Chris Hart heading OTTED

   Chris Hart is taking over as head of the Governor's Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development (OTTED). According the Miami Herald, he is stepping in for Dale Brill, who is leaving to serve as president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He started in his new post Monday.
    Hart, president and CEO of Workforce Florida since November 2007, will serve as interim OTTED director -- a move that Brill said he and the governor agreed will serve the state well because it puts Hart over both workforce and economic development.
   "Now is the time to better align the state's workforce and economic development efforts," Crist said in a released statement. "Chris Hart has the necessary experience and expertise to bring the two efforts together."
   Hart, a former state Representative from Hillsborough County, worked from 2004 to 2007 for Enterprise Florida, the state's public/private economic development arm. He has a bachelor's degree from Florida State and a master's in business from the University of South Florida.
   "Talent is our competitive advantage," Hart said. "And we need to have better links between a market-based economy and the policies for economic development."
    Before taking over OTTED, Brill served as head of marketing for VISIT Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency. He previously worked for General Motors, developing technology and strategies for the company's international business. And in the 80s in North Carolina, he served as president of a small advertising agency.
    "I feel like all that experience has really prepared me for this job leading the Foundation," Brill said. He has a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor's degree from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C.
    Chamber president and CEO Mark Wilson lauded Brill's track record of "garnering consensus that translates ideas into results" and said he is the best choice to help build on the Chamber's efforts to improve the economy through education, infrastructure and other factors.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/12/brill-leaving-otted-for-chamber-chris-hart-to-lead-otted.html