The new director of Brunswick County's Economic Development Department brings 30 years of experience to his new position, the county announced Friday.

Michael DiTullo, currently the president and CEO of Rockland County Economic Development Corp. in New York, starts Nov. 2 as the head of the recently formed Brunswick County department, a news release said, earning a salary of $100,000.

“I am honored to be selected as the first director of the Economic Development Department for Brunswick County,” DiTullo said in the release. “I look forward to joining Team Brunswick as we all work together to attract inward corporate investment, job opportunities for our residents and grow and expand the county’s tax base."

In New York, DiTullo participated in 15 corporate attractions, with more than 2 million square feet of industrial, office and high-tech space, more than 2,500 new jobs and nearly $1 billion in private sector capital investment, according to the county's news release. He also worked as the managing director for the Orange County Business Accelerator in New Windsor, New York, and has three decades of experience working in business development and real estate in New York, the release said.
 
DiTullo and his wife, Joan, will live in Southport, where they own a home.

On the way to choosing DiTullo, a selection team made up of senior county staff and a county commissioner Frank Williams interviewed candidates over two days in August, with subsequent follow-up interviews, said Brunswick County manager Ann Hardy.

“We were very delighted to have several highly qualified economic development directors within the state and within the nation to apply for the position, so we were quite pleased with the outcome,” she said. “I’m very pleased that we were able to attract someone as qualified as the person we have chosen.”

The new director will have to contend with what government officials and economic development leaders describe as impediments to luring companies to the area and the state as a whole.

“I think the biggest challenge is something that is felt all the way across the state of North Carolina right now in terms of what the state level of support is going to be … because what they’re up against is that the other states are offering extremely attractive incentives packages,” Hardy said.

But that doesn’t mean Brunswick County won’t be in the running, she said.

“We believe that there’s a niche in the market for us to attract people who have moved into the area that are executives that want to relocate their businesses here as well,” Hardy said. “We will be looking for a variety of opportunities to be able to attract capital investment and jobs for the county as we move forward under the guidance of a new director.”  

In addition to her role as county manager, Hardy had been serving as the county's interim economic development director. This summer, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners voted to create the county department rather than continuing to provide some funding and support to separate legal entities that did the job. The change came after questions surfaced about how those entities, the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission and Brunswick County Economic Development Corp., had used county funds from 2009 to 2014. 

Before Hardy took over the role for the new county department, Jim Bradshaw served as the executive director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission. Currently, Bradshaw plans to begin working with the Cape Fear Council of Governments.