Segers Aero Corporation to Relocate
North American Headquarters to Fairhope, AL

Bob Higgins Selected Alabama's
FBLA Businessperson of the Year

Bob Higgins, Vice President of Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, has been selected Alabama Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Businessperson of the Year.  Bob will travel to the annual FBLA National Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on June 26 to accept and be recognized for his contributions to Alabama FBLA members. 

Higgins is chairman of the Career Technical Education Advisory Councils to the Alabama Department of Education and to the Baldwin County Board of Education.  He also is Chairman of the Business & Marketing Education Advisory Committee to the Alabama State Department of Education, Chairman of the Alabama FBLA/DECA Foundation, Co-Chair of the Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council, and a member of the Faulkner State Community College Business Advisory Council.

"I am a firm believer in the value of having business and business people in front of students and faculty as much as possible," he said.  "I am also a firm believer that our young people ARE our future, and as businesses we need to continue to invest in them."

Higgins played a lead role in significantly upgrading the business membership on the Alabama Business Marketing Education Advisory Council with new members like the Business Council of Alabama, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama.  He worked with the Council to develop strong, effective local advisory councils.

Last fall, he put together a focus group of key marketing executives from companies throughout Southwest Alabama to help define the next generation of marketing education.  The group identified topics that could be deleted and several that needed to be added to prepare students for a successful marketing career.  The results of this work will appear throughout the state in a brand new course of study starting in the fall of 2009.

The FBLA National Leadership Conference includes national competitive events, national officer candidate campaigning and workshops for the students to demonstrate their Leadership in Action.  Bob will serve as a judge for the event:  Emerging Business Issues.

Baldwin County Economy In Top 4% In 2008 POLICOM Rankings

Each year, POLICOM Corporation of Palm City, Florida, analyzes the economic strength of 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas containing 1092 counties, and 577 Micropolitan Statistical Areas containing 694 counties. 

According to the company’s ECONOMIC STRENGTH RANKINGS–2008, and accompanying information presented by William H. Fruth of POLICOM, Baldwin County, Alabama (designated as the Daphne-Fairhope Micropolitan Area) ranked 25^th out of the 577 Micros—putting it in the top 4% of the 694 counties.  Fruth's report states "The top rated areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period of time."

After analyzing said reports, Robert Ingram, President of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, relates that this is the fifth consecutive year that Baldwin County has ranked in the Top 40 Micro Areas.  “POLICOM uses dozens of factors to analyze the quality of the economy, the behavior of the economy, and negative aspects of the economy,” Ingram stated.

“Growth rates, including some ‘moving averages’ in certain categories are combined with pure numbers and numerical growth in other categories to rank the Micro counties in over 100 categories.  Baldwin County placed in the Top 10 in six of the categories, was the #1 ranked Micro in Alabama and was the highest ranked Micro in a 6 state region, which includes Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama. 

“The Baldwin County EDA’s Board and Staff are grateful to Baldwin County’s great public and private leadership, and to our investors who play such a vital role in creating a strong, viable economy which continues to rank among the best in the US,” concluded Ingram.

The Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance is a public/private partnership, which works with all five chambers of commerce, our 13 towns & cities, their Industrial Development Boards, and our county government on economic development initiatives.    Our mission is to implement an economic development program that improves the standard of living and quality of life for the residents of Baldwin County.

The full report is posted on www.policom.com.

Board of Directors Spotlight
Donna Givens, Governmental Affairs/Economic Development
Baldwin EMC

Donna Givens, Governmental Affairs/Economic Development for Baldwin EMC where she has worked for 34 years.  Donna is the Chairman of the Alliance Board of Directors for 2008. 

Donna has served on the Alliance Board for the past 5 years as Vice Chair, and on our Executive Committee.  Her other community involvements include:  Past Chairman of the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, Past Chairman of the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Board of Baldwin County United, Chairman of Baldwin County Sheriff's Personnel Grievance Board, Commissioner of the USS Alabama, Toastmasters Club, Baldwin County Bicentennial Board, Baldwin County Zoning Board, Baldwin County Public Transit Coalition, Governmental Affairs Committee & Marketing Committee for the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, Rotary and the Baldwin County Emergency Food and Shelter Board.

Donna is married to Alton Givens.  She is the mother of one daughter and three sons.   She and Alton have 6 grandchildren.  She is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Loxley where she serves on several committees.

Welcome, Alex Jones