAVISVILLE, W.Va. — Pat Ford has been named vice president of the West Virginia Polymer Alliance Zone.

Ford brings more than three decades of business development and external affairs experience in the private and public sectors to the role. Among his many roles, Ford has served as executive director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle.

“Pat Ford is an accomplished business leader with a proven record of moving projects from conception to ribbon cuttings,” said Keith Burdette, the organization’s president. “Pat’s experience and variety of skill sets will enable him to identify and pursue projects with full knowledge of local, state and federal regulatory landscapes and funding streams. We are very excited to have Pat join our team.”

Ford said he was looking forward to the opportunity.

“I am grateful to Keith Burdette and the PAZ board of directors for providing me with the opportunity to serve as vice president of West Virginia’s largest regional economic development organization,” he explained. “Promoting the PAZ region to manufacturers and building upon the organization’s 30 years of success in creating new, good-paying jobs and an improved quality of life is exciting and I’m thrilled to join the team.”

His roles span directing external affairs and business development to vice president of a TOP 500 consulting engineering company as listed in the Engineering News-Record, in the private sector, to cabinet appointments in metropolitan city administrations and executive director in nonprofit economic development organizations in the public sector.

Ford was recently the director of external affairs and business development for the Dilliner, Pa.-based SAFECO Environmental Inc. and, prior to this role, held the same position for the Buffalo, N.Y.-based Frontier Group of Companies. In this role for both companies, Ford was involved in the repurposing of former coal-fired power plants, paper mills, steel mills and other brownfields in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas.

Prior to his work in the private sector, Ford served as the executive director of two nonprofit economic development organizations with strong financial footings. Ford expanded workforce initiatives, established abandoned and dilapidated building removal programs and was responsible for razing and repurposing dozens of brownfield properties.

Ford’s professional accomplishments include closing the Deal of the Week in the Wall Street Journal, Small Business Champion of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Land Stewardship and Collaboration and recognition from the Brownfields Renewal Magazine, United States House of Representatives, West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Virginia Citizens’ Planning Association.

PAZ’s mission is to create jobs and an improved quality of life by expanding the manufacturing base in Jackson, Mason, Pleasants, Tyler, Cabell, Wayne, Wood, Wetzel, Marshall and Ohio counties.