Bob Swindell, President and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance (the Alliance) has announced the appointment of Joseph E. Hovancak as Executive Director of Six Pillars Broward. Six Pillars Broward is the community’s strategic visioning initiative for economic development in Broward County, which is managed by the Alliance, Broward County’s official public/private partnership for economic development.

Prior to joining the Alliance, Joseph served as the Senior Vice President of Development and One Community One Goal for the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, where he was responsible for all development activities (investor relations and fundraising), board engagement and community partnerships. He also led the One Community One Goal initiative which promotes economic growth and prosperity in Miami-Dade County by driving innovation, leveraging strengths, providing clear thought leadership, and coalescing public and private priorities.

As the brand champion of the One Community One Goal strategic plan, Joseph has engaged the passion of thousands of business leaders in Miami-Dade County to advance the goal of a thriving, inclusive and diverse community. He took the plan from concept to implementation with more than 450 companies and non-profits engaged, driving 18% target industry job growth since 2012. His leadership resulted in an unprecedented collaboration of top business, community and government leaders with significant achievements in the areas of education, talent development and industry growth.

Joseph’s broad business experiences reflect successes, ranging from Fortune 100 Corporations to establishing the foundation of start-up companies. His background includes an extensive tenure at AT&T in various engineering, marketing and sales leadership positions including the role of a Sales Vice President responsible for a four-state 150 million-dollar sales territory overseeing approximately 120 employees.

In his role as Executive Director of Six Pillars Broward, Joseph will work to engage community leaders and volunteers in support of initiatives and focus areas of importance to the area with the goal to be to continue to grow jobs, create sustainable communities and position Broward County to compete on a global scale for high-wage, high-skill jobs.

“The Alliance was pleased to lead the effort to launch Six Pillars Broward along with numerous community partners, including Broward County Government as a lead partner, in 2011,” said Swindell. “During its launch, numerous community meetings were held with over 1,000 attendees, and more than 40 one-on-one meetings were held with government and community leaders and organizations. The purpose of those meetings was to develop the county’s visioning plan. Since then, annual community-wide events have been held to share information, report on the status of the plan and seek support for action items in the plan. To date, over 300 of the 398 tactics in the plan have been completed or are underway.”

“We are now in the process of launching Version 2.0 of Six Pillars, where the community will be focusing on nine key issues that have been deemed most important to the community’s economic development success over the next five years,” added Swindell. These include Affordable Housing; Developing and Promoting a New Community Brand; Creating Pathways to Prosperity for those in our most economically challenged zip codes (an initiative known as Prosperity Broward); Building on Broward’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem; Growing Target Industry Clusters; Homelessness; Resilience and the Regional Climate Action Plan; Building and Branding Broward County as a Talent Hub; and Transportation.

“Joseph’s experience in leading One Community One Goal uniquely positions him to be a great leader in the Six Pillars Broward work,” said Swindell. “We also know that his knowledge of the region and the relationships he brings to the position will strengthen our work as a region as we continue to work with our partner counties to the north and south on issues of importance to all of us. We are proud to welcome him to the Alliance as a member of the executive leadership team.”

Some of Joseph’s community involvement has included serving on the Board of Governors for the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; the Board of Directors for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and as co-chair of the Financial Stability committee at United Way.

A native of Pennsylvania, Joseph received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA. He is a resident of Fort Lauderdale.

 

About the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance:

The Alliance (www.gflalliance.org) is Broward County's official public/private partnership for economic development. Its mission is to lead Broward County in building a stronger and more diverse economy by stimulating the creation of new jobs and capital investment while facilitating the growth and retention of businesses in Broward County. Services offered by the Alliance include assistance with business relocation or expansion and site selection; incentive programs and information; market research; small, minority- and women-owned business assistance; and serving as a liaison for workforce development between CareerSource Broward, educational institutions and the business community. To learn more, call 954-524-3113.

 

 

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