Economic Development for Central Oregon has a staff of nine professionals:
Roger Lee has been the Executive Director of EDCO since September 1999. He has 18 years of economic development experience, working in business development for the Seattle/King County Economic Development Council and economic and community development for Baker City/County in Northeast Oregon. Roger is a graduate of University of Washington in International Economics. His industry experience includes employment at Hewlett-Packard Co., and Idaho’s largest electric utility, Idaho Power.
Networked throughout the Pacific Northwest with colleagues in the field, he has served as the president of the Oregon Economic Development Association, board member of the Pacific Northwest Economic Development Council, is a current board member of the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP) and is involved in several committees at the state level in charting the future of economic and community development for Oregon. Locally, he serves on advisory boards for Opportunity Knocks, Entrepreneur’s Foundation, and Central Oregon Resources for Independent Living.
At EDCO, Roger is responsible for the tri-county area’s economic development strategy, business recruitment, oversight of the organization and its satellite offices, and development of special projects including industrial parks, expansion of commercial air service and creation of new programs to assist the region’s traded-sector employers and improve the overall business climate.
Like many others, Dayna Dudkowski was attracted to Bend by both the quality of life and the region's creative energy. With an extensive background in tourism and hospitality, Dayna began her Central Oregon career at the High Desert Museum, where she had the opportunity to learn about Central Oregon’s rich cultural and natural heritage. She joined the EDCO team in May of 2006 as the Events & Membership Development Manager, eager for a new challenge and wanting to gain insight into the social and business considerations of Central Oregon's growing economy.
At EDCO, Dayna is responsible for Membership Development and Event planning. With over 300 EDCO members, she is busy meeting new members, bringing them together through major networking events and sharing resources and knowledge in the community. She also assists EDCO’s many strategic partners with event and meeting planning.
Prior to moving to Bend in 2002, Ruth Lindley was Marketing Director for InterTrust Technologies Corporation, developer of secure computing technologies, where she managed the PR surrounding a high profile, successful patent lawsuit against Microsoft. Ruth spent 18 years at Target Corporation and, as Marketing Director, initiated innovative customer loyalty and ethnic marketing programs. As an independent consultant for six years, she worked with companies including Sunset Publishing to create custom magazines to extend company branding. Ruth holds a degree in Consumer Economics and Consumer Textiles from UC Davis, a certificate in e-commerce, and is involved in Bend's arts community.
As Marketing Manager, Ruth manages EDCO’s PR efforts, portfolio of publications, serves as the “hub” for business intelligence for Central Oregon, and is responsible for website marketing.
Erin Chaiet , Operations Manager, joined the team in December of 2001 upon relocating from Idaho with her husband. Her extensive customer service skills and administrative operations experience stem from positions held at the University of Idaho.
Erin holds an undergraduate degree in Spanish from the University of Idaho and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from George Fox University. When not in the office at EDCO, she is a hands-on Mom to Lauren and Audrey.
Her responsibilities at EDCO include accounts payable/accounts receivable maintenance and tracking, payroll reporting and execution, database creation and management, event support, editing, facilities management, Human Resources and communications for the four EDCO offices around the region.
Jason Carr joined the EDCO team in June 2007 as Manager of the Prineville/Crook County Economic Development program. Carr brings over 10 years of media and community experience to the position and a strong knowledge base of individuals, businesses, and organizations throughout the Central Oregon region.
Central Oregonians may recall Carr as KTVZ NewsChannel 21 primary anchor from 2002 to 2005. Carr spent nearly a decade with KTVZ in a variety of reporting positions including business and government, sports, and community issues as well as producing and writing assignments. For the two years prior to joining EDCO, Carr was Anchor, Reporter, and Producer at KEZI 9 News in Eugene, Oregon.
As the Manager of the Prineville/Crook County Economic Development program, Carr is responsible for helping existing businesses with expansion or retention issues, working on behalf of Prineville and Crook County on new business and industry recruitment projects, and on other strategic community-based projects with significant impacts to the local economy. The Prineville/Crook County Economic Development program is a partnership between EDCO, the Prineville/Crook County Chamber of Commerce, Crook County, and the City of Prineville, and local businesses.
Jon Stark, Redmond Economic Development, Inc.’s Manager, was formerly the Vice President of Business Development for Express Employment Professionals has been a staffing industry professional for 9 years. His work included the development of workforce and workplace solutions for more than 200 Central Oregon Businesses. He is a recognized speaker on topics such as employee retention, workforce recruitment, interviewing and hiring process, and workforce development.
He has served on the Redmond Chamber Board of Directors for 2 terms and is currently an active Board member for Redmond Economic Development. Jon has chaired the Membership Committee for the Redmond Chamber and in 2002 was the Chairman for the City of Redmond’s “Branding Committee”. Additionally, he has played an active roll on the planning committee for the Central Oregon Job and Career Expo and the Bend Chamber Professional Development Council.
Wayne Pearson joined EDCO in November 2008 in a new position as Manager of Economic Development for Jefferson County. A graduate of Northern Illinois University with a BS degree in marketing, Wayne has over 30 years of business marketing experience in the publishing and commercial printing industries working with a wide spectrum of businesses in California, Nevada and Oregon.
This new position in Jefferson County is supported by the county, cities and private sector businesses within the county with the goal of recruiting new traded-sector businesses as well as working with existing business with relevant issues for business retention and opportunities for expansion. Wayne will work closely with the various county and city boards, commissions and business groups to facilitate diversified business growth for the county.
Jim Coonan brings a wealth of experience to the position and program. He is the current board chair of the Oregon Entrepreneur’s Network (OEN), the largest entrepreneurship assistance organization in the state. He also serves on the advisory committee for Mount Hood Equity Partners, is a partner equity investor group Advantage Management Partners and is past chair of the Oregon Angel Network. His small business experience includes the current chairman and shareholder of Peak Audio Group, former chairman and largest shareholder of Kentrox, LLC, and Hotel Software Systems, Ltd. He was the CEO and later chairman of OECO Corporation, a high technology company based in Portland at the time of successful sale of its business units in 1998 and 2000 for a combined $55 million. Just following the sale of OECO’s commercial contract manufacturing subsidiary, Jim served a five year stint as Director of Business Alliances for the Oregon University System, where he worked behind the scenes to better link Oregon universities’ technology transfer efforts with national research laboratories, private companies and the creation of signature research center ONAMI. Earlier in his career, Coonan acquired large corporate experience during a decade of work at The Pillsbury Company and General Mills, Inc. where he held executive marketing positions. Jim is a Stanford University undergraduate and holds his MBA from Northwestern University.
The Venture Catalyst program was proposed nearly five years ago by local business leaders Dan Hobin and Nori Juba and championed by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. With Wyden’s help, a $232,750 federal appropriations grant was secured for a pilot program to boost creation of new scaleable traded-sector businesses in Central Oregon. 22 months remain of the three year program.
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