DAVISVILLE — West Virginia Polymer Alliance Zone (PAZ) President, Keith Burdette announced Pat Ford has joined the organization as Vice President.

Ford brings more than three decades of business development and external affairs experience in the private and public sectors to the role.

“Pat Ford is an accomplished business leader with a proven record of moving projects from conception to ribbon cuttings, ” said Burdette. “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,” added Burdette.

“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,” said Ford. “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,” added Ford.

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 non-profit 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.

Immediately prior to his work in the private development sector, Ford served as the Executive Director of two non-profit economic development organizations with strong financial footings. As the ED of these organizations, Ford expanded workforce initiatives, established abandoned and dilapidated building removal programs, and was responsible for razing and repurposing dozens of brownfield properties which has become the hallmark during his decades of service.

Ford’s breadth of 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.

The mission of PAZ is to create new, good paying jobs and an improved quality of life by expanding the manufacturing base in the West Virginia counties of Jackson, Mason, Pleasants, Tyler, Cabell, Wayne, Wood, Wetzel, Marshall and Ohio.